55. Mrs. Li Yang was reportedly arrested on 15 March 2000 and sent for one month to Chaoyang District Detention Centre for appealing for the rights of Falun Gong practitioners at the Government Central Appeal Office in Beijing. She was reportedly held in very bad conditions.
56. Ms. Zhang Xueling was reportedly sentenced on 24 April 2000 to three years' imprisonment in the Wangcun Labour Camp in Shandong province for collaborating with the enemy. According to the information received, her arrest was connected with the appeal
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Ms. Zhang filed to seek justice for her mother, Ms. Chen Zixiu, who had allegedly been beaten to death on 21 February 2000, while in detention, and ask for a forensic report. It has been further reported that, on 20 April 2000, Ms. Zhang gave details of her mother's death and of her quest for justice to the Asian Wall Street Journal.
57. On 27 September 2001 the Special Representative transmitted an allegation to the Government of China regarding the following cases.
58. Jamphel Jangchup, Ngawang Phulchung, Ngawang Woeser and Ngawang Gyaltsen, Drepung monk members of the "Organization of Ten" were reportedly arrested by officers of the Public Security Bureau (PSB), on 16 April 1989, for forming a "counter-revolutionary organization, producing reactionary literature, which attacked the Chinese Government and slandered the People's Democratic dictatorship". In fact, the group reportedly published a Tibetan translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and had also given information about the human rights abuses reportedly perpetrated by the authorities. According to the information received, Mr. Jangchup and Mr. Phulchung were sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment and Mr. Woeser and Mr. Gyaltsen were sentenced to 17 years.
59. Mr. Chu O-ming, a Falun Gong practitioner based in Hong Kong, was reportedly arrested on 7 September 2000 in connection with the complaint he filed, on 29 August 2000, with the Supreme Procuratorate of China, against Jiang Zemin, the President, Zeng Qinghong, Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Personnel, and Luo Gan, Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the State Council, for alleged persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. To date, Mr. Chu's family has still not obtained any information about his whereabouts.
60. Ms. Teng Chunyan, a medical doctor and Falun Gong practitioner, was reportedly charged with "prying into State intelligence for overseas organizations" and sentenced to three years in jail by Beijing Intermediate People's Court, on 23 November 2000. According to the information received, on 7 February 2000, Ms. Teng led foreign journalists to a village in the Fangshan district of Beijing, where they reportedly interviewed Falun Gong practitioners detained in a mental hospital. In March 2000, Ms. Teng returned to Fangshan and provided a digital camera for a man to take pictures of the detained Falun Gong members to document their detention and hunger strike. She later reportedly forwarded the pictures to foreign news organizations by e-mail.
61. On 8 and 12 March 2001, the local police reportedly arrested He Kechang, Ran Chongxin, Jiang Qingshan and Wen Dingchun, four farmers, who were planning to go to Beijing in early March 2001 to present a petition to the Government complaining that local officials had embezzled funds intended to pay for resettling them. According to the information received, the
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four farmers are among thousands of people whose homes will be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam, a giant reservoir that is reportedly planned to be operational in the centre of Gaoyang in 2003. All four of them were reportedly held in the Yunyang county police Detention Centre, charged with disturbing the social order, leaking State secrets and maintaining illicit relations with a foreign country.
Observations
62. The Special Representative regrets that at the time of the finalization of this report the Government had not transmitted any reply to her communications.
COLOMBIA Urgent appeals
63. On 4 January 2001, the Special Representative sent an urgent appeal concerning the Commander of the Colombian Army who issued a press release on 26 July 2000 attacking
Mr. Gustavo Gallon Giraldo, Director of the NGO Colombian Commission of Jurists, and other members of the organization. According to the information received, the press release has made a reference to their involvement in the judicial proceedings aimed at solving the disappearance of a human rights defender on 4 July 1990. On 31 July 2000, Mr. Gallon asked the President of Colombia and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic to order a rectification of that information. It was reported that the answer given by the Commander of the Army was reportedly incomplete since it did not respond to important questions relating to the video made by the members of the National Army showing human rights defenders who had participated in the judicial proceedings.
64. On 19 January 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding Ivan Madero Vergel and Jose Guillermo Larios, members of the organization CREDHOS in Barrancabermeja, who were reportedly threatened on 3 January 2001 by army-backed paramilitaries. According to the information received, several people thought to belong to the paramilitary group AUC came to the homes of the above-named persons, threatening them and their families. Since then,
Mr. Madero Vergel has received a number of threatening phone calls at his home, reminding him that he is considered to be a military target and accusing him of being a guerrilla collaborator or supporter. Both men are members of an organization which has played a vital role in drawing international attention to human rights abuses committed by guerrillas, the security forces and their paramilitary allies.
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65. On 6 February 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers regarding Mr. Oscar Rodas Villegas, a lawyer and human rights defender, member of the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Association (CAJAR), who has reportedly been threatened with death and ordered to put an end to his investigations about human rights violations. According to the information received, on 24 January 2001, his wife, Ms. Olga Iliana Velez, was abducted by three men and a woman thought to belong to a paramilitary group. She was taken to an unknown house and beaten. She was freed at the end of the day and asked to tell Mr. Rodas Villegas that he had to disappear before 17 February or his family would be set upon.
66. On 13 February 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women regarding two men who identified themselves as members of the paramilitary group AUC and who reportedly came on 27 January 2001 to a women's community centre "Casa de la Mujer" run by the Organization Femina Popular (OFP) in the district of Barrancabermeja. According to the information received, these two men announced that they had come to take over the centre and demanded the keys from the activists. One of the men reportedly returned the same day, threatened Jackeline Rojas and stole her mobile phone. He reportedly said that the paramilitaries would take the centre by force and "blow the door and trample over whoever stands in their way". This man was arrested by the police, but it is feared that the AUC will carry out their threats. Furthermore, on 8 February 2001, two armed men, who identified themselves as members of the AUC, approached an international observer from Peace Brigades International (PBI) and ordered him to hand over his papers and mobile phones. When he refused, the men threatened him with a gun, at which point he and his colleague from the OFP gave the men their papers and mobile phones. As the men were leaving the centre, they threatened the international observer from PBI, declaring the organization a military target.
67. On 22 February 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding Mr. Omar Vera Luna, President of the Junta de Accion Comunal in Barrancabermeja and collaborator of the Peace and Development Programme in Magdalena Medios, who has reportedly been threatened with death on various occasions since 16 February 2001 by members of the AUC. According to the information received, Mr. Vera Luna has reportedly refused to take part in a demonstration organized by the paramilitaries protesting against the creation of a place, "El Reten", designed to host meetings between the guerrilla members of ELN and the Government. As a result of renewed threats, and despite the presence of the police, Mr. Vera Luna and his family have been forced to leave their house and find shelter in the "Casa de la Mujer" centre run by the OFP in Barrancabermeja. In addition, Mr. Andres Aldana, President of the Junta de Accion Comunal
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reportedly received a visit on 15 February 2001 from two persons who identified themselves as members of the AUC. He was reportedly forced to sign a document requesting the presence of the national army in the city and the expulsion of the OFP. On 16 February 2001, he received two other visits from members of paramilitary groups who forced him to join a demonstration against the creation of "El Reten". Mr. Angel Miguel Solano, received a visit on 7 February 2001 from three men who identified themselves as members of the AUC and who warned him that he had to leave the city of Barrancabermeja. He was also asked to take part in the demonstration.
68. On 9 March 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding activists of the OFP who were reportedly attacked and threatened by paramilitaries as they organized a celebration of International Women's Day on 8 March 2001. According to the information received, on 7 March two OFP members were handing out leaflets to promote the activities they were organizing. A group of men who said they were members of the paramilitary AUC approached them. The men snatched the leaflets and burned them. They also threatened the women and told them to leave the area. Later, the OFP President, Yolanda Becerra, received a call on her mobile phone in which a threatening voice told her she would have to take the consequences.
69. On 2 April 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding professional killers who have reportedly been ordered to murder Mr. Alirio Uribe, a human rights lawyer, President of the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Association (CAJAR) and Vice-President of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH). According to the information received, the threats came as Mr. Uribe was participating in the session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
70. On 11 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women regarding army-backed paramilitaries who reportedly told OFP worker Ms. Dany Rada Jimenez (22 years of age) on 18 May 2001 that she was a military target. Subsequently, she received further death threats and the paramilitaries reportedly told community members in various districts of Puerto Wilches, in Santander department that they would kill more OFP members. Ms. Rada Jimenez was reportedly kept under constant surveillance by men following her in the street for the past few weeks. She reported all this to the police.
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71. On 11 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding three armed gunmen, thought to be army-backed paramilitaries belonging to the AUC, who reportedly abducted Mr. Kimi Domico Pernia in the municipality of Tierralta, department of Cordoba, on the evening of 2 June 2001. According to the information received, he has not been seen since his abduction. Mr. Domico Pernia is a leader of the Embera indigenous people, who live along the rivers Sin and Verde in the department of Cordoba. He has played a leading role in the indigenous communities' campaign against the construction of the Urru dam, which will destroy much of their ancestral lands.
72. On 12 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding Ms. Bernice Celeyta Alayon, President of the human rights organization NOMADESC, who reportedly found a message on her home answering machine on 18 May 2001 threatening her with death. The next day, a funeral wreath was left on her doorstep. Since 14 May 2001, she has reportedly been kept under constant surveillance by unknown men in cars. In the past few months, NOMADESC has denounced human rights violations by paramilitaries who have threatened and killed trade unionists in Valle del Cauca department, and massacred civilians living along the River Naya in Valle del Cauca.
73. On 15 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding the safety of Ms. Islena Rey, the only surviving member of a disbanded human rights organization, Meta Civic Human Rights Committee. On 5 June 2001, Mr. Gonzalo Zarate and his brother were reportedly killed by unidentified gunmen at their home in the Manantial district of Villaviciencio, capital of the department of Meta. Before it was disbanded, the organization played an important role in denouncing human rights violations committed by the security forces and their paramilitary allies in Meta. Since 1991, four leading members have been gunned down and three other members have disappeared. In its second year, the organization faced continuous threats, and three of its members disappeared.
74. On 15 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding Astrid Manrique Carnaval, a member of the Popayan branch of the ASFADDES, and her family who had reportedly repeatedly been threatened in the previous few weeks. On 3 June 2001, it was reported that two men smashed all the windows at Ms. Manrique Carnaval's house. On
25 May 2001, she and her 14-year-old daughter were followed by six unidentified men in the street. At the end of April 2001, unknown men came to the home of her sister, who saw them keeping it under surveillance.
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75. On 29 June 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding Ms. Emma Gomez de Perdono, a member of the trade union ANTHOC in Honda city, department of Tolima, and her daughter Diana de Perdono, who were reportedly victims of an attempted murder by paramilitaries on 13 June 2001. According to the information received, in the previous few weeks, a paramilitary group had threatened with death members of ANTHOC at a hospital in Honda if they refused to take part in the meetings of the paramilitary group. It was reported that paramilitary groups often accuse trade unionists of being members of guerrilla groups and considered them as military targets.
76. On 9 July 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding the disappearance and murder by paramilitaries of Mr. Alirio Pedro Domico Domico, Governor of the Embera indigenous group, which occurred in Cabildo del Rio Esmeralda, department of Cordoba, on 25 June 2001, and of Mr. Alberto Sabugara Velasquez, a leader of the Embera indigenous group, in Quibdo, department of Choco, on 27 June 2001. Concern was also expressed at the enforced disappearance on 2 June 2001 in Cabildo del Rio Verde, department of Cordoba, of Mr. Kimi Domico Pernia, also a leader of the Embera indigenous group.
On 10 July 2001, the Special Representative and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions issued a press release expressing their deep concern over the murder and disappearance of indigenous leaders in Colombia.
77. On 12 July 2001, the Special Representative transmitted a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers regarding Dr. Alirio Uribe Munoz, a lawyer and human rights defender, and two other members of the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Association (CAJAR) in Bogota, Luis Guillermo Perez Casas and Maret Cecilia Garcia, who are still facing harassment and intimidation by paramilitary groups in Cundinamarca. Since
Mr. Luis Guillermo Perez Casas started working on the case of massacre committed by members of the army in Mapiripan, he has reportedly been the victim of harassment and regular surveillance.