Road to Petition

• Source: The Global Times
• [22:18 April 29 2009]
• Comments

Shan has every reason to be discreet. On a previous trip seeking justice against her allegedly corrupt bosses at Jixi Mining Group in the city of Jixi in Heilongjiang Province, she was abducted by thugs and taken to a “black jail”, an unlawful prison in the capital city’s Fangshan district, where she and seven other petitioners were confined to a room of less than 10 square meters and beaten with electric batons. Petitioners’ hometowns reportedly pay the rental on these rooms. Allegedly slapped in the face and kicked in the ribs, Shan says she was lucky to incur only heavy bruising. She says she knew what to expect after similar beatings from similar people back home.

Shan pauses to survey Yongdingmen Bridge, an overpass near the bureau where gangs of thugs with dubious official connections lie in wait. Their mission is simple: to intercept their quarry before any complaint can be filed. Shan pads cautiously across as they eyeball her intensely.

“I feel safer now,” Shan says. “It used to be a cat-and-mouse game.”

Until recently, she says, the hooligans strutted up and down the alley and abducted petitioners from right outside the bureau gates.

“They used to abduct petitioners and beat them in the alley leading to the bureau.”

The situation has improved thanks to the National People’s Congress (NPC), she says. During this current NPC session (March 5-13), police seem to have shepherded most of the goons away from the main gate: at least as far as the overpass.