US lawmakers ask Hu to end NKorean refugees repatriation

by P. Parameswaran Thu May 1, 10:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Fifty-four US lawmakers have written to Chinese President Hu Jintao to end Beijing's policy of repatriating North Korean refugees, some of whom are reportedly executed on their return home.

The letter, sent this week, was made public Thursday as lawmakers joined human rights, media, religious and other non-governmental groups on a Capitol Hill park to highlight China's alleged human rights abuses ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

"China hoped the Olympics would be their international house-warming party, but it has only aired their dirty laundry," Republican Senator Sam Brownback said at the rain-drenched gathering.

"The world's conscience has been building a drumbeat against the Chinese government as we approach the Olympics," he said.

The letter by lawmakers from the House of Representatives asked Hu "to end your policy of repatriating the North Korean refugees to North Korea where they face punishment, torture and sometimes execution for leaving their homeland," Republican legislator and human rights crusader Christopher Smith said.

Up to 300,000 North Korean refugees are believed to have fled to China, which terms them economic migrants and refuses to give the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to them.

Many women refugees end up as sex workers or slaves after being sold to human trafficking syndicates or forced to become brides, rights groups said.

The lawmakers wanted Hu to allow the refugees access to UNHCR and humanitarian groups and provide them "safe passage" to countries that had promised resettlement.

Smith also said lawmakers wanted President George W. Bush to boycott the opening ceremony, given the alleged rights abuses reported in China as well as its cosy relations with repressive regimes such as those in Myanmar and Sudan.

"Many of us had asked the president to at least not to go for the opening ceremony ... which obviously would be used as a political event by the Chinese government," Smith said.

The Bush administration, the Chinese government and Olympic sponsors came under criticism from non-governmental groups at the Capitol Hill gathering.

With only 99 days left for the Olympics, Bush faced the prospect of becoming a "silent partner in China's suppression of human rights if he does not push Beijing hard enough to clean up its rights record," said T. Kumar, Amnesty International's Washington-based Asia-Pacific director.

He asked Chinese President Hu to live up to the pledge given to the international community on allowing greater freedom for his citizens when Beijing was given the right to host the Olympics.

Lucie Morillon, the US representative of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, urged key Olympic sponsors "to speak out publicly on the issue of human rights in China, and to create a fund to support political prisoners."

The media group is asking journalists going to China to cover the games to also apply for a visa for Tibet "just to make the point to the Chinese authorities that they should be free to go to Tibet to interview dissidents."

Beijing has come under international criticism for staging a crackdown on pro-Tibetan protests in the Himalayan territory, which exile groups claim has left more than 200 people dead.

Sam Kim, president of the Korean Church Coalition comprising 3,000 pastors across the United States, said the group would be stepping up protests at the premises of Olympics sponsors such as Coca-Cola to highlight the rights situation in China.

He claimed pro-China supporters had attacked North Korean refugees staging protests during an Olympic torch relay in Seoul last weekend.

"China has the audacity to now persecute North Korean refugees not only in their own country but also across international borders," he lamented, urging Washington to raise the issue with Beijing.