BEIJING/BRUSSELS: China on Tuesday dismissed European Union calls for it to stop alleged human rights violations and said it opposed “double standards” and interference in its internal affairs.
The EU said on Monday after an EU delegation visited Tibet and met with Chinese officials last week that it was concerned about what it called the “very serious” human rights situation in China, in particular in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
This included a crackdown on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in China. The EU urged China to investigate any rights violations and expressed concern about cases of unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, the EU said in a statement.
In response, Chinese officials said the EU should “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights issues.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that China was willing to cooperate with the EU on the issue on a basis of equality and mutual respect.
“At the same time, China firmly opposes politicizing the human rights issue and double standards, and opposes imposing one’s own model on others. We are opposed to...engaging in microphone diplomacy in the multilateral arena,” Lin said.
Lin said both sides believed the dialogue was “frank and in-depth,” and said that China was willing to explore further multilateral human rights cooperation in areas including rights of women, children and the disabled.
The EU also raised the case of the detained Swedish citizen Gui Minhai as well as the imprisoned Uyghur intellectuals Ilham Tohti, Gulshan Abbas and Rahile Dawut, the EU statement said.
Chinese #MeToo activist and independent journalist Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion on Friday, which supporters called arbitrary and politically motivated.
China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown
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China dismisses EU comments on human rights crackdown
- Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that China was willing to cooperate with the EU
- Chinese #MeToo activist and independent journalist Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion on Friday
Blair pressured UK officials over case against soldiers implicated in death of Iraqi
- Newly released files suggest ex-PM took steps to ensure cases were not heard in civilian court
- Baha Mousa died in British custody in 2003 after numerous assaults by soldiers over 36 hours
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair pressured officials not to let British soldiers be tried in civil courts on charges related to the death of an Iraqi man in 2003, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Baha Mousa died in British Army custody in Basra during the Iraq War, having been repeatedly assaulted by soldiers over a 36-hour period.
Newly released files show that in 2005 Antony Phillipson, Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, had written to the prime minister saying the soldiers involved would be court-martialed, but “if the (attorney general) felt that the case were better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly.”
The memo sent to Blair was included in a series of files released to the National Archives in London this week. At the top of the memo, he wrote: “It must not (happen)!”
In other released files, Phillipson told Blair that the attorney general and Ministry of Defence could give details on changes to the law they were proposing at the time so as to avoid claims that British soldiers could not operate in a war zone for fear of prosecution.
In response, Blair said: “We have, in effect, to be in a position where (the) ICC (International Criminal Court) is not involved and neither is CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). That is essential. This has been woefully handled by the MoD.”
In 2005, Cpl Donald Payne was court-martialed, jailed for a year and dismissed from the army for his role in mistreating prisoners in custody, one of whom had been Mousa.
Payne repeatedly assaulted, restrained and hooded detainees, including as part of what he called “the choir,” a process by which he would kick and punch prisoners at intervals so that they made noise he called “music.”
He became the first British soldier convicted of war crimes, admitting to inhumanely treating civilians in violation of the 2001 International Criminal Court Act.
