CHINA FREES WOMAN DETAINED
FOR PROTESTING DAUGHTER'S RAPE
www.globalpost.com - After
a woman was sentenced to a labor camp for protesting leniency for her
daughter's rapist, Chinese authorities bent to public pressure and
released her. When her 11-year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and
forced into prostitution in 2006, Tang Hui (a pseudonym being widely
used in the media) was irate with the way the case was handled. After
Tang found her daughter in a strip club and took her home, she reported
the kidnapping to the authorities, who did nothing. She protested
against the government's leniency for her daughter's rapists by standing
in the streets of Hunan Province's Yongzhou city, blatantly flouting
laws against protesting. She allegedly “blocked cars and the entrances
of the buildings and shouted out loud” according the police statement
and the Daily Beast. She “seriously disturbed social order” and “caused
extremely bad social influences” and was arrested and sentenced -
without a formal trial - to 18 months at a labor camp for reeducation.
The case brought a flurry of criticism from citizens on the internet, as
well as in mainstream, state-run media, and China has apparently
acquiesced today, releasing Tang after reviewing her appeal.
According
to an AP report from Beijing, China's official news agency has said the
woman was released after the labor camp decided she was needed to care
for her daughter, who is now 17. GlobalTimes, a Chinese news agency that
was extremely critical of the situation in an op-ed on Tuesday, also
noted that the Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court sentenced seven of
the accused rapists in the case. Two of the defendants received the
death penalty, four were given life sentences and another one received a
15-year term. It's good news for Tang, but when it comes to forced
disappearances, China still has a long way to go to maintain the rule of
law and get up to par on international human rights standards. Had it
not been for a very public outcry against this case by the media and the
internet (GlobalTimes reported that nearly 700,000 posts on Weibo
expressed outrage and sympathy for Tang), she might have faced the same
fate as countless other "criminals" or "troublemakers" China seeks to
make disappear every year. Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based senior
researcher for Human Rights Watch said to the Daily Beast, “The police
have a very expedient system for making people they consider troublesome
disappear without any kind of due process."
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A
woman who had been sent to a labor camp in China's Hunan Province after
petitioning for justice for her daughter - who was raped and forced
into prostitution at age 11 - was released weeks ago. Tang Hui was sent
to the Reeducation Through Labor Center for "seriously disturbing social
order and exerting a negative impact on society" after she protested in
front of local government buildings asking for justice to her daughter.
"The Chinese government routinely uses state security charges against
perceived critics and dissidents, and the incidence of enforced
disappearances has sharply risen in recent years," said Human Rights
Watch. The abuse of power and lack of justice are characteristic of the
Age of Kali.
WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?
The
age we are living in now is the age of kali, which is compared to the
winter season. ... The people and civilizations of this present age,
Kali yuga, have actually diminished in good qualities as confirmed in
the Shrimad Bhagavatam, “O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men
have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky
and, above all, always disturbed.” (S.B. 1.1.10) This is a quotation by
Saunaka rishi to the sages of Naimisharanya. ... When the Personality of
Godhead, Lord Krishna, left this earth planet in His selfsame form,
from that very day Kali, who had already partially appeared, became
fully manifest to create inauspicious conditions for those who are
endowed with a poor fund of knowledge. Maharaja Yudhisthira was
intelligent enough to understand the influence of the age of Kali,
characterized by increasing avarice, falsehood, cheating and violence
throughout the capital, state, home and among individuals.
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