TNAG-2512-FCO40-3665-Future-of-Hong-Kong-International-Rights-and-Obligations-(IR-1992 — Page 140

17 JUL-1992

17:19

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

amnesty international

INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT,

1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ.

United Kingdom.

BY FAX AND LETTER

Mr Alistair Asprey Secretary for Security

Government Secretariat

Lower Albert Road Hong Kong

Dear Mr Asprey,

44 71 956 1157 P.02

Ref.: TG ASA 19/92.06

16 July 1992

CASES OF LIU YLJUN (CHEN YU) AND LIN LIN

Thank you for your prompt response to our letter of 24 June 1992 expressing concern about the safety of journalist and editor Liu Yijun (a pseudonym for Chen Yu) and former student Lin Lin. Amnesty International is glad to learn that they have been permitted to remain in Hong Kong pending further consideration of their cases.

Since we last wrote to you we have looked further into these cases and have been able to confirm from independent sources several points of their accounts. On the basis of our investigation of their claims, we believe that Chen Yu and Lin Lin would be at risk of detention as prisoners of conscience and possibly torture if returned to China.

Chen Yu, born on 21 June 1963 in Hubei Province, told Amnesty International that she is a university graduate, former journalist and editor, and poet. During and shortly after the Beijing pro-democracy movement, a Hainan magazine which employed Chen Yu published articles by her which were critical of policies and practices prevalent in China. She stated that the magazine was closed by the authorities after it published its third issue, in September 1989. According to Amnesty International's information, that magazine was one of dozens of publications in Hainan which were shut down during that period because of their reformist stand.

In May 1989, Chen Yu said she travelled to Beijing, where she wrote a collection of poems about the pro-democracy movement. The poems were printed and distributed in pamphlet form by students.

Following the events of June 1989 Chen Yu returned to Hainan. She said she was unable to find protection there, so after some months she returned to Beijing. She then travelled to her home province of Hubei where she adopted the pseudonym Liu Yijun.

In 1990, Chen Yu travelled to Shenzhen. She stayed there with Lin Lin for several months. In March 1991, Qiu Xishan, a journalist from the Shanghai-based reformist newspaper, World Economic Herald, whom Chen Yu knew and had seen repeatedly in Shenzhen, disappeared from the home of friends he was staying with. Chen Yu said she received a handwritten note from him, urging her to leave Shenzhen.

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(44)(71) 413 5500 Telegrams: Amnesty London WC1 Telex: 28502 FAX: 956 1157

Amnesty International is an independent worldwide Movement working impanisky for the release of all Breoners of conscience fair and prompt trans for political prisoners aDO NO ON to torture and executions. It is funded by donations from its members and supports throughout the world, it has formal relations with the United Nations Unesce the Counch of Europe, the Organization of Aincan Unity and the Organization of American States