China Arrests 65 NK Refugees–Can We Help Them?

Suzanne Scholte of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea forwarded me this message today, via NK Gulag in Seoul. According to the report, on October 26th, Chinese police raided two locations on the outskirts of Beijing, arresting 65 North Korean refugees and South Korean activist workers working for NKGulag. Among the refugees arrested were 11 teenagers and one person who is over 70 years old.

Defections to foreign embassies in Beijing appear to have spiked in the wake of the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act, and China has grown increasingly desperate to stop the flow, resorting even to using electric cattle prods on women and children (video here).

Now, as we already know, China doesn’t really care what you think, unless you happen to be a member of Congress. Fortunately, it’s an election year, and members of the House and the Senate do care what you think, and very much. China has often allowed refugees who become the subject of adverse publicity to go to South Korea. On the other hand, those caught with South Koreans (like this group) usually don’t live long after they are sent back to North Korea.

If you are so inclined, copy and paste this letter into your congressmens’ Web forms, and of course, edit as liberally as you like. Thank you in advance.

* * * * *

Dear Senator _______,

I am writing to you today to express my concern about the Chinese government’s recent arrest of 65 North Korean refugees and two South Koreans who were assisting them near Beijing. Among those arrested were 11 teenagers and one person over 70 years of age.

China routinely repatriates North Korean refugees it arrests to their country of origin. North Korea then sends these refugees to concentration camps. This case of of particular concern because these 65 North Koreans were caught in the company of South Korean activists. Such refugees normally face much harsher treatment, which may include immediate execution or placement in a camp where they will be worked or starved to death. If any of the refugee women are pregnant, the North Koreans will perform forced abortions on them. It is also the North Koreans’ practice to murder any prisoners’ babies that are born alive.

China’s imminent repatriation of these refugees would be a violation of Article VII of the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees, to which China is a signatory, and which requires countries to grant asylum to persons who have a credible fear of persecution in their countries of origin. Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee, said the following in a July 17, 2003 Op-Ed in The Washington Post:

A large number of those who are caught face an even worse fate when they are returned to North Korea. Because leaving North Korea is considered treason, many returnees are imprisoned, interrogated under torture and sometimes executed. China’s actions contravene international conventions it has signed, and Beijing won’t let the refugees pass on to South Korea.

All of these concerns were central to both houses of Congress when it recently passed the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, as well as to President Bush, who recently signed this legislation. China’s continued defiance of its clear obligations under international law aids and abets the murder of innocents.

Please tell the Chinese Embassy of your grave concern for the safety of these refugees and the two activists, and urge China to send them unharmed to South Korea as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

UPDATE: When I see pieces like this one in the Chosun Ilbo, I regret that I’m often so hard on the South Koreans. Yes, some of them still get it. That especially applies to those who are in Chinese prisons tonight. Take some time and read what their comrades have to say. I have met some of the activists from NKNet, and they are unquestionably sincere, brave, and visionary people. They are redeeming their nation’s honor with their courage.