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（维权网编辑整理）
由美国华裔众议员吴振伟（David
Wu），民主黨，俄勒岡州)所发起的编号为877号议案已经获得超过150名国会众议员联署。该决议案说，中国人权活动人士黄琦与谭作人通过和平表达，协助四川汶川大地震的遇难学童家属追究责任与伸张正义，却被当局逮捕与审判，美国国会对黄琦与谭作人两人表达支持。
该议案说，根据遇难学童家属的反映，在地震灾区校舍倒塌的比例比一般的建筑物要高，但是官方却拒绝调查，也拒绝家长们通过司法程序来问责相关的官员，警告律师的介入，同时地方官员为了禁止家长们上访，对部分家长进行任意羁押。
黄琦是“天网”的创办人，在四川大地震之后，黄琦撰文揭发“豆腐渣”工程。2008年6月10日，黄琦被便衣警察拘押，并与2008年7月18日被正式逮捕，罪名是涉嫌非法持有国家机密罪。
中国的官员有相当的自由裁量权宣布某些信息为国家机密，也可以以此为由拒绝被告律师的介入，不进行公开审判。
根据国际非政府机构维权网的消息，2009年8月5日，黄琦被秘密审判。而四个警察绑架了天网人权中心的志愿者，以阻止他作为证人为黄琦辩护。据消息称，黄琦在狱中遭受多种病症，但是中国当局拒绝给他足够的医治。
成都作家谭作人呼吁民间独立进行汶川大地震遇难学生校舍工程质量的调查，在2009年3月，谭作人发布
了一个初步报告，谴责地方当局没有履行彻底调查学校建筑质量的承诺，没有有效的应对遇难学生家属的要求。谭作人后来被当局以涉嫌煽动国家政权罪逮捕、审
判。在谭作人的审判过程中，证人不被允许出席，辩护律师的发言经常被打断，前来支持谭作人庭审的知名艺术家艾未未则被成都当地公安殴打，很多前来声援谭作
人的遇难学生家属则被软禁。
迄今为止，成都法院还没有对黄琦和谭作人的案子进行判决。
该议案提请中国政府履行今年颁发的《国家人权行动计划》，保护黄琦和谭作人以及所有公民都享有的宪法第35条和41条规定的言论自由，结社自由的权利。
吴振伟众议员说：“黄琦与谭作人两人为遇难学童家属的权利伸张正义，却遭到逮捕与审判，令人非常困扰。这些权利应当受到中国宪法的保障。
”
111th
CONGRESS
1st
Session
H. RES.
877
Expressing support for Chinese human
rights activists Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren for engaging in peaceful expression as
they seek answers and justice for the parents whose children were killed in the
Sichuan
earthquake of May 12, 2008.
IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
October 29,
2009
Mr. Wu (for himself, Mr. Frank of
Massachusetts, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Murtha, Mr.
Levin, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mr. George Miller
of California, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Reyes, Mr. Thompson of
Mississippi, Mr. Honda, Mr. Cao, Ms. Chu, Ms. Matsui, Ms. Hirono, Mr. DeFazio,
Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Schrader, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Holt, Mr. Stark, Ms. Jackson-Lee
of Texas, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Flake, Ms.
Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Jones, Mr. Bartlett,
Mr. McNerney, Mr. Israel, Mr. Mitchell, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Hall of New York, Ms.
Kilroy, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Ms. Edwards of Maryland,
Mr. Miller of North Carolina, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Baird, Ms. Fudge, Mr.
Inglis, Mr. Matheson, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Bilbray, Mr.
Grayson, Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Sires, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Kagen, Mr.
Holden, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. LaTourette, Mr. Frelinghuysen, Mr.
Simpson, Mr. Nunes, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Royce, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Souder, Mr. Sam
Johnson of Texas, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Wamp, Mr. Conaway, Mr. Kingston, Mrs. Myrick,
Mr. Marshall, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Doyle, Mr. Donnelly of Indiana, Ms.
Kaptur, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Stupak, Mr. Perlmutter, Mrs.
McCarthy of New York, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Kanjorski, Mr. Davis of
Illinois, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Rogers of
Kentucky, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Brown of South Carolina, Mr.
LoBiondo, Mr. Petri, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr.
Barton, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Moore of Kansas, Mr.
Filner, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Mollohan, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Mr.
Gonzales, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Braley of Iowa, Mr.
Pomeroy, Mr. Sablan, Mr. Cooper, Ms. Bean, and Mr. Brady) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for Chinese human
rights activists Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren for engaging in peaceful expression as
they seek answers and justice for the parents whose children were killed in the
Sichuan
earthquake of May 12, 2008.
Whereas Chinese human
rights activists Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren both sought to help the parents whose
children were killed as a result of the collapse of numerous school buildings
during the Sichuan earthquake of May 12,
2008;
Whereas the parents
allege that school buildings collapsed at a much higher rate than other types of
buildings during the Sichuan
earthquake;
Whereas the parents
also allege that poor construction contributed to the higher rate of school
building collapses and that possible corruption among local officials and
builders contributed to inferior construction and poor maintenance of the school
buildings;
Whereas Chinese
courts have refused to hear lawsuits brought by parents seeking accountability
for the school collapses, and Chinese officials have warned lawyers not to take
on these cases;
Whereas local Chinese
officials have taken steps to prevent parents from petitioning to higher
authorities and have kept some parents in arbitrary
detention;
Whereas, Huang Qi,
founder of the human rights advocacy website Tianwang Human Rights Center
(64tianwang.com), traveled to the earthquake zone after the Sichuan earthquake
and later posted articles on his website about the demands by parents for an
investigation into the collapse of school buildings that killed thousands of
children;
Whereas plainclothes
police took Huang into custody on June 10, 2008, and Chengdu public security
officials formally arrested him on July 18, 2008, on charges of illegally
possessing state secrets;
Whereas Huang’s
lawyer said that during Huang’s detention, authorities questioned him about
interviews he conducted during visits to areas affected by the
quake;
Whereas Chinese
officials have considerable discretion to declare information a state secret,
and their power to use such a charge to deny defendants access to counsel and an
open trial is subject to few limitations;
Whereas Huang’s
closed trial was held on August 5, 2009, and according to the international
nongovernmental organization Human Rights in China, four police officers
kidnapped a volunteer for the Tianwang Human Rights Center, Pu Fei, to prevent
him from testifying on Huang’s behalf;
Whereas Huang suffers
from numerous serious medical conditions, but Chinese authorities reportedly
have denied him adequate treatment;
Whereas Chinese
officials denied requests to allow Huang to visit his seriously ill father, who
passed away in early September 2009;
Whereas following the
Sichuan
earthquake, writer and environmental activist Tan Zuoren was active in calling
for the government to investigate the cause of the large number of school
building collapses during the earthquake;
Whereas Tan was
quoted in a May 27, 2008, South China
Morning Post article as saying that “the government and the public
must work together to find an answer” regarding why so many school buildings
collapsed and urging local governments to inspect other school buildings for
poor construction;
Whereas in February
2009, Tan issued a proposal via the internet calling on volunteers to travel to
Sichuan to compile lists of students killed in the quake, research the treatment
of the deceased students’ parents, and conduct an independent investigation into
the quality of school building construction;
Whereas Tan issued a
preliminary report in March 2009 that criticized officials for failing to follow
through on a commitment to fully investigate the role that inferior construction
played in the school building collapses and for failure to deal with parents’
demands;
Whereas authorities
detained Tan on March 28, 2009, three days after the report was
published;
Whereas the
indictment, dated July 17, 2009, said Tan was charged with inciting subversion
of state power in part because he gave interviews to international media after
the earthquake in which he allegedly harmed the image of the Communist Party of
China and the Chinese government;
Whereas Tan’s trial,
held by the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court on August 12, 2009, was marred
by procedural violations;
Whereas the court
reportedly rejected requests by Tan’s lawyers to call three witnesses, including
Ai Weiwei, a noted artist who helped design the Beijing Olympics’ National
Stadium, or Bird’s Nest, and who also was investigating student deaths in the
Sichuan earthquake;
Whereas Ai told
various news agencies that police came to his hotel and used force to prevent
him and 10 other volunteers from leaving until after the trial
ended;
Whereas Tan’s lawyers
reported that the judge frequently cut them off during the trial and that their
request to show video evidence was not accepted;
Whereas the parents
of earthquake victims who attempted to attend Tan’s trial were
detained;
Whereas court
officials reportedly did not allow reporters into the courtroom, and police also
barred hundreds of supporters from entering the courtroom, saying the supporters
needed passes even though court officials had told them earlier that no passes
were necessary;
Whereas the courts
have not yet issued judgments in either Huang’s case or Tan’s case;
and
Whereas the Chinese
government’s own National Human Rights Action Plan, issued by the State Council
Information Office in April 2009, says that “the state will guarantee citizens’
rights to criticize, give advice to, complain of, and accuse state organs and
civil servants, and give full play to the role of mass organizations, social
organizations and the news media in supervising state organs and civil
servants”: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of
Representatives—
(1) expresses its support for Huang Qi
and Tan Zuoren for engaging in peaceful expression as they seek answers and
justice for the parents whose children were killed in the Sichuan earthquake of
May 12, 2008; and
(2) calls on the government of the People’s Republic of
China
to—
(A) provide Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren
with the rights that all Chinese citizens have under Article 35 and Article 41
of China’s Constitution, namely freedom of speech and association and the right
to make suggestions to officials free from suppression and retaliation;
and
(B) ensure that Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren
are afforded the rights guaranteed to all defendants under the Criminal
Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China;
and
(C) implement its own National Human
Rights Action Plan by allowing parents, concerned citizens, and the news media
to conduct their own investigations into the role inferior construction and
corruption may have played in the collapse of school buildings during the
Sichuan earthquake, free from government harassment and official interference,
and by ensuring that citizens have full access to effective legal remedies for
their grievances.
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