Free the Liaoyang Two

international | worker & community struggles and protests | other press Thursday September 16, 2004 10:21 by TW - Socialist Party socialistpartyni at btconnect dot com 02890 232962

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Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunling imprisoned for defending workers’ rights

The condition of two imprisoned workers’ leaders in China is critical.
Fears are growing for the health of Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunling, two workers imprisoned for their part in workers’ protests in Liaoyang, north-eastern China in 2002.

Xiao, serving a four year sentence since June 2003 is in a critical condition. He has gone blind and may be suffering from liver or kidney disease. Earlier this year he was admitted to hospital and diagnosed to be suffering from ”arteriosclerosis of the aorta, liver and gallbladder stones and chronic superficial gastritis”, according to China Labour Bulletin (28 June 2004). Despite the granting of this examination, the prison authorities refuse to give him medicine – in violation of their legal responsibilities – and an examination of his kidney and lungs has also been refused.

Yao Fuxin, serving seven years for his role in the same protests, has a history of heart disease and there are concerns he may suffer a heart attack. He is also deaf in one ear due to an injury suffered in detention.

Both men’s families have appealed for a medical parole, but this has been repeatedly rejected. The wives of both men took their case to the central government in Beijing earlier this year but were forcibly turned back. In June, workers at the Liaoyang Ferro-alloy Factory Corporation where both men worked, sent an open letter to China’s president and Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Jintao, in which they say the men’s conviction was based on ”extorted confessions, false reports, deceitful testimonies and faked evidence”.

Send messages demanding the release of Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunling to:
Minister of Justice, Zhang Fusen
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Xiaguangli
Beijingshi 100020
Peoples’ Republic of China
Email: minister@legalinfo.gov.cn

Send copies to rs@chinaworker.org

Suggested wording of message of protest:

We call upon the Chinese authorities to release the “Liaoyang Two” – Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang – from prison.
They are serving long prison sentences based on false charges of ”subversion”, contact with foreign journalists and ”organising illegal demonstrations”. Their only crime was to take part in workers’ protests in 2002 against job losses and the refusal of management to pay promised compensation at the Liaoyang Ferro-alloy Factory in Liaoning province.
Both men are seriously ill. Xiao Yunling has gone blind in prison and suffers from liver/kidney disease, yet has been denied medicines by the prison authorities. Both men’s appeals for parole on medical grounds have been repeatedly turned down.
We wish to add our names to a growing chorus of demands for their release.