Use of torture in Chinese jails under scrutiny
BEIJING — Fu Minhai was questioned by police in Heilongjiang province nearly a decade ago along with several others on suspicion of theft, burglary and rape. Eleven days later, after several days in custody and massive damage to his kidneys and related soft tissue, the 24- year-old was dead.
Alleged torture in Chinese police custody is not unusual. But in a rare legal victory for victims and their families, a court in September found two officers, Tan Xiaobo and Song Lintao, guilty of extracting a confession from Fu by force and sentenced them to seven years in prison.
‘‘The family came under a lot of pressure for bringing this case,’’ said Peng Bai, the Fus’ attorney and a member of the Heilongjiang Far East Group law firm. ‘‘Ultimately, though, the fact could not be denied that he died because of police torture.’’
In another rare move, Beijing has allowed the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, to conduct an 11-day inspection tour of Chinese prisons, mental hospitals and other detention facilities.
The trip, which wraps up today, is the culmination of a decadelong U.N. effort to send a representative to China, an effort frustrated by repeated excuses. Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said earlier that he expected to have broad access to facilities and prisoners.
China outlawed torture in 1996, but activists and lawyers say the practice remains widespread. This has led some to question why the communist government would allow Nowak’s potentially embarrassing visit to take place now.
Analysts say several factors appear to be at work.
‘‘They’ve played hide-andseek with the U.N. for over a decade,’’ said Nicholas Becquelin, Hong Kong-based research director with Human Rights in China, a civic group. ‘‘The fact that the visit has gone ahead shows it has top support.’’
Allowing outside scrutiny is part of a broader effort to make the Chinese legal system more accountable and reputable. The hope is that the growing social frustration over land seizures, corruption and the economic gap between rich and poor can be swept off the streets and into the courts, where it is less threatening to Communist Party rule. Beijing reported 74,000 protests across the country last year, up from 58,000 in 2004.
Reformist elements in the police force, led by Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang, also are keen to see their ranks become more professional, analysts say. A series of embarrassing cases has undercut its reputation, the analysts add, while broader public support helps the police garner bigger budgets at a time when crime rates are rising and social pressures are becoming increasingly complex.
The visit also may have propaganda value. China has allowed the tour after one of its harshest human rights critics, the United States, raised so many conditions ahead of a similar inspection of U.S. detention facilities at Guanta ´namo Bay that Nowak refused to go. It also comes as the Bush administration is voicing opposition to a measure introduced by Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., that would bar cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Beijing also has an interest in burnishing its international reputation at a time when critics have used its human rights record to justify a continued European ban on the sale of weapons to China. And domestically, the government is aware that its legitimacy increasingly depends on persuasion and the delivery of social services rather than blunt force.
While the visit and China’s ratification of the U.N. Convention Against Torture represent a start, however, experts do not expect significant change anytime soon. China has a host of impressive laws and regulations that are not enforced, and local areas have a centuries-old tradition of resisting central control.
Human rights activists say torture is a crutch for police not accustomed to proving their cases. Local public-security bureaus traditionally have dominated the criminal justice system, a situation summed up by the Chinese expression: ‘‘The police cook the rice, the prosecutor delivers the rice and the court eats the rice.’’ Legal experts say local officials would resist careful review of their methods by a more vigilant judiciary.