BEIJING (AFP) — Two Chinese grandmothers sentenced to re-education through labour for applying to protest during the Olympics will escape punishment as the order has been rescinded, a rights group said Saturday.
The Beijing municipal committee which sentenced them less than two weeks ago revoked its order on Friday, said Human Rights in China.
Neighbours Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, were handed the one-year punishment after they asked several times for permission to protest in one of the three areas where authorities said they would allow such activities during the Olympic Games.
The elderly women said they wanted to protest as they had not received compensation after their homes were demolished by the Beijing city government seven years ago.
The two said they had applied five times to stage protests at official Olympic protest zones.
But instead of getting approval for their protest, they were both slapped with the one-year sentences of re-education through labour for disturbing public order.
Under the police order, the pair were spared immediate detention but would have been sent off to camp if they caused more trouble.
An administrative punishment, re-education through labour is generally handed down for minor offences, such as prostitution, but is also used against political opponents so they can be locked up without trial.
Human Rights in China said the system "has long been widely criticised, not only because it violates international standards of human rights, but also because it is in direct conflict with the Chinese government's self-professed 'rule by law'."
The rights group urged the Chinese government to "immediately take practical measures to abolish the... system, which tramples on human rights."
The group welcomed the committee's move to rescind the order against the grandmothers but stressed that the original sentence was "baseless".
"In the glare of international attention, it seems that even the government itself has acknowledged that this punishment was harsh and inappropriate," group director Sharon Hom said in a statement.
During the Olympics, the plight of the frail but determined Wu and Wang attracted international media attention.
"They say we committed a crime," Wu told AFP in a recent interview.
"What crime? They have the power, so what they say counts. We are just ordinary citizens and we have no voice. We are victims."
They are among hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents who have been relocated over the past decade as the city undergoes high-speed redevelopment, much of it tied to the Olympic Games.
The Beijing city government insists that residents who have been relocated have received adequate compensation. But Wang and Wu said they received nothing.
China promised to improve its human rights record when it was awarded the right to host the Games seven years ago.
The government said it would set up three protest zones for use by demonstrators during the August 8-24 Games, but Beijing police have said that not a single protest had been formally approved.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
