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#HumanitarianCrisis #OathofOffice
230 Directly Elected #DistrictCouncillors to be Disqualified by HK Gov't

According to Cable News and Now News in Hong Kong on July 7, 2021, about 230 directly elected district councillors would face "#disqualification" by authorities, for not having taken an oath of #allegiance to uphold the #BasicLaw.

The government will reportedly demand the district councillors to return their entire salary received during the term they have served. The estimated amount per person is HKD1million.

Since one day ago, a resignation wave took place across different districts. These include Chan Shu-ying (Tuen Mun), Cheung Kwan-kiu (Kwai Ching), Lee Wing-shing (Shatin), Lo Chun-yu (Tuen Mun), Lee Chun-hei (Shum Shui Po), Yau Man-chun (Shatin) and Chan Siu-yeung (Shatin).

Source: Stand News #Jul7

https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E5%8D%80%E8%AD%B0%E5%93%A1%E5%AE%A3%E8%AA%93%E5%85%A8%E6%B8%AF%E5%A4%9A%E5%8D%80%E5%8D%80%E8%AD%B0%E5%93%A1%E7%B4%9B%E5%AE%A3%E5%B8%83%E8%BE%AD%E8%81%B7
#Genocide
'Some are just
#psychopaths': Chinese detective in exile reveals extent of torture against #Uyghurs

//The ex-detective turned #whistleblower asked to be identified only as Jiang, to protect his family members who remain in China.

In a three-hour interview with CNN, conducted in Europe where he is now in exile, Jiang revealed rare details on what he described as a systematic campaign of torture against ethnic Uyghurs in the region's detention camp system, claims China has denied for years.

"Kick them, beat them (until they're) bruised and swollen," Jiang said, recalling how he and his colleagues used to interrogate detainees in police detention centers. "Until they kneel on the floor crying."

The methods included shackling people to a metal or wooden "tiger chair" -- chairs designed to immobilize suspects -- hanging people from the ceiling, sexual violence, electrocutions, and waterboarding. Inmates were often forced to stay awake for days, and denied food and water, he said.

"Everyone uses different methods. Some even use a wrecking bar, or iron chains with locks," Jiang said. "Police would step on the suspect's face and tell him to confess."

The suspects were accused of terror offenses, said Jiang, but he believes that "none" of the hundreds of prisoners he was involved in arresting had committed a crime. "They are ordinary people," he said.//

//...During the routine overnight operations, Jiang said they would be given lists of names of people to round up, as part of orders to meet official quotas on the numbers of Uyghurs to detain.

"It's all planned, and it has a system," Jiang said. "Everyone needs to hit a target."

If anyone resisted arrest, the police officers would "hold the gun against his head and say do not move. If you move, you will be killed."

He said teams of police officers would also search people's houses and download the data from their computers and phones.

Another tactic was to use the area's neighborhood committee to call the local population together for a meeting with the village chief, before detaining them en masse.

Describing the time as a "combat period," Jiang said officials treated Xinjiang like a war zone, and police officers were told that Uyghurs were enemies of the state.

He said it was common knowledge among police officers that 900,000 Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities were detained in the region in a single year.

Jiang said if he had resisted the process, he would have been arrested, too.

Inside the police detention centers, the main goal was to extract a confession from detainees, with sexual torture being one of the tactics, Jiang said.

"If you want people to confess, you use the electric baton with two sharp tips on top," Jiang said. "We would tie two electrical wires on the tips and set the wires on their genitals while the person is tied up."

He admitted he often had to play "bad cop" during interrogations but said he avoided the worst of the violence, unlike some of his colleagues.

"Some people see this as a job, some are just psychopaths," he said.

One "very common measure" of torture and dehumanization was for guards to order prisoners to rape and abuse the new male inmates, Jiang said.//

Read the full article:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/04/china/xinjiang-detective-torture-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

Source: CNN #Oct4

#Torture #Rape #GangRape #HumanitarianCrisis #Chinazi #ConcentrationCamp #Xinjiang
#Astrocity
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
#WuhanPneumonia #HumanitarianCrisis
COVID19 Quarantine Center in Hong Kong, a Torture to Patients: "No One would Remember Us"

#FailedState #PennysBay #Quarantine

Source: Facebook; Channel C HK; #Feb23

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#WuhanPneumonia #HumanitarianCrisis
COVID19 Quarantine Center in Hong Kong, a Torture to Patients: "No One would Remember Us"

A video of a distraught woman inside Hong Kong's COVID-19 quarantine center has gone viral on social media on Feb 22.

The video shows the woman in her flip flops at Penny's Bay, Hong Kong's main quarantine facility, breaking down in tears and yelling in desperation as she frantically looked for a way out.

Several staff members, clad in protective gear, tried unsuccessfully to calm her down and persuade her to return to her room. She eventually lashed out and kicked at a staff member who was apparently trying to approach her.

Online media Channel C interviewed another patient, Ms. P, who is also undergoing quarantine in the Penny’s Bay Center. Ms. P said that she totally understood the woman’s desperation, adding that she was also feeling very depressed during her stay.

In fact, distressed patients crying, shouting, yelling in their rooms or along the walkways are a daily occurrence in the center, she said.

A man even attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of disinfectant, Ms. P added.

“The worst thing here is you're easily forgotten,” Ms. P said. When she was admitted into the facility, she made tens of phone calls and waited for 4 days before her initial test bottle was delivered. No one came back to pick it up until she made another round of phone calls, until she finally reached medical staff.

When her quarantine period ended on Feb 19, the facility did not arrange for her to leave, and she spent another 3 days on the phone trying to contact staff - again, receiving no reply. She was elated when staff finally notified her on Feb 21 that she could leave.

However, just before she boarded the bus, she was turned away because she was not given a doctor's note. She watched all the buses leave before being sent back to her room.

"We were all very scared," she said on the interview, her voice breaking, "Once we're back in our rooms, no one would remember us."

However, she was sympathetic to the medical staff and other supporting staff members on the site. “They are suffering just like us. The staff member who came to deliver my documents was soaked in the rain.”

Ms. P questioned the purpose of putting Hong Kong people in quarantine centers where they are not properly taken care of.

She stressed that the costs and suffering inflicted upon so many citizens grossly outweigh any foreseeable benefits.

Source: Facebook; Channel C HK; #Feb23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SwTQPrtF8

#FailedState #PennysBay #Quarantine
#HumanTrafficking #HumanitarianCrisis
2 Chinese men arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 2 Ukraine babies

#StopWar

Source: RFA; #Mar15

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#HumanTrafficking #HumanitarianCrisis
2 Chinese men arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 2 Ukraine babies

On March 14, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported that border guards at the Porubne Border Crossing Point in Chernivtsi Oblast had foiled an attempt by foreigners to take babies out of Ukraine.

According to the border guard, two Chinese citizens tried to walk across the border into Romania while carrying two infants.

When questioned by border guards, the two Chinese men were not able to provide an explanation about where the children came from. 

After conducting an investigation, the State Border Guard Service found that "shortly before this (incident), both Chinese had arrived in the territory of our country without children."

Traffickers are targeting parentless children on the Ukraine-Poland border, says a group evacuating orphanages in the war zone. They say thousands are unaccounted for and fear some may already have fallen prey to people traffickers.

Source: RFA; #Mar15
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/ukr-baby-03152022104238.html/ampRFA
#Russia Allegedly Move Thousands of #Ukrainians to Russia Against their Will

//An official in Mariupol on Saturday, March 19, 2022 accused Russian forces of having taken thousands of Ukrainians against their will across the border into Russia who he feared could be compelled into forced labor.

Russian forces have taken “between 4,000 and 4,500 #Mariupol residents forcibly across the border to Taganrog,” Pyotr Andryuschenko, an assistant to the city’s mayor, said, referring to a city in southwestern Russia. Given chaos in the city — ongoing fighting, the lack of cellphone and internet service — his claim could not be immediately independently verified, though it was supported by testimony from others who recently fled the city.//

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/19/world/ukraine-russia-war/a-mariupol-official-accuses-russia-of-forcibly-taking-ukrainians-across-the-border

Source: New York Times #Mar19

#HumanitarianCrisis #WarCrime #RussianInvasion
#StandWithUkraine #RussianInvasion #HumanitarianCrisis
"I hope they did not hurt me on purpose," says Ukranian girl who lost an arm

Sasha, a 9-year-old Ukranian girl, lost her left arm when Russia invaded Ukraine.

The doctor said the injury was critical and Sasha was starting to lose her consciousness when hiding underground. Yet Sasha never cried. "She is exceptionally strong," the doctor said.

After the surgery, Sasha told the press, "I don't know why the Russian people shot me, I hope they did not hurt me on purpose."

Source: AM730 #Mar18

#Ukraine #StandWithUkraine #RussianInvasion #HumanitarianCrisis
In #Ukraine, empty strollers are a symbol of #children killed in war

//As Ukraine mourns its dead, scores of empty strollers were lined up in the cobbled central square of the city of #Lviv on Friday, March 18, 2022 to commemorate the children killed in the country since Russia's invasion.//

[Editor's notes: As of March 20, 2022, it was reported that at least children has been killed during Russian invasion of Ukraine.]

Read the full article:
https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-empty-strollers-are-symbol-children-killed-war-2022-03-18/

Source: Reuters #Mar18

#WarCrime #HumanitarianCrisis #RussianInvasion
#OpinionArticle
Can China be trusted? As the Russia-Ukraine war shows, #Beijing often says one thing and does another

//The war in Ukraine helps to explain this paradox. Less than two months before Russia’s invasion, Chinese President #XiJinping told Ukraine President #VolodymyrZelensky that he attached “high importance to developing the Chinese-Ukrainian strategic partnership.” But only weeks later, Xi and his Russian counterpart, #VladimirPutin, declared that their countries’ budding alliance had “no limits.” 

...There is debate regarding the extent to which Xi and other Chinese officials had advance knowledge of the invasion. If they did, that makes them complicit in aggressive war and ongoing Russian war crimes in Ukraine. It would also mean that claims of ignorance by Chinese officials are not to be trusted.

And if they didn’t have knowledge of the invasion, the Russians didn’t trust them enough to give forewarning. Either way, there’s distrust of China.

...According to reports, Russia has requested that China provide it with weapons to bolster the assault on Ukraine. It is unclear whether China will fulfil that request. Chinese writing on bomb fragments in destroyed Ukrainian hospitals and schools – favourite targetsof the Russians – would not be good for China’s reputation.//

Read the full article
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/23/can-china-be-trusted-as-the-russia-ukraine-war-shows-beijing-often-says-one-thing-and-does-another/

Source: Hong Kong Free Press #Mar23

#RussianInvasion #WarCrime #HumanitarianCrisis
Voices of April: Video Protesting Shanghai Lockdown Goes Viral in China, Despite Chinese Censors

On April 22, A 6-minute protest video about Shanghai's locked-down residents went viral on Chinese social media.

The video featured audio snippets from various videos recorded in #Shanghai throughout April, when the city was plunged into a month-long #COVID lockdown since late March. The recordings, played over black-and-white drone footage of the city, documented the residents' ordeal over the past month: food and supply shortages, quarantine separating parents from their children, pets being beaten to death, hospitals turning away patients, makeshift hospitals missing essential supplies and even lacking a roof, and so on.

China's government censors moved quickly to block the video, but netizens continued to tenaciously spread the video on social media and instant messaging platforms in China.

Netizens have added English translations and reposted the video on Youtube. Watch here: (turn on English captions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWW6r2iOwzU

For a more detailed recap of the video, see also:
The Voices of April – The Short Online Life of a Shanghai Protest Video
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-voices-of-april-the-short-online-life-of-a-shanghai-protest-video/

The video ends with a simple message for the city's suffering residents: "Shanghai, get well soon."

#HumanitarianCrisis #ShanghaiLockdown #PoliceState #WuhanPneumonia

Source:
Zoanhae Vision 上海眼界 Youtube channel, What's On Weibo
#ShanghaiLockdown
Shanghai Violinist Leaped to his Death after COVID Restrictions Denied him Medical Assistance

Source: In-Media HK

#HumanitarianCrisis #ChenShunPing #WuhanPneumonia

Read more
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#ShanghaiLockdown
Shanghai Violinist Leaped to his Death after COVID Restrictions Denied him Medical Assistance

71-year-old amateur violinist Chen Shunping, who lived in #Shanghai, had taken his own life after being denied medical help for his suspected pancreatitis during the city's month-long lockdown. He was a member of the Shanghai Pops Orchestra.

Three #COVID19 deaths had been recorded [Ed: as of April 18] since Shanghai's lockdown began in late March, all of whom were seniors with chronic illnesses.

However, reports often surfaced on Chinese social media surrounding deaths of patients not being able to get medical treatment.

According to chat messages from Chen's family, he began to feel unwell in the evening of April 13, with stomach pains and vomiting; from experience, he suspected it was pancreatitis.

His family called an ambulance, who took Chen to two separate hospitals, but both turned him away, citing COVID restrictions. Unable to endure the severe pain, Chen left suicide notes for his family before leaping to his death from his apartment.

Chen's wife was stricken with grief as she remembered him as a cheerful and kind man, with a passion for life and music: "This society had taken an ordinary, lively man and pushed him to his death!"

His death also sparked outcry online; netizens commented that he "didn't get COVID, but died because of COVID."

A separate incident of a pregnant Shanghai woman who died from blood loss during a premature birth also circulated on social media. Shanghai police quickly refuted it as "fake news", announcing that the woman successfully gave birth to twins, and that they had arrested the spreader of the rumor.

Netizens were quick to react: "Why don't you refute Chen Shunping's fake news?" "Chen's case still hasn't been refuted, so it must be true."

Source: In-Media HK
https://bit.ly/3OeDLUx

#HumanitarianCrisis #WuhanPneumonia #ChenShunPing