08/26/2002
Reuters English News Service

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The world psychiatry body agreed on Monday to send an independent mission to China to investigate claims that political dissidents are being treated as mental patients, but the vote fell short of some activists' calls for tougher action.

Human rights activists had called on the World Psychiatry Association to reconsider China's membership if evidence of political abuse of psychology was uncovered, a potential international embarrassment for Beijing.

Instead, the WPA's general assembly voted to set up a team of psychiatrists which, if Beijing agrees, would visit mental hospitals to assess reports that opponents of the communist government, including members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, are being incarcerated there.

'We want to do this as soon as possible,' said outgoing WPA President Juan Lopez-Ibor, adding that the visit should be completed by next spring.

China's treatment of prisoners as mental patients has dominated the agenda at the week-long WPA congress, which began on Friday in the Japanese city of Yokohama, with the focus on a study that concluded abuse of psychiatry there is rampant.

INDEPENDENT?

No country has been forced out of the association since the early 1980s when the Soviet Union withdrew under intense criticism of its use of psychiatric diagnosis to persecute dissidents, and human rights activists were worried the WPA was taking a soft stance on China.

Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists, which had been leading efforts for a fully independent investigation, abstained from Monday's vote, unhappy that the WPA's executive committee would have the power to choose the mission's members.

'We'll wait to see who they choose for the working party,' said Mike Shooter, president of the Royal College. 'I hope it will result in a fully independent visit.'

Asked whether the Chinese government would have any input into the mission, Lopez-Ibor said there was a possibility it would object to some aspects but insisted it would be independent.

'What we want is that the people who go have the freedom to do what they want. It would be a disaster if the visit goes there and comes back with more questions then answers.'

ACTIVISTS WANT FIRMER STEPS

Rights activists say the association's leadership was too slow in its reaction to Soviet abuses, although it has since passed the 'Madrid Declaration', banning the political abuse of psychology.

Before the assembly closed, activists had criticized the WPA for not taking firmer steps to ensure the mission would be independent or include a threat to reconsider China's membership if the allegations were proved.

'They seem more intent on defusing the situation than trying to adhere to their own ethical standards,' said Robin Munro, who authored the recently published report on the political use of psychiatry in China.

In his report, Munro said China was using psychiatry to have political opponents declared insane - a practice he likened to what had happened in the old Soviet Union.

He said the situation had worsened since Beijing began a crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Munro said a surge in cases involving Falun Gong followers was clear evidence that police and forensic psychiatrists were working together to enforce the suppression of dissidents.

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Citing numerous official documents, the report said that up to 15 percent of people held in Chinese mental institutions may be political prisoners, including labor activists and individuals who complain about political persecution.

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