Zhongyuan Oil Field Workers’ Representative Sent to Re-Education through Labor Camp
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(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Nov 20, 2007)- Li Guohong (李国宏 ), a laid-off workers’ representative at Zhongyuan Oil Field, has been sent to a Re-education through Labor (RTL) camp for one and a half years by the Zhongyuan Oil Field Public Security Bureau (PSB).
Since 2001, Zhongyuan Oil Field, which is owned by China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), has dismissed 10,000 workers without proper compensation. Since last year, representatives of the dismissed workers have petitioned higher authorities and, as a result, have suffered beatings and detention. Li is one of the representatives.
According to Citizen’s Rights and Livelihood Watch, on October 31 Li went to Puyang City, Henan Province, where Zhongyuan Oil Field is headquartered, to learn about a lawsuit the dismissed workers are going to file in Beijing against the oil field. While there, Li went to Zhongyuan Oil Field PSB to learn more about the earlier detention of Zhongyuan Oil Field workers. There, he was himself promptly administratively detained for fifteen days. He was due to be released on November 16, but the authorities instead sent him to RTL.
RTL is an administrative detention measure, according to which, without any proper legal procedures or trial, the Public Security Bureau can send individuals to detention facilities for a maximum of four years. Detainees sent to RTL are deprived of their rights to legal counsel and appeal.
