News: Journalist does forced labour while Prime Minister Wen Jiabao signs contracts in France
Monday, December 05, 2005
5 December 2005
Journalist does forced labour while Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
signs contracts in France
As Chinese Prime Minister Wen continued a four-day visit to
France that began yesterday, Reporters Without Borders today said it
has confirmed that journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year-prison
sentence, is having to do forced labour and he is suffering from
respiratory problems and a skin inflammation.
Shi, who was convicted of "illegally divulging state secrets
abroad" on the basis of information provided by Yahoo!, is being
forced to work without pay in a jewellery factory attached to Chishan
prison in Hunan province, to which he was transferred on 5 September
after being held for several months in Taiyuan, in Shanxi province,
south-west of Beijing.
According to his family, many of the inmates have pneumonia or
other respiratory ailments because of the products used in the cutting
and polishing of the jewels and the dust created. The jewellery is
sold by the prison authorities. Shi's mother is also worried about
this health because he has had ulcer and heart problems for several
years.
The prison, located on an island in the middle of Lake Dongting,
near the town of Yuanjiang, is a top-security centre reserved for
convicts serving at sentences of at least 10 years. According Chinese
Rights Defenders Network, most of the inmates are organised crime
members, political prisoners and followers of the Falun Gong spiritual
movement.
Reporters Without Borders calls on the French authorities to
intercede on Shi's behalf. "We must not let the economic and
scientific partnership between France and China hide Beijing's
repressive policies towards free expression," the organisation said.
"We believe that France must place stress on the need to release
prisoners of conscience in the course of its talks with the Chinese
authorities."
At least 32 journalists and 62 cyberdissidents are currently in
prison in China.
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