| Li Peng lawsuit background |
|
Li Peng lawsuit background
Statement From Xiao Qiang, HRIC Executive Director
Key Participants in the August 31 Press Conference
Biographies of the Plaintiffs
Partners launching this suit
INTRODUCTION
Li Peng, the Premier of China at the time of the Tiananmen protests and massacre in 1989 was served on the morning of August 31, with a U.S. federal lawsuit alleging massive human rights violations. The action was brought forward by Liming Zhang, an eyewitness to the bloodshed whose sister was shot dead by martial law troops, as well as Feng Suo Zhou, Gang Liu, Yan Xiong and Dan Wang--four of the 21 "Most Wanted" student leaders who were hunted down by Chinese authorities in the wake of the massacre and who were imprisoned for their role in the Tiananmen demonstrations.
"No official should be above the law for gross violations such as this campaign against peaceful protesters," said Jennie Green, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "It is now Li Peng's turn to face justice."
"June Fourth victims have been seeking redress for over a decade. This is an opportunity for them to both benefit from and push forward the power of the Pinochet effect,'" said Xiao Qiang, Executive Director of Human Rights in China. "This lawsuit puts tyrants on notice: they will be held accountable when they venture beyond the protection of their own fortress."
The complaint was filed at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Jurisdiction was based on the Alien Tort Claims Act, which provides jurisdiction for torts committed in violation of the "law of nations." The claims filed include crimes against humanity, summary execution, torture, arbitrary detention and violation of the rights to peaceful assembly and association and the rights to life, liberty and security of person.
Li Peng declared martial law on May 20, 1989, precipitating the massacre of unarmed civilians by the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police which were enforcing martial law orders. Li Peng should have sought to halt the egregious abuses of human rights that occurred when the troops began their assault on Beijing on June 3 with tanks and machine guns. But he failed to do so. Plaintiff Liming Zhang and his sister Xianghong Zhang were heading toward Tiananmen Square that night when, they were blocked and dispersed by martial law troops. Xianghong Zhang was hit by a bullet that entered her back and exited her right front shoulder blade. She died of her injuries. Troops continued firing on unarmed civilians for several days. After the massacre, Defendant Li Peng congratulated the troops for their actions in imposing martial law.
"In 1989, when martial law troops shot my sister, I was absolutely stupefied," said Liming Zhang. "I will never forgive myself for not being there to stand between my sister and the bullets. But with this lawsuit, I am standing up to Li Peng. I could not protect my sister's life, but I will defend her spirit."
In the crackdown on demonstrators following the massacre, a "Most Wanted List" of 21 student leaders was issued by the Ministry of Public Security, which is under direct authority of the State Council which Li Peng headed as Premier. The list was broadcast on national television and published in newspapers. Four of the leaders named on the list were plaintiffs Feng Suo Zhou, Gang Liu, Yan Xiong and Dan Wang.
Human Rights in China (HRIC), the engine behind the case, initiated the project after the Chinese government rejected repeated appeals made by June 4 victims for dialogue with authorities and a proper investigation of the Beijing bloodshed. In the last decade, June 4 victims and family members have issued a flurry of petitions and open letters to China's leadership, demanding justice and accountability, but to no avail. A group of June 4 victims compiled a list of 155 known dead and 65 wounded, as well as 27 detailed testimonies that describe how individuals were killed and injured during those violent days in the beginning of June 1989. Last year, they submitted these materials to China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (prosecutor general) to lodge an unprecedented legal action, calling for a criminal investigation into the massacre and the prosecution of all those responsible. The Chinese government gave no response. Following the exhaustion of domestic means, HRIC located the plaintiffs of this case to seek justice abroad, gathered evidence of Li Peng's responsibility for the 1989 events, and approached the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) to act as leading counsel.
CCR was responsible for breaking new ground in international human rights law when its lawyers unearthed the Alien Torts Claims Act to successfully sue a Paraguayan police official for the torture and murder of a 17-year son of a dissident, Joelito Filartiga. In 1980, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit established a key precedent that claims of torture could be heard in U.S. courts. Since that time CCR has also successfully applied the principle of "command responsibility" for human rights violations and has obtained judgments including those against an Argentinean general for the "Dirty War," Prosper Avril (the former Haitian dictator), former Guatemalan dictator Hector Gramajo, Indonesian general Sintong Panjaitan for the massacre in East Timor, and U.S. corporations such as Unocal for slave labor in Burma, and Chevron and Royal Dutch/Shell for attacks on activists in Nigeria.
by Xiao Qiang
It has been a long road since the Tiananmen tragedy until this day, when we see Li Peng as a defendant in a lawsuit for claims including crimes against humanity, summary execution, torture, arbitrary detention and violation of the rights to peaceful assembly and association and the rights to life, liberty and security of person.
This complaint was brought forward by a brother of a June 4 massacre victim and four former students leaders who were put on the government's "Most Wanted list. It was filed at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 28th and served this morning.
The fact that we've come this far is a triumph in itself for human rights, justice and the human spirit. We must honor Ding Zilin and the Tiananmen Mothers who have been the driving force behind the June 4 victims' search for truth and justice. Over the last 10 years, they have issued a flurry of petitions and open letters to China's leadership, but to no avail. They have also painstakingly collected information on those who were killed and injured in the bloodshed. Last year, 105 family members of the victims of the June 4 massacre undertook an unprecedented legal action--submitting a list of 155 known dead and 65 wounded, as well as 27 testimonies to China's prosecutor general. They demanded an official criminal investigation of the 1989 events and prosecution of all those responsible, naming Li Peng specifically. But the government has given no response, other than intimidation and escalated persecution.
With the exhaustion of domestic means, Human Rights in China has sought to obtain justice abroad. Not wanting to put the June Fourth victims in China at any further risk, HRIC located the plaintiffs of this case in the United States. We gathered evidence of Li Peng's responsibility for the 1989 massacre and crackdown, and we approached CCR to act as leading counsel.
The fact that we are bringing this case in a US federal court vividly illustrates the universality of human rights--crimes against humanity are accountable the world over, beyond the boundaries of nations.
With this case, we hope to obtain a legal verdict affirming Li Peng's responsibility for the crimes committed during the 1989 June 4 massacre. Our ultimate goal is to call Li Peng accountable in his own country--in a future China that enjoys true rule of law. This lawsuit is one step towards that goal.
We do understand that the figure of Li Peng represents enormous power, and that the context of US-China relations is swayed by that power, and the pursuit of national interests. But, as we have seen in the courageous acts of the June Fourth victims in China and of the plaintiffs who sit before you today---there is also strength in the will of the people, who will continue to demand rights, truth and accountability until justice prevails.
Judy M. Chen, the communications director at Human Rights in China, has been active in human rights advocacy for the last ten years. She received her master's in international affairs from Columbia University. In the mid-1990s she lived in Beijing while working for the Associated Press.
Jennie Green, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, has been working on international human rights cases with the Center for the last ten years. She was formerly the administrative director of the human rights program at the Harvard Law School, where she earned her J.D. She has also worked with a number of other human rights organizations including Amnesty International and the U.S. Catholic Conference for Migration and Refugee Services.
Jaykumar Menon, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, studied law and international political economy at Columbia University, receiving his J.D. and a master's in international affairs. He has previously worked in the field of international public health and is a co-founder of Photerra, Inc., a dot-com. He is also an aspiring fiction writer.
Xiao Qiang, the executive director of Human Rights in China (HRIC), came to the United States in 1986 to enter the doctoral program in astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame. After the June Fourth Massacre, Xiao began working as a full-time human rights activist. He acted as deputy director of the Washington-based Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars before he assumed his current position at HRIC in 1991.
Dan Wang was No.1 on the Chinese government's "Most Wanted List" of student leaders following the June Fourth crackdown. A former history student at Beijing University, he was sentenced to a four-year prison term for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement." After his release, Wang continued to advocate for democracy and human rights. In May 1995, after signing several petitions, including one requesting a reassessment of the 1989 protests, Wang "disappeared" for 17 months. In October 1996, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "conspiring to subvert the government." He was released in April 1998 on medical parole and exiled to the United States. He is currently a graduate student in history at Harvard University.
Yan Xiong, was No.21 on the Chinese government's "Most Wanted List" of student leaders following the June Fourth crackdown. A member of the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation, Xiong was arrested at a train station in Inner Mongolia on June 13, 1989. A native of Shuangfeng, Hunan Province, Xiong was held with other political offenders in Qincheng Prison, outside Beijing. He was released without trial on January 26, 1991. A political science graduate of Hunan Normal University and a post-graduate law student at Beijing University prior to his dismissal, Xiong was stripped of all academic degrees, denied identification papers and too seriously ill with kidney disease to work. He and his wife lived on her small earnings until Xiong fled China on June 5, 1992. He has been granted political asylum in the U.S.
Liming Zhang was an eyewitness to the 1989 June Fourth Massacre. Zhang and members of his family were en route to Tiananmen Square when his sister was shot dead by martial law troops. Since that time, he has been active in collecting and distributing humanitarian assistance for fellow June Fourth victims. As a result, he suffered continued surveillance, intimidation and harassment by the Chinese Public Security Bureau. Zhang worked at the Center of Chinese Scientific and Technological Information in Beijing before coming to the United States in 1997.
Feng Suo Zhou, who was on the "Most Wanted List" of student leaders, was arrested near Xi'an on June 13, 1989. A physics major at Qinghua University and a member of the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation, Zhou was one of the 97 prisoners released by authorities on June 6, 1990. Zhou was then dismissed from school and had difficulty finding work. In September 1990, Zhou was exiled to far northern China, where he was forced to stay for approximately one year. He came to the United States in January 1995.
Human Rights in China (HRIC), the engine behind this lawsuit, is the largest independent organization focused on monitoring and promoting human rights in the People's Republic of China. Human Rights in China is dedicated to supporting peaceful grassroots activism; promoting human rights principles; urging scrutiny of the Chinese government's human rights practice; and facilitating change respectful of human rights in China. Founded in 1989 by a group of Chinese scientists and scholars, HRIC maintains offices in New York and Hong Kong.
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the leading counsel behind this lawsuit, is a New York based, non-profit, public interest legal foundation dedicated to furthering and protecting the civil, constitutional, and human rights of all the oppressed. CCR has independently represented cases that have addressed forgotten people denied basic rights such as: paying sweat shop workers, protecting students from asbestos and establishing that acts such as torture and genocide are illegal under U.S. law.