A woman who spent years petitioning the Chinese government for help against forced eviction has been sent to a labour camp for 18 months for posting articles on the internet detailing China’s abuse of petitioners, a rights group said on Thursday.
Ma Yalian was sentenced last month to a ”re-education through labour” camp by authorities in China’s modern metropolis of Shanghai, the New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said.
She had posted articles on the net accusing Shanghai officials of severely beating her after she complained about being evicted to make room for a Shanghai urban redevelopment project, the HRIC said.
It said the main reason she was jailed was an article she posted containing testimonies from people who witnessed police abusing petitioners and documenting the suicides of frustrated petitioners outside the Beijing offices that handle complaints.
The rights group said the case highlights a renewed drive by the Chinese Communist Party against people who press for justice, sometimes for years, to no avail.
”With increasing numbers of people petitioning the government over social injustice and illegal acts, the authorities have begun taking a hard line as a means of discouraging further petitioning activity,” the group said in a statement.
”In recent months, many petitioners have been detained and sentenced to reform through labour.”
Chinese police are allowed to send people to labour camps for up to three years without trial. This has proved convenient for the government to incarcerate anyone it finds troublesome, the group says.
The rights watchdog said it has documented about a dozen recent cases of petitioners being sent to labour camps for as long as two-and-a-half years in the eastern city of Shanghai alone.
Almost all of the petitioners were expressing dissatisfaction over being forced to relocate to make way for Shanghai’s many controversial urban redevelopment schemes.
Urban development drives in recent years have resulted in the tearing down of old homes and the selling of land to developers for a hefty profit, forcing millions of people to move.
Many of these people receive inadequate, non-negotiable compensation and have no legal recourse other than to try to seek justice in Beijing.
The Communist Party, however, often ignores the petitioners and last month detained thousands of them in a Beijing gymnasium before forcing them back home during an annual legislative meeting.
In Ma’s case, police broke her legs and disabled her while she served an earlier one-year sentence in 2001, the HRIC said.
The government has acknowledged that more than 90% of petitioners have genuine claims.
”If the Chinese government really wants to improve social stability, it should address the burning issues at the basis of these complaints, rather than trying to clamp a lid on a situation that could boil over at any time,” Liu said. — Sapa-AFP