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Conferenza Partito radicale
Partito Radicale Michele - 9 giugno 1999
UN Denies Status to Human Rights in Chiana (HRC)

June 7, 1999

U.N. Denies Status to Rights Group Critical of '89 Massacre in China

By PAUL LEWIS

UNITED NATIONS -- Ten years to the day after the massacre around Tiananmen Square, special U.N. status has been denied to a New York-based human rights organization that has been helping victims' families in a campaign to bring criminal charges against Chinese leaders responsible for the 1989 killings.

After China spoke against the measure, the U.N. Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations refused, by a vote of 13 to 3, to grant nongovernmental organization status to Human Rights in China.

Last week, the group announced that it helped the families file a petition with the government in Beijing last month seeking a criminal investigation into the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed.

As an accredited nongovernmental organization, Human Rights in China would have been able to attend certain U.N. meetings and to present evidence to panels like the Human Rights Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women. China opposed accreditation, contending that the group is a political organization, most of whose leaders live outside of China.

The United States, France and Ireland were the only members of the 19- nation committee that voted in favor of giving the group official status, but France and Ireland made clear that their position is shared by all 15 members of the European Union.

Those opposed were Algeria, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Russia, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey. Chile and Romania abstained, while Senegal was absent from the vote.

Human Rights in China's chairman, Lie Qing, served 11 years in prison after his arrest in 1979 for involvement in the "Democracy Wall" movement in Beijing. Several other board members had to flee China after the Tiananmen crackdown or were released from prison into exile.

Answering questions from committee members, Liu and Human Rights in China's executive director, Xiao Qiang, said their organization sought to support all who favored human rights and democracy in China. While supporting every people's right to self-determination, they said they had taken no position on such questions as the independence of Taiwan and Tibet, which China opposes.

 
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