Petitioners Sent to ‘Study Groups’

Petitioners in an eastern Chinese village say they were forced to attend reeducation sessions or “law study groups.”

2009.03.04
petitioner-305.jpg Chinese petitioners show documents during a gathering outside a courthouse in Beijing, April 3, 2008.
AFP

HONG KONG—Petitioners in an eastern Chinese village who aired their grievances publicly say they were forced to attend reeducation sessions known as “law study groups” where they were subjected to harassment and abuse.

Feng Shouling, 60, from Pei county in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, said in an interview that she had been detained by police for two days in February after speaking out about her experience in a forced “law study group.”

She said she was harassed and strip-searched.

Another petitioner, surnamed Xu and also from Pei county, said he too was abused during his 10-day detention in a study group. “I was offered neither food nor water at the ‘law study group,’” Xu said.

“They took off all my clothes, and I could wear only my underwear. They kept me for about 10 days just to stop me from continuous petitioning,” he said.

Police officials declined to comment on their specific cases. But an employee from Pei county’s Bureau for Letters and Calls, who declined to be identified, acknowledged that law study groups are set up to detain petitioners.

“As long as you sign a pledge that you will no longer petition, then they will let you go. The Bureau for Letters and Calls doesn’t operate these law study groups,” the employee said.

An official with the Bureau of Justice in Pei county, who also asked not to be named, said mandatory “law study groups” are sponsored by his department. He said the study group process is administered and managed by local officials.

“The purpose of the ‘law study group’ is to reeducate petitioners. There is a time limit at the study group where petitioners must study current policies. When the time is up, [the petitioner] can be released after promising that they won’t petition anymore,” the staff member said.

'Smearing China’s reputation'

Feng Shouling said police had held and intimidated her from Feb. 22-23 and threatened her with charges of treason because she talked to foreign media about her reeducation experience.

“They stripped me and searched me. They wouldn’t let me sleep—just made me sit there. They kept talking to me. Four people watched me. There were no legal documents presented to me, only a summons notice they requested me to sign,” she said.

According to Feng, police interrogated her about an Internet article Radio Free Asia published detailing her experience at the study group as well as her access to foreign media coverage.

The police threatened to charge her with “using foreign forces to smear the country,” Feng said.

“They accused me of being a traitor. They said I used foreign countries to smear China’s reputation. And they told me that if I didn’t confess, they would arrest my son.”

Countless petitioners

Feng—who, like countless petitioners across China, is seeking official redress for what she describes as inadequate compensation for her farmland—said she had been summoned to a study group in late 2008, where she was beaten, humiliated, and sexually abused during her eight-day detention.

She said local Chinese authorities have been using the study groups as an illegal form of detention to prevent people with grievances against the government from stirring up trouble.

Activists are becoming increasingly vocal about China's "black jails" which they say function as detention centers holding protesters without due process or right to appeal.

Local officials often use police or hired thugs to take petitioners away from government offices and bring them to detention centers, like mandatory study groups, that are often unadvertised and located in areas outside of municipal centers.

Teng Biao, a lawyer who represents petitioners in Beijing, called the study groups “makeshift jails” outside of the law.

“The law study group is a kind of makeshift jail that has nothing to do with law study. Some petitioners have told me that the living conditions at the study groups are extremely poor. They cannot move freely or make calls to the outside. Some are even tortured,” Teng said.

While some human rights groups have reported on the study groups, authorities are unlikely to crack down on the practice because local officials’ political records are often tied to the frequency of petitioning in their jurisdiction, he said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Ding Xiao. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Jia Yuan. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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