China: Incommunicado Detention / Fear of torture or ill-treatment: Jaranbayar Soyolt

China: Incommunicado Detention/Fear of torture or ill-treatment, Jaranbayar Soyolt (m)

Amnesty International

Index Number: ASA 17/081/2008
Date Published: 4 June 2008
Categories: China
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/081/2008/en Download PDF

CHINA Jaranbayar Soyolt (m) aged 48, Mongolian citizen

Jaranbayar Soyolt has been detained by the Chinese authorities

since 6 January for alleged involvement in “overseas activities

harmful to China’s security”. Originally a Chinese citizen from

the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, he legally left China

and settled in Mongolia in 1991, and became a Mongolian citizen

in 1997. His current whereabouts are unknown, and he is at grave

risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Jaranbayar Soyolt was detained by immigration officials at Beijing

Capital International Airport, as he entered the country with two

business colleagues. His colleagues went through immigration

and customs at the airport before him. After waiting for him for

two hours, his colleagues returned to inquire about the reason for

his delay. At the customs counter, they saw Jaranbayar Soyolt

handcuffed and surrounded by five policemen. Jaranbayar Soyolt

told his colleagues that he had been arrested by the Chinese

police and asked them to contact his family and the Mongolian

Embassy in Beijing immediately on his behalf.

Jaranbayar Soyolt telephoned one of his colleagues on 11 January, under duress from the Chinese authorities.

Jaranbayar Soyolt said that he was being detained in Beijing because of problems with his passport, and asked that

nothing about his arrest be revealed to foreign media in order not to “make things worse”. As a result of this threat,

his family has not publicized his case until recently. They have not had any further contact with Jaranbayar Soyolt

since this telephone call. On 31 January 2008, Beijing Public Security officials confirmed that Jaranbayar Soyolt had

entered China through the airport on 6 January 2008, though they had previously denied any knowledge of his

whereabouts. According to their latest statement, the Chinese authorities have placed Jaranbayar Soyolt under

‘house arrest’.

Jaranbayar Soyolt is a human rights activist and a founding member of several exiled dissident groups based in

Mongolia. In 1981 he was one of the leaders of the Mongolian Student Movement, a mass protest by ethnic

Mongolian students and academics against the Chinese Central Government’s plan to migrate 600,000 ethnic Han-

Chinese into Inner Mongolia without consulting local communities. In 1992, he went into exile in Mongolia. From

here, he continued his human rights activities. In 1993, he gave a speech at the World Mongolian Alliance First

Congress publicly criticizing China’s ethnic policy as one of “ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide”. He was later

granted asylum in Mongolia and Mongolian citizenship in 1997. The Chinese authorities have labeled him a

Mongolian separatist and have claimed that he is plotting to overthrow the ruling communist party of China.

Jaranbayar Soyolt suffers from ill-health, and in the light of this and of persistent reports about torture and other illtreatment

of political dissidents in China, Amnesty International is extremely concerned for his well-being and

safety.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- calling on the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of Jaranbayar Soyolt, who was detained at Beijing

Capital International Airport on 6 January;

- urging the authorities to release him immediately, or to charge him with a recognizably criminal offense and ensure

he is tried promptly in proceedings which meet international fair trial standards;

- seeking assurances that he is treated humanely in detention, and not tortured or ill-treated;

- calling on the authorities to give him immediate and regular access to his family, a lawyer of his choice, and any

medical treatment he may require.

APPEALS TO:

Director of the Beijing Public Security Bureau

MA Zhenchuan Juzhang

Beijingshi Gong'anju

9 Qianmen Dongdajie

Dongchengqu

Beijingshi 100740

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Email: wbjc@sohu.com

Salutation: Dear Director

Director of the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau

WU Yuhua Juzhang

Beijingshi Sifaju

12 Xinjiekouwaidajie

Xichengqu

Beijingshi 100088

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Email: webmaster@bjsf.gov.cn

Salutation: Dear Director

COPIES TO:

Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China

Dr Galsen BATSUKH

Embassy of Mongolia

No 2, Xiushui Beijie Jian Guo,

Men Wai Da Jie

Beijing,

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Fax: 011 86 10 6532 5045

The fax number listed can be unreliable, please keep

trying.

Ambassador Wen Zhong Zhou

Embassy of the People's Republic of China

2300 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington DC 20008

Fax: 1 202 745 7473

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 15 July 2008.