Co-authors Delius and Steckel (see photo) have once again collaborated on their most recent human rights expose, “Human Rights Report, No. 55”. The report was introduced to the public in September 2008. The 53-page report chronicles and documents hundreds of human rights transgressions by the Chinese communist regime that occurred between 2006 and August 2008.
Those featured in the report include Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, journalists, petitioners against the government, human rights advocates, writers, attorneys, professors and guest workers. While the report mainly relies on eyewitness reports and personal accounts, it also includes information from other sources the authors have deemed reliable.
The report highlights torture accounts and deaths in Shanghai’s prisons. Its coverage also extends to forced labor situations in prisons and camps (known as laogai) that have taken place in eastern China’s commerce metropolis of more than 18 million inhabitants. The report discusses the bans on press freedom and Internet use. It also details the gross abuse of psychiatric practices in Shanghai–practices used to control those individuals critical of the regime. The report reveals that many dissidents have been incarcerated for several years.
Mr. Delius’s reporting covers the mass persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai, ongoing since 1999. Intimidation, unwarranted arrests, illegal search and seizure, extortion, torture and stints in forced labor camps or psychiatric facilities are the order of the day in Shanghai, according to his research. He also briefly included the harvesting of organs from non-consenting, living Falun Gong practitioners, and organs from incarcerated individuals executed by the state. The atrocities of organ harvesting came to light in 2006. (The Hon. David Kilgour, Canadian MP, and international Canadian human rights attorney, David Matas have exposed these practices in a detailed joint report entitled “Bloody Harvest”.) Another little-known issue is the fate of approximately 200 ethnic Mio guest workers, who are subjected to deplorable working and living conditions, and are victims of extreme discrimination, particularly on the east coast of China, including the Shanghai region. Sixty percent of them have no binding labor contracts, which severely compromises their basic existence.
The duo also expressed that it is not their aim to condemn the Shanghai-Hamburg sister city relationship. On the contrary - they insist the partnership needs to be fostered, but they object to Chamber of Commerce representatives and the Senate placing emphasis on merely the commercial aspects of the relationship, while ignoring the cultural and scientific exchanges. Mr. Steckel in particular wants to see action, not just talk. He maintains it is insufficient just to hold high-level political discussions. He expressed that there is a need to be informed first-hand of conditions in forced labor camps and prisons–it is a matter of dire urgency that access to these facilities in China be granted to the outside world.
The duo also expressed that it is not their aim to condemn the Shanghai-Hamburg sister city relationship. On the contrary - they insist the partnership needs to be fostered, but they object to Chamber of Commerce representatives and the Senate placing emphasis on merely the commercial aspects of the relationship, while ignoring the cultural and scientific exchanges. Mr. Steckel in particular wants to see action, not just talk. He maintains it is insufficient just to hold high-level political discussions. He expressed that there is a need to be informed first-hand of conditions in forced labor camps and prisons–it is a matter of dire urgency that access to these facilities in China be granted to the outside world.
