GLGL

EAA0350 4 I 0583 CHN /AFP-WD37

China-rights sched

Amnesty International encouraged by first China meeting

by Jorge Svartzman

BEIJING, Sept 20 (AFP) - Amnesty International said Friday it

was encouraged by its first meeting with Chinese officials and the

new attitude of the authorities here to the issue of human rights.

"The Chinese authorities are beginning to realise that, as they

are engaged with the world more substantively, there are various

responsabilities and obligations which come with that," said Rory

Mungoven of Amnesty's international secretariat.

The meetings with delegates from China's National People's

Congress (NPC) was held on the sidelines of the 96th Parliamentary

Union conference here, to which Amnesty was invited as an observer.

"I think one of the key areas of progress in human rights in

China would be the degree of engagement that China has with the

international human rights community, whether that be with

non-governmental organisations like our own or with parliamentarians

who ultimately can be agents for human rights changes," Mungoven

added.

"In the area of human rights I think you can point to an

increased Chinese consciousness that they cannot simply block

themselves off from international scrutiny or criticism in this

area," Mungoven said.

The Amnesty delegation refused to give the names of the Chinese

parliamentarians they had met.

There were two "informal" meetings which lasted "more than two

hours," said Amnesty's Pierre Robert at which the Chinese delegates

were "more than just being polite."

"I had the very strong impression that what we said did not fall

on deaf ears," added Robert, who heads Amnesty's operations in

Asia-Pacific.

"They paid attention. These were positive meetings," he said.

"We told them that even if we could not agree on everything that

Amnesty wrote about China, there were areas where we could work

together."

In particular the Amnesty delegation said they appreciated the

contribution of NPC chairman Qiao Shi, considered by some observers

as a possible liberal rival to President Jiang Zemin.

"We have noticed and welcomed the emphasis that has been given

in the various statements that have been made to the meeting by

chairman Qiao Shi of the NPC and members of the China group here,"

Mungoven said.

The London-based human rights group also welcomed "the emphasis

they have placed on legislative reform efforts underway in China,"

he added.

He criticised the current crackdown on crime by the authorities

which has seen more than 1,600 executions and heavy sentences being

handed down after "arbitrary" trials.

Mungoven said Qiao appeared to be arguing for the strict

application of the law in China because the problem in China was not

"the letter of the law as such, but the way in which the law is

enforced or not enforced."

This "pointed to the significance of the NPC as an agent of

reform in China," Mungoven argued.

The Amnesty delegates also welcomed a reference to the universal

nature of human rights contained in a Chinese resolution presented

to the conference which stated that the "rights of women and

children are an indispensable and inalienable part of Universal

Human Rights."

China regularly plays down the issue of human rights by

insisting on the need to apply them based on individual national

conditions, arguing that no two countries are in the same situation

and that the west cannot expect to enforce its view of human rights

on other countries.

js/jd/mdl/rom

AFP 201330 GMT SEP 96

--Ugate.Main.8759--

*- Amira V1.5 REG (Amiga) -* one world, one operating system