A Chinese political dissident called on the international community to lend a hand and improve the human rights of the 7,000 political prisoners still being held in China's prisons, labor-camps and psychiatric asylums.
Chen Jinsong (陳勁松), an overseas observer who has been devoted to the pro-democracy movement since the late 1980s, made the remarks concerning the conditions of political prisoners in China at a forum held on Thursday by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD).
"Although the Chinese government has signed two international conventions and pretends to uphold the regulations for the minimum standards of prisoner treatment stated in the conventions, the conditions of Chinese political prisoners are in fact extremely miserable. Many suffer from diseases and injuries and their condition is of grave concern," Chen said.
After spending five years in Chinese prisons himself, Chen said that sympathy from the international community was one of the most important sources of help to him in carrying on with his life.
After touring the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, where the names of the 228 Incident victims are inscribed, Chen said he felt very sad for his compatriots who died during China's 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement.
"I don't know when the people who sacrificed themselves for promoting democracy in China will be able to be named and commemorated in my country," he said.
Yan Peng (燕鵬), another political dissident from China who fled to Taiwan last June after being jailed in China in 2001 for 18 months, also attended the forum. May-sing Yang (楊黃美幸), Chairperson of the Research and Planning Committee for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in response to the appeal by those attending the forum criticizing the government for rejecting Yan's application to stay in Taiwan, that the government would like to consider enacting a new law to provide political asylum.
Chen said that the number of political prisoners in China has increased greatly since the Communist Party came to power. "As long as that regime exists, Chinese people will not stop confronting it, thus political dissidents will always be around."
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