Komen: Saya paparkan berita ini untuk memberi sedikit amaran kepada Mahathir dan kuncu-kuncunya - bahawa anda tidak boleh lari......

Bekas PM Cina diarah hadir ke Mahkamah U.S.

Saman sivil menuduh Li Peng melakukan jenayah kemanusiaan

NY - CNN - Hakim hari ini mengarahkan bekas PM Cina, Li Peng utk hadir ke mahkamah persekutuan US atas dakwaan jenayah sivil berkaitan tragedi maut tunjuk perasaan pro demokrasi di Medan Tiananmen, Beijing, pada tahun 1989.

Hakim Daerah U.S., Judge William H. Pauley III mengarahkan Li utk hadir atau menghantar wakilnya pada 13/10 untuk mendengar sebutan kes di mahkamah federal NY. Gerakan Hak Asasi Manusia tidak fikir Li akan datang.

Li, kini ketua parlimen China, dituduh melakukan jenayah sivil terhadap kemanusiaan, pembunuhan, penganiayaan dan penahanan tanpa sebab berikutan pengistiharan undang2 ketenteraan pada 20/5/89 utk menamatkan bantahan.

Saman Mahkamah itu difailkan pada 31/8/2000 oleh 4 rakyat China yg tersisih -- mereka adalah ketua2 pelajar yang ditangkap semasa bantahan Tianamen dan seorang abang kepada pendemo yang terbunuh dlm konflik itu.

Saman itu dihantar kepada rombongan keselamtan Li. Li berada di NY semasa ia difailkan. Dia menghadiri United Nations' Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments.

Pendokong Kemanusiaan:

• Li mengarahkan menumpaskan pendemo. Saman itu menyatakan pada 3/6/89, Pasukan Tentera Pembebasan Rakyat dan Pasukan Bersenjata Polis Rakyat -- menggunakan senjata semi automatik dan kenderaan perisai -- menggunakan kekerasan untuk menyahkan pendemo dan orang awam dari semua jalan di Beijing.

Gerakan Hak Asasi Kemanusiaan: (HRG)

• HRG - termasuk Pusat Perlembagaan Hak, yang telah menfailkan tuduhan bagi pihak yg tersisih itu - mengatakan Li mengarahkan penumpasan itu.

Saman2 itu menyatakan Li "sewajarnya memberhentikan tindakan yg tidak berperi kemanusiaan yang terjadi bila tentera memulakan serangan". Pegawai Kerajaan China mengatakan penumpasan itu perlu untuk menjaga undang2 dan keamanan.

Tidak ada penyata lengkap mengenai tragedi Tiananmen itu - dan jumlah yg mati tidak diketahui. Anggaran kematian sekitar ribuan angka jumlahnya.

Protes itu bermula pada 17/4/89 bila beribu2 pelajar dari pelbagai institusi berhimpun di Medan Tiananmen -- meminta hak2 perlembagaan dan kebebasan bersuara dan berkumpul.

Pelajar2 tersebut mahukan reformasi politik dan ditamatkan jenayah korup yg menular.

Semasa memfailkan saman itu, pihak plantif mengemukakan dalil bahawa mahkamah US mempunyai kuasa di bawah undang2 US 1789 yg dikenali sebagai Alien Claims Act, yg mengizinkan mangsa aniaya atau penindasan hak kemanusiaan dimana-mana di dunia ini utk memohon gantirugi di mahkamah US.

Jika Li bersalah, beliau mungkin diarahkan membayar pampasan gantirugi tetapi beliau tidak akan dipenjarakan.

Agensi hak2 kemanusiaan tidak fikir Li akan hadir di mahkamah. Pihak plantif acap-kali tidak berjaya menyaman pemimpin antarabangsa, jadi saman terkini itu lebih merupakan satu tindakan simbolik.

Namun demikian bagi pendokong hak2 kemanusiaan, keputusan Pauley itu adalah PENGIKTIRAFAN PERTAMA oleh sistem perundangan antarabangsa bahawa tragedi Tiananmen itu melibatkan pencemaran hak kemanusian.

Empat dari palntif - Zhou Suo Fen, Liu Gang, Xiong Yan and Wang Dan - adalah "paling dikehendakki" daripada 21 orang ketua2 pelajar yg terlibat dalam protes tersebut.

"Setengah daripada mereka yg telah ditahan sehingga 2 tahun tidak mendapat perbicaraan yang wajar dan adil, ada juga yang ditahan tanpa sebarang dakwaan dibuat terhadap mereka." kata Jennie Green, attorney kepada Center for Constitutional Rights, pada Ogos lalu.

"Mereka ini hidup dalam keadaan kesengsaraan yang amat dahsyat, dianiayai dengan kejutan eletrik dan tidak dapat menghubungi langsung dengan keluarga mereka. Mereka ditahan bila nama mereka dipaparkan sebagai 'amat dikehendakki' bersama 17 ketua2 pelajar yg lain". tambah Jennie.

Rencana Asal:

Former Chinese premier ordered to appear in U.S. federal court

Civil suit accuses Li Peng of crimes against humanity

September 23, 2000
Web posted at: 3:23 p.m. HKT (0723 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

NEW YORK, United States (CNN) -- A judge has ordered former Chinese Premier Li Peng to appear before U.S. federal court on civil charges in connection with the 1989 deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III ordered Li to either appear or send counsel to an October 13 pretrial hearing in New York federal court. Human rights groups did not expect Li to attend the session.

Li, now head of China's parliament, is accused in a civil lawsuit of crimes against humanity, summary execution, torture, and arbitrary detention that followed his declaration of martial law on May 20, 1989, in an effort to end the protests.

The lawsuit was filed on August 31 by four Chinese dissidents -- who had been student leaders that were arrested during the Tiananmen protests -- and the brother of a protester killed in the conflict.

The lawsuit was served later that day to Li's security entourage. Li was in New York when the lawsuit was filed. He had been attending the United Nations' Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments.

Rights groups: Li ordered crackdown The lawsuit charged that starting on June 3, 1989, People's Liberation Army soldiers and the People's Armed Police -- using semi-automatic weapons and armored cars -- used force to clear Beijing's streets of demonstrators and civilians.

Human rights groups -- including the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the dissidents -- have said Li gave the order for that crackdown.

The lawsuit contended that Li should have "sought to halt the egregious abuses of human rights that occurred when troops began their assault." Chinese officials have said the crackdown was necessary to restore law and order.

There has never been a full accounting of the Tiananmen incident, and an exact number of those killed during the crackdown has never been made available. Estimates place the death toll in the thousands.

The protests had begun on April 17, 1989, when thousands of students from various schools rallied at Tiananmen Square -- demanding their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The students also pressed their demands for political reform and an end of widespread corruption.

In filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that the U.S. court had jurisdiction based on a 1789 U.S. law, known as the Alien Tort Claims Act, that allows victims of torture or human rights abuses anywhere in the world to demand reparation before a U.S. federal court.

If the court rules against Li, he could be ordered to pay monetary damages, but he would not face a prison sentence.

First recognition Human rights experts do not expect Li to appear before the court. Plaintiffs in past lawsuits against international leaders have had little success in U.S. courts, so the current suit could be seen as largely symbolic.

However, rights activists said Pauley's decision was the first recognition by an international legal system that the Tiananmen crackdown involved human rights violations.

Four of the plaintiffs -- Zhou Suo Fen, Liu Gang, Xiong Yan and Wang Dan -- had been on China's "most-wanted list" of 21 student leaders following the protests.

"Some of those who were detained for up to two years did not have a fair trial, or were held without any charges lodged against them," Jennie Green, attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in August.