21 December 2004

FEARS ARISE OVER HEALTH SITUATION OF IMPRISONED LIAOYANG LABOUR ACTIVISTS, XIAO YUNLIANG AND YAO FUXIN, AS HARSH WINTER CONDITIONS SET IN

As winter conditions steadily worsen, Yao Fuxin, one of two leading imprisoned labour activists from the northeastern city of Liaoyang in Liaoning Province, is being denied room heating and warm padded clothes in his icy cell at Lingyuan Prison, according to his wife. The local temperature has fallen to as low as minus 11 degrees Celsius in recent weeks. After enduring similar abusive treatment at the prison in the winter of 2003-04, Yao's right leg became lame and parts of the skin have turned black.

Although prison conditions are reportedly somewhat better for Xiao Yunliang, the other imprisoned Liaoyang workers' leader, who is being held in a prison in Shenyang City, Xiao is nonetheless suffering from an alarming range of serious health conditions for which he is currently being denied any medical treatment by the prison authorities.

YAO FUXIN HELD IN FREEZING CONDITIONS

Yao Fuxin's wife, Guo Shujing, recently told China Labour Bulletin that prison officials not only have failed to provide her husband with warm winter clothing, but also have refused to pass on to him some warm clothes that she had specially brought to the prison. The officials informed her that Yao was "not entitled to warm clothing because he has not yet been in prison for three years," and that his cell had no heating because "the prison building is undergoing some repair works." However, both the prison officials' office and the meeting room are apparently quite adequately heated.

According to his wife, Yao's high blood pressure condition has recently improved somewhat, but the prison authorities have placed severe restrictions on his daily activities in the prison. He is being denied the right to do any outdoor exercise (fangfeng), read newspapers, take showers, or even talk with any of the other prisoners. In addition, Yao has been placed in a cell along with two prisoners who are serving suspended death sentences; they have been ordered to keep him under constant surveillance, even during his brief trips to the lavatory.

With a monthly pension of only 400 Yuan, Guo Shujing said that she and her daughter could no longer afford to make the journey to have monthly visits with Yao Fuxin at Lingyuan Prison. The prison is located near to the border of Liaoning Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the 12-hours journey from Liaoyang City, where Guo and her daughter lives, costs them several hundred Yuan. Before June 2004, the Liaoyang Public Security Bureau provided free transportation for Yao’s family to visit him at the prison. But since Guo Shujing went to petition the Supreme People's Court in Beijing in June and demanded a retrial of her husband's case, and was then taken back by Liaoyang police by force, the Liaoyang Public Security Bureau has informed her that no transportation will be provided until she signs an agreement stating that she will make no further complaints about her husband's situation.

XIAO YUNLIANG STILL NOT RECEIVING PROPER MEDICAL TREATMENT

Over the past year, both prison doctors and physicians at a civilian hospital in Shenyang have diagnosed Xiao Yunliang as suffering from a wide range of potentially serious medical conditions, the combined effects of which have left him in a very poor state of health. The diagnosed ailments include: cystic disease of the kidney, arteriosclerosis of the aorta, intrahepatic duct stones, chronic gastritis and conjunctivitis in his left eye. However, the prison authorities are currently providing him with no medication or other medical care for these various illnesses.

Perhaps most worryingly, for the past few months Xiao has been suffering from painful abdominal and facial swelling; the former condition makes it difficult for Xiao to swallow his food, and he is currently reported to be very thin. So far, he has received no medical diagnosis or treatment for this latest ailment either.

According to Xiao's family, the eyesight in his right eye has slightly recovered, following an operation to repair his cataract problem that was carried out at the Shenyang Medical School Hospital on 17 August. Xiao had become virtually blind as a combined result of the cataract problem, and an injury sustained to his other eye when police first detained him in March 2002 and thrust him into a police van. However, his vision is still being unnecessarily impaired by the untreated conjunctivitis in his left eye.

Unlike Yao Fuxin, Xiao Yunliang has been provided with warm winter clothing by the Shenyang prison authorities and his room is adequately heated. But like Yao, he is also being denied the right to have a daily outdoor exercise break. Moreover, Xiao's family is also experiencing serious financial hardship: his wife receives a monthly pension of 430 Yuan, but she has to pay more than that amount each month simply to provide him with poultices to alleviate an unexplained painful condition on the back of his neck. (Although probably the least of his medical problems, this is the only ailment for which he is receiving any kind of treatment.)

Yao Fuxin, 53, and Xiao Yunliang, 58, were first detained by the police in late March 2002, following a series of massive street protests by around 30,000 laid-off and retired workers from several factories in Liaoyang City. The protests had been sparked off by workers' claims that managerial corruption and large-scale misappropriation of funds had led to the bankruptcy of the state-owned Liaoyang Ferro-Alloy Factory on 11 March 2002 and the subsequent loss of all jobs at the factory. Yao and Xiao were eventually sentenced to seven years and four years in prison respectively on charges of "conspiracy to subvert the government."