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UN torture rapporteur visits China's prisons, praising openess
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-11-23 09:59 Manfred Novak, the special rapporteur on torture
of the UN Human Rights Commission, arrived in China on Monday for a visit which
will last until Dec. 2, spokesman Liu Jianchao with Foreign
Ministry said at yesterday's regular briefing.
A prison open day
in Nanjing. The UN's chief torture investigator has praised China's
leaders for acknowledging the abuse cases in the nation's jails, as
he begins a historic 12-day fact-finding mission.
[AFP] |
Liu told the regular press conference
that the rapporteur on torture is a special procedure under the UN Commission on
Human Rights, and China attaches importance to Novak's visit to China.
Manfred Novak, the UN Human Rights Commission's special rapporteur on
torture, said Beijing had offered him freer access to detainees than the United
States was prepared to give him on a recently scrapped trip to Guantanamo Bay.
Aside from prisons in Beijing, Nowak will visit Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region before going
onto Urumqi and Yining in the Uyghur Muslim-populated Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region.
Liu expressed the hope that Novak's visit can further increase mutual
understanding and strengthen bilateral cooperation.
It is believed that through joint efforts, his visit can achieve the desired
results on the basis of mutual respect, Liu noted.
Nowak arrived in Beijing Monday for an unprecedented trip after receiving
government assurances it would cooperate with him and allow him unannounced
visits to prisons and private talks with prisoners.
"I'm very grateful to the Chinese government that they did invite me and also
that they accepted my terms of reference," he said on the BBC.
"I see this as an opening up of governmental policy in relation to UN special
procedures and I had very good first meetings (on Monday) with the officials
from the ministries of foreign affairs and justice."
The visit by Nowak, who is the first special rapporteur on torture to visit
China, comes after years of negotiations between the UN and China on allowing
unfettered access to prisons, private talks with detainees and no retaliation on
prisoners.
Nowak said that the terms of reference for his visit to China were better
than what the United States had offered on a proposed visit to Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba, where prisoners from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being held.
"It was made clear by the Pentagon that they would not be willing to accept
my terms of reference, so there was no other option than to finally cancel the
mission," Nowak said.
Nowak last week cancelled his scheduled December 6 visit to Guantanamo Bay
after failing to win assurances from the United States that he would be able to
meet detainees privately.
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