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2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.

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fërú.

User ID: 489416
8/22/2008 6:29 PM

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2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.

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[link to english.aljazeera.net]

With gleaming venues like the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest stadium, the Beijing Olympics were intended to portray the modern, progressive face of China in 2008.

But in a grimy, rubbish-strewn backstreet on the other side of the Chinese capital – far from the carefully manicured Olympic green - 79-year-old Wu Dian Yuan, and her partially deaf 77-year-old neighbour, Wang Xiu Ying, have a different story to tell.

Forced out of the homes they were born and raised in to make way for luxury apartments, they have fought for six years to have their claims for compensation heard.

Sentencing papers say Wu and Wang had 'disturbed the normal social order'
Now, after applying to protest their case in one of the specially designated Olympic protest zones, they were presented earlier this week with papers sentencing them both to a year-long term of re-education through labour.
"The government told us we had the right to protest," said Wang. "Now they've broken that promise."

It was the latest in what the two women say were at least 16 different protests aimed at getting someone - anyone - in government to listen to their grievances.

On previous occasions they have tried to draw attention to their cause by unfurling banners in Tiananmen Square, and even tried to set off firecrackers outside the closely guarded Zhongnanhai compound that is home to China's political leaders.

The firecrackers failed to go off, but their efforts undoubtedly drew the attention of the authorities. Two years ago their power was cut off and they have had to rely ever since on oil-burning lamps.

Sentencing them both to a year in a labour camp, the official paperwork says Wu, who walks with a stick, and Wang, who is deaf and partially blind, had "seriously disturbed the normal social order".

'Not afraid'

The two women say the do not care about the jail sentence. "At out our age, we have nothing left to lose, we're not afraid of doing anything," says Wu.

In video

The price of protesting in China

"This whole thing is about the fact we've been deprived of our human rights. Even though I'm illiterate, I still know we should be entitled to our basic rights."

But a Chinese labour camp is a tough sentence for anyone, let alone someone approaching their 80th birthday. Under Chinese law they do not even have the right to appeal.
It is a far cry from the image of China the government is eager to portray to the outside world.

Last month, in what was presented by the International Olympic Committee as a significant concession, Chinese authorities said they would permit three official protest zones in parks across the city for use by demonstrators during the games.

Similar zones had been set up in previous host cities and many had doubted that China, with its strict approach to public security, would follow suit.
But as of Thursday, with just a few days for the games left to run, out of 77 protest applications filed not a single one had been formally approved.

The protest zones have stayed silent.

In a statement, Beijing’s public security bureau said the vast bulk of applications had been withdrawn because the relevant authorities had resolved the applicants' problems through "consultations".

For Wu and Wang, both of whom are obviously frail, the resolution to their case appears to have been to try to intimidate them into silence.

Human rights groups say the women's case proves that government pledges to allow protests during the Olympics were a sham.

Prime target

Government designated protest zones have stayed silent through the games
Wu and Wang's family homes used to lie several kilometres away from where they now live, on the eastern side of Beijing's Temple of Heaven park – a popular tourist spot in the centre of the city.

That popularity and China's booming economy has made the area a prime target for developers.

Two years after their homes were demolished, Wu says, her family of seven were eventually offered compensation totaling about $20,000 - a sum they rejected as insufficient.

That would have struggled to buy them just five square metres in the luxury condo that now stands where their homes once stood.

Wu and Wang's case is far from unusual. As we spoke to them in Wu’s leaky, sparsely furnished one-room home, a neighbour explained that most of the resident's in the area had similar stories to tell.

All had been forced from their homes with little or no compensation. None had had their complaints listened to.

Fake promises

Luxury flats now stand on the site of Wu and Wang's former homes
"In the whole history of China I’ve near heard of a government doing such ugly things to old people," says Wu.

"At first we were happy to hear the government was allowing protests during the games, but now we realise that promise was fake. I'm very, very angry."

As they wait to hear when their sentence will start, the two old women say they face round-the-clock surveillance from plain clothes police officers.

"Even when we go and have breakfast, they're still watching us," says Wu. "It’s a real pain."

But despite their anger, despite their sentence, and despite the government's failure to deliver on promises to allow public protest, Wu and Wang say they still believe Olympics is a good thing for China.

The games have brought great changes, says Wu, although she feels that none have applied to the people at the bottom of the heap like her and Wang.

"The cops offered to bring us a small television so we could watch the opening ceremony," she says. "But we turned them down because they cut our power off."

8U5H - L1E5... 9/II 1N51D3 J08
A 2 1/2 años del Regreso de Quetzalcoatl.
Enki en mi Corazón

scaredkitty Subscriber

We Are Here
User ID: 489420
8/22/2008 7:30 PM

Re: 2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.	Quote

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Zilla
User ID: 488902
8/22/2008 9:06 PM

Re: 2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.	Quote
Gooks shitting on their elderly....real civilized animals eh? How safe do you want to be?

Maid Marriane
User ID: 437387
8/31/2008 11:03 AM

Re: 2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.	Quote
[link to www.youtube.com] NWO's Most Favored Nation: Mr Yang is their internet's censored anti-hero. "Chinese cop-killer becomes internet hero A Chinese man accused of murdering six policemen has attracted increasing levels of approval and adulation from internet users as his trial begins in Shanghai." [link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 494467
8/31/2008 11:09 AM

Re: 2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.	Quote
So how is this any different from what's going on right here, right now, here in the Occupied Territories? [link to www.youtube.com]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 494608
8/31/2008 1:58 PM

Re: 2 eldery ladies Paying the price of protest in China with year-long term of re-education labor camp.	Quote
Both ladies were pardoned !!! Long live the international comunication, vast CNN report made a lot of pressure on the chinese authorities!!!!

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