Chinese authorities have ordered two elderly women to spend one year in a labor camp after they applied to hold a protest during the Beijing Olympics against being forced from their homes, a relative said yesterday.
The women were still at home three days after being officially notified, but were under the observation of a neighborhood watch group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.
A rights group said the threat of prison appeared to be an intimidation tactic.
Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor, Wang Xiuying, 77.
“Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of reeducation through labor can she serve?” Li said in a telephone interview. “But they can also be taken away at any time.”
The order followed the pair’s repeated attempts to apply for permission to hold a protest at one of three areas designated by the government as available for demonstrations during the Games, which end on Sunday.
Beijing has used the existence of the protest areas as a way to defend its promise to improve human rights in China that was crucial to its bid to win the games.
Some 77 applications were lodged to hold protests, but none went ahead, and rights groups say the zones were just a way for the Chinese government to put on an appearance of complying with international standards. A handful of people who sought a permit to demonstrate were taken away by security officials, rights groups said.
“This is part of the tough tactics used to intimidate and silence protesters,” said Nicholas Bequelin of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“Of course it’s of concern that China will use a system that’s clearly beyond the pale in terms of international standards, in terms of arbitrary deprivation of freedoms and liberties to do that,” he said.
Li said Wu and Wang were ordered to serve a yearlong term of reeducation through labor. The family was notified on Sunday, but officials had not acted on the order by yesterday.
The reeducation system, in place since 1957, allows police to sidestep the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge and directly send people to prison for up to four years to perform penal labor.
Critics say it is misused to detain political or religious activists, and violates suspects’ rights.
The Public Security Bureau had no immediate comment.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing reeducation through labor bureau said: “We have no records of these two names in our system.”
Protests have become common in China, where simmering resentment over layoffs, corruption, land confiscation and other issues explode into sometimes violent action.
The communist leadership remains wary about large demonstrations, fearing they could snowball into anti-government movements.
The sensitivity is more marked during the Olympics, which is meant to showcase China to the world.
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