30-8EF-1990I
POLITICAL ADVISER
OFF.
852 804 673E
P.10
LDIVY
34
"alco. A.A.
I had "voluntarily surrendered [after June 1989), confessed my crimes relatively well and shown signs of repentance." I immediately declared to the announcing official my intention to appeal against this procuratorial decision, and on December 3, 1991 I handed in my formal letter of appeal. The full text of my letter was as follows:
"I do not accept the decision of the Beijing
Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, No. (90) B362, and hereby make my appeal. I believe the accusations made against me in the decision were confused and unclear, and entirely groundless. My activities between May and June 1989 were all carried out within the bounds of what is permitted by the Constitution and the law, and should therefore in no way be considered as crimes. I hereby would like to reiterate my frequently stated position: as a citizen of China, the Constitution guarantees me the rights to association and freedom of expression. I have never admitted any guilt, nor was it my intention to "turn myself in" when I first reported to the public security bureau [in late June 1989). At no time during my subsequent imprisonment did I ever declare to anyone that my activities had been of a criminal nature. The question of my having "confessed my crimes relatively well," therefore, does not even arise.
"On the above basis, I appeal to this procuratorate to withdraw its decision to exempt me from prosecution, to drop
drop outright all charges and accusations against me, and to render a decision of released as innocent.
"Appellant: Han Dongfang
Dec 3, 1991"
A statement written in black and white like this cannot be challenged by mere assertions. For the authorities to continue referring to my so-called
repentance" and so forth is plainly absurd.
Also, in numerous statements the government has claimed repeatedly that the Beijing Public Security Bureau permitted my trip abroad for medical treatment out of "humanitarian" considerations. I do not know what was their real motive in granting permission for me to make the trip, nor do I want to know. It was definitely, however, not out of any humanitarian consideration. The claim is shameless. When I was in prison and they poked a six-inch needle into my hand, was that a humanitarian act? when they deliberately locked me up in a cell together with detainees who had tuberculosis, hepatitis, STD, skin diseases, and managed to infect me with tuberculosis, was that also humanitarian? Almost half a year in solitary confinement - was that humanitarian too? When I was in hospital after my release from jail, the police constantly harassed my doctor. In January 1992, I applied to go for treatment in the U.S., but it was not until until August, by which time my tuberculosis had developed into a drug-resistant form, that approval was given. Finally, I had to have half of one lung surgically removed in the U.S. If all these things were evidence of the government's humanitarianism, then perhaps the most humane institutions in the history Of human civilisation were Hitler's concentration camps, the Soviet Gulag, and the Chinese prison system.