September 23, 2002

COPENHAGEN (AP)--On the eve of an E.U.-China summit, human rights group Amnesty International urged European Union leaders Monday to take a tough line against a Chinese crackdown on minorities and the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Amnesty said the human rights situation in China is deteriorating, mainly as result of a crackdown on crime and the war on terrorism.

"Torture and ill-treatment remain widespread and systemic," it said in a report, adding that there is a "massive escalation in death sentences and executions."

Amnesty said Chinese authorities used the war on terrorism as "a pretext for increased repression."

It said targets of the new measures have been Falun Gong [practitioners] [...]

E.U. leaders are to meet with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Tuesday on the margins of a two-day E.U.-Asia summit that opened Monday.

E.U. and Chinese officials are to discuss a wide range of economic and political issues, including human rights.

"With the situation going from bad to worse in China, the reality is that the E.U. has achieved no results at all from this ongoing dialogue," said Dick Oosting, Director of Amnesty International's E.U. Office.

"Judging from events in China, this is effectively a monologue, a self-serving exercise in which the E.U. is being taken for a ride."

Amnesty urged the E.U. to exert "real pressure" in discussing human rights with China. In a recent speech, E.U. External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, who was the U.K.'s last governor of Hong Kong, acknowledged there is a problem. "There are still terrible human rights abuses. Capital punishment is meted out with mindless frequency," he said.