Archival Rescue 66 ~ Chen Defection

Refugee recounts torture scene, Bob Brown helps dissident in hiding from Australian and Chinese officials, another asylum seeker speaks out;

Third Chinese man backs countrymen's claims
June 10, 2005 - 12:20AM Sydney Morning Herald

A Chinese refugee in Australia, who says he saw a dissident tortured to death, can confirm the claims by two of his countrymen that China persecutes its citizens and spies on them, his lawyer says.

Bernard Collaery, a prominent lawyer in Canberra, has detailed the story of an unnamed man who fled to Australia after questioning the torture of dissidents by Chinese security forces.

The last straw for the man was when he saw a Falun Gong practitioner tortured to death in his local police station.

"He hears the beating in his police station. He intervenes. He's told to go away. He goes upstairs to his office," Mr Collaery told the ABC Lateline program.

"His conscience stricken, he comes back downstairs and says: 'This must stop'.

"And then sees this naked man with his head in a chair, his legs poking out, clearly deceased, and he's horrified by it. That's the last straw."


Mr Collaery says the man was a senior officer in China's security service, but is unlikely to go public with his story because he fears for the safety of relatives back in China.

"He ... is a relatively senior, diligent, honest, serving state security official.

"He took considerable exception to the widespread torture of practitioners within his police district by this insidious gestapo apparatus that has been grafted onto the state security process in and throughout China."

Mr Collaery said he has verified the man's story by identifying the dead man and his wife.

"This has been done very carefully over the last times."

Mr Collaery said when the man had gone into hiding, his home in Australia was ransacked and some documents he brought to Australia had disappeared.

He has since been granted a protection visa, Mr Collaery said.

Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown has been helping Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, who last weekend went public with claims China had a spy network operating in Australia.

Senator Brown said China's human rights abuses were well known and around 2000 Falun Gong practitioners were dying in its prisons.
Mr Chen should also be granted protection, he said.

"We must wonder how many other people who want to break from (China's) onerous system are deterred from doing that because of the concern that they won't be given asylum, as Mr Chen should have been given by the government when he asked for it two weeks ago," he told the Lateline program.

Mr Chen is in hiding after abandoning his post at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney on May 26.

A second defector has backed Mr Chen's claims Beijing has a sophisticated spy network operating in Australia.

Also on Lateline, Falun Gong practitioner and Australian citizen Philip Law spoke about his arrest in China three years ago.

Originally from China, Mr Law, who has been an Australian citizen for 22 years, said he was arrested while visiting Beijing in February 2002 and held for three days.

He said he was seized on the street by plain-clothes security officers and asked to spy on his fellow Falun Gong practitioners in Australia.

"There were around about 15 plain-clothes, obviously police or national security office, they rush from all directions and caught me," he told the program.

"They asked me to spy for them. They asked me to, `once you go back to Australia, collect all the information we want and send back to us'."

AAP

Archival Rescue 65 ~ Hao defection

Hao goes public, backs Chen;

Fresh from the Secret Force, a spy downloads on China
By Gary Hughes and Tom Allard
June 9, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Amid secret passwords, mysterious faxes and last-minute arrangements to protect him from the alleged Chinese spy network he once worked for, the asylum seeker Hao Fengjun emerged from hiding to talk of the Secret Force.

This force, the 32-year-old Chinese police intelligence analyst says, runs spies in Australia and other Western countries.

Addressing media in Melbourne yesterday, Mr Hao - the second Chinese security official to defect in less than a week - said there were three levels of agents working for the Secret Force: the professional spies, who graduated from police college and were paid to travel overseas to collect intelligence "in all areas"; "working relationship" agents, who acted as businessmen and targeted foreign business groups; and "friends", who infiltrated foreign countries and became friendly with both Chinese and Westerners.

While the Secret Force's main job was to gather political and military information, it also closely monitored Falun Gong and other religious or Chinese democracy groups. Mr Hao knows all this because he worked for the "610 Office" in the National Security Bureau in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. His job, he said, was to collate and analyse intelligence reports sent back from Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand about Falun Gong and other groups.

He claims to have downloaded some of these documents from his police computer into his MP3 player and given a sample of them to Australian immigration officials as proof of his claims.

Mr Hao, who has a bridging visa, said his dealings with the Immigration Department had so far been only brief, and he had yet to be interviewed by ASIO.

He and his fiancee applied for asylum after they arrived in Australia on February 15 as part of a tourist group. They have since remained hidden with the help of the Falun Gong in Melbourne.

Although he said he was using his real name, Mr Hao sat with his back to the cameras yesterday for fear of being recognised within the local Chinese community.

He said he faced execution if he was forced back to China. "I am nothing to them. The only thing waiting for me is death."

Although his claims are virtually impossible to verify, Mr Hao did show the cameras his National Security Bureau police pass, which had his photo and

the word "police" in English surrounded by Chinese characters.

Mr Hao said he decided to flee China after being detained for 20 days for making a critical comment about his government's treatment of Falun Gong, including the torture of its leaders. He said he feared for his seven-year-old son from a former marriage.

He decided to go public after Chen Yonglin went to the media at the weekend with claims that 1000 Chinese agents are working in Australia. Mr Chen, who worked at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, is also seeking asylum.

Mr Hao said he did not feel safe in Australia because of the Secret Force's presence. He did know how many of the force's spies were in country, but he supported Mr Chen's claims.

Mr Chen's case is gathering support, with Labor yesterday joining the Greens' call to give him asylum. "There is a strong prima facie case that Chen Yonglin should now be granted an appropriate protection visa, " Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said.

The Greens made public a copy of the letter Mr Chen sent to the Immigration Department asking the Government for asylum. The May 25 letter appears to contradict claims by the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, that Mr Chen did not make a formal request.

Mr Downer said yesterday Mr Chen had applied for asylum but that he personally did not receive a formal application.

One of the victims of the spying, Mr Hao said, was Sydney Falun Gong follower Li Ying. Ms Li, whom Mr Hao used as an example, said yesterday she was aware China was spying on her because of her beliefs.

For Mr Hao's appearance yesterday, journalists were sent faxes at the last minute giving the address of the press conference and a password - "serene booking" - to gain entry. The fax was used because the Falun Gong organisers were afraid their telephones would be tapped.

At the end of the press conference, Mr Hao said he wanted to make an announcement. He had joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1991, but as of yesterday he was no longer a member. He was finished with communism.

"I will never go back to China because I know what waits for me," he said.

Archival Rescue 64 ~ Defection, Aus

Second defector speaks out, worked in 6-10;

Chen's spy claim backed by second defector
June 8, 2005 - 1:10AM Sydney Morning Herald

A second Chinese defector has backed claims China has spies operating in Australia.

Hao Feng Jun, 32, who says he worked as a security officer in Tianjin in China's north, says China has a large spy network operating overseas.

"They spend out businessmen and students out to overseas countries as spies," he told the ABC's Lateline program through a translator.

Mr Hao applied for political asylum in February while in Australia as a tourist and he says he is currently on a bridging visa, the program reported.

"If I go back to China, there's no doubt the communist Government will certainly persecute me. They know I have confidential information - some of it top secret - and I'll be severely punished," he said.

Mr Hao says he worked for the local branch of a security service known as 6-10, set up specifically to wipe out the religious group Falun Gong.

"Back in China I worked in the 6-10 office and every day a lot of time was dealing with the reports that were being sent in from overseas," he told the program.

"They'd send all this intelligence information through from Australia, from North America, Canada and other countries and are reported back to the National Security Bureau, but also the Public Security Bureau.

"They'd sent back lots of information," Mr Hao said.

His bureau in Tianjin received money from the Chinese Government, which was used to pay for spies to gather information about Falun Gong and other dissident groups, as well as military and business groups.

Mr Hao said he believed Former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin's claims there was a 1000-strong spy network operating in Australia.

"I worked in the police office in the security bureau and I believe that what Mr Chen says is true."

Mr Hao said he had seen evidence that spies infiltrate groups such as Falun Gong overseas and collect information on their members to be sent back to China.

He said he started out as a policeman before being transferred to 6-10, but left because he saw evidence of torture by his colleagues.

"I had to go to the place where they'd detained a Falun Gong follower ... When we got there she had two huge black bruises on her back and two cuts on her back about 20 centimetres long.

"One policeman was using a half-metre length of metal bar to beat her. When I saw this I knew I couldn't do this work," he said.

Mr Hao's statements come after days of intense media coverage of Mr Chen's case.

The 37-year-old is in hiding after abandoning his job as first secretary at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney on May 26, saying he faced persecution if he returned home after his four-year posting in Australia.

He said China had a spy network operating here, a claim Beijing flatly rejects.

But there are now calls for an inquiry into the Immigration Department's handling of Mr Chen's application for asylum.

AAP

Archival Rescue 63 ~ Defection, Aus spy network

Another defector, more denials from the Chinese Government, and more silence from Australia's Government;

'Secret documents exchanged' for asylum
June 8, 2005 - 2:02PM Sydney Morning Herald

The friend of a second Chinese diplomatic defector says he handed over secret documents to the immigration department as part of his asylum claim.

Hao Feng Jun, 32, who claims to have worked as a security officer in Tianjin in China's north, says China has a large spy network operating overseas.

Mr Hao has echoed the claims of Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, 37, who is in hiding after abandoning his post at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney on May 26.

Mr Chen has said China has about 1000 spies working in Australia and fears he will be persecuted if he returns to China after his four-year posting in Australia.

A friend of Mr Hao, Serene Luo, today said he had supplied documents to the immigration department in February detailing the monitoring of dissident groups, such as Falun Gong.

But she said not all of his documents were handed over.

"Only very few which related to Australian citizens and Falun Gong Association in Sydney [were handed over] because I think that related to his application," she told ABC radio.

"I arranged translation people to do the translation ... but the rest [of the documents] he didn't give to anyone."

Ms Luo said she had been told the case was being processed, but she was worried about her friend's safety.

"I was really worried about his security situation, his safety," she said.

"He is a former police officer and I do know that according to Chinese law a person like him is not allowed to leave China, especially [because] he brought so many secret documents.

"If he has to be sent back to China he would die."

Chinese Government spokesman Liu Jianchao today dismissed claims of a spy ring.

"The news spread by Chen Yonglin is totally fabricated," Mr Liu told ABC radio.

"They are rumours and we hope you will not believe it.

"These rumours are detrimental to China-Australia relations and China is ruled by law and all issues will be handled in accordance with the law."

AAP

Archival Rescue 62 ~ Aus prisons, NSW

Eek. Ominous. Australian NSW prisons stretched and overcrowded, prison population increases by 40 percent;

Prisons swell as tougher sentences bite
By Jonathan Pearlman June 7, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

An increase in the severity of sentences delivered by criminal courts is adding to the surge in the state's prison population and a drop in the use of community service orders, new figures show.

There are more than 9000 people in prisons in NSW, an increase of more than 40 per cent in the past decade. But the growth has been accompanied by a drop of about 35 per cent in the use of community service orders, according to figures prepared by the NSW Bureau of Crime Research and Statistics.

The drop has led to the growing cost of maintaining and building more prisons. It may also be adding to the state's reoffending rate, which is the second highest in the country.

The cost of keeping an offender in prison is $173 a day, compared with $9.56 a day to administer a community service order.

A senior counsel from the Public Defender's Office, Andrew Haesler, said pressure from politicians and the media had led to higher sentences and "revolving door jails". "Taking people off the streets and putting them in prison has short-term benefits," he said.

"Sentences have been going up in terms of severity but people who come out of jail are not better for it or less likely to commit another crime. The longer they spend in jail, the less they are able to cope with the community and the more dangerous they are."

The bureau's figures showed only 2 per cent of sentences delivered in the District and Supreme Courts in 2003 were community service orders, compared with 16 per cent in 1994.

The bureau's director, Don Weatherburn, said the figures reflected a hardening of attitudes among judges and magistrates.

"People who previously would have been given non-custodial orders are being given a custodial sentence," he said.

"We have seen an increased proportion of convicted offenders going to jail."

The shift towards tougher sentences has led to steep increases in spending on prisons and staff. Last month's state budget set aside $928million for corrective services, up 14 per cent from last year.

The Government plans to create room for 1000 more at a new jail in regional NSW and expansions of Cessnock and Lithgow jails. The jail population is expected to grow to 10,000 by 2008.

While the number of criminal convictions increased by about 20 per cent in the past decade, the number of community service orders dropped by about a quarter.

Community service orders require offenders to work for up to 500 hours at charities, nursing homes, children's homes, museums and community centres. They are designed to assist with rehabilitation by allowing prisoners to live at home while contributing to the community.

Offenders worked for about 1688 non-profit organisations last year and provided about $11.43million worth of unpaid work, according to the Department of Corrective Service's annual report.

A lecturer in social work at the University of NSW, Eileen Baldry, said people sentenced to community service were less likely to reoffend because they retained their social ties and were able to compensate the community for their crimes. "Community service orders that require some level of reparation from offenders are very beneficial," she said.

"For a lot of offenders, doing some form of work for the community is a far more connected response to their offending than going to jail. The more you can keep someone connected to the community, the more likely it is they will be able to co-operate in the community with others."

Paying The Price

- The number of inmates rose by 40 per cent in the past decade, while community service orders fell 35 per cent.

- The Government plans to spend $928 million on the prison system this year, up 14 per cent.

- The cost of keeping a prisoner is $173 a day, compared to $9.56 a day for a community service order.

Archival Rescue 61 ~ Chen defection

Defector talks to Herald, one thousand agents in Australia;

History shows defector has reason to fear the worst
By Tom Allard June 7, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

As Chen Yonglin tells it, his pro-democracy views and hostility to China's communist regime date back to when he was just three years old.

It was during the Cultural Revolution, when cadres - the Red Guards - hounded supposed deviants from Mao Zedong's extreme interpretation of Marxism.

Chen Jinfu was one of millions who was "prosecuted to death", in the words of his son. "The death of my father has been a shadow over my head. I have always been thinking about this," Chen Yonglin told the Herald.


"When I entered the foreign affairs university I came in contact with Western democracy doctrines. I was thinking very much about the past and the future of China."

As he studied the work of Socrates and contemporary thinkers and models of democracies, he says he was profoundly affected by another notorious episode of Chinese brutality - the Tiananmen Square massacre. He says he was among the protesters before the carnage on June 4, 1989.

"Three of my friends, my classmates from the same group as me, were hurt …One was seriously injured with a bullet close to the heart."

The military crackdown devastated him, he says, but he decided to pursue his diplomatic career, eventually joining the foreign service in 1991.

Nonetheless, his pro-democracy views remained intact, if closely held, even as he rose through the ranks of the diplomatic corps. They moved him to quietly assist Chinese dissidents in Australia in his post as political counsellor in the consulate in Sydney, he says.

He did not regularly join meetings or take part in anti-Chinese Government plots, but it appears he was selective in reporting on them, his primary task at the consulate.

In his letter seeking asylum, he said he had particularly helped the Falun Gong, a group he described as a cult but also "socially vulnerable" and "innocent people". His successor, Gao Li, would uncover his work, he said.

The Chinese ambassador, Fu Ying, believes Mr Chen is more interested in jettisoning his diplomatic career for

the pleasant climes of Sydney, conveniently seeking asylum at the end of his four-year stint.

His wife had lost her job in China, Madame Fu said. His daughter spoke better English than Chinese.

Then there are Mr Chen's claims of a thousand Chinese agents in Australia and his assertion that the Chinese Government abducted its nationals overseas.

Warren Reed, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer, has little doubt that Mr Chen is who he says he is - a diplomat charged with spying on dissidents who probably had access to very sensitive intelligence.

Mr Reed said there are perhaps only a couple of dozen full-time Chinese spies in Australia, but the Chinese intelligence network relies on many informants.

On the alleged abductions, an Australian intelligence insider said: "There are certainly cases where Chinese nationals have suddenly disappeared, right around the world."

Other experts were more sceptical about the abduction claim but broadly agreed that an awful fate awaited Mr Chen if he returned to China, despite Madame Fu's assurances.

Archival Rescue 60 ~ Defector seeks asylum

Desperate defector appeals to US after Australian government rejects bid for political asylum;

Chen sought asylum from US
By Tom Allard and Joseph Kerr
June 7, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

The Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin tried to defect to the United States last week after resistance from Australian officials to his request for asylum, the Herald has learnt.

The bid was met with surprise by the US, not least because the Australian Government had not informed its close ally of the explosive diplomatic and intelligence development almost a week after it came to light.

The Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, conceded yesterday that Australia had rejected Mr Chen's bid for political asylum.

China's ambassador, Fu Ying, promised that Mr Chen would not face jail or execution if he returned home, even though he had tarnished China's image.

Mr Chen - a senior diplomat at China's Sydney consulate who was responsible for monitoring dissidents among the Chinese diaspora in NSW - attempted to defect on May 26, weeks before he was due to be posted back to Beijing.

He says he was a democracy advocate and had helped Falun Gong members, among others, behaviour his successor in the Sydney consulate was likely to uncover.

Australian officials informed the Chinese Government, denied Mr Chen's plea for a safe meeting place and rejected his bid for political asylum without interviewing him.

On May 31 - after being told by a foreign affairs officer that his bid had failed and encouraged to apply for a tourist visa by an immigration official - Mr Chen turned to the US.

Using intermediaries, he relayed to the US chargé d'affaires in Canberra, Bill Stanton, that he was a senior Chinese diplomat with access to classified intelligence who wanted to defect to the US.

It is understood that the US consul-general in Sydney, Stephen T. Smith, was also involved in dealing with the request.

A US embassy spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that Mr Chen contacted a US mission in Australia about his situation."

The spokeswoman would not comment further, although the US took the approach that this was a matter for Australia to sort out. However, a well-placed source said Mr Stanton - the most senior US representative in Australia - and Mr Smith had had no prior knowledge of Mr Chen's walking out of a Chinese mission, even though Mr Chen's approach to the US occurred six days after the Australian Government first knew.

Australia and the US usually closely share intelligence, and a defection bid would have been a rare "code red" event, in the words of one espionage expert.

There have also been tensions between the US and Australia recently over the Howard Government's new closeness to China, especially after the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, said Australia may not come to Taiwan's aid if China invaded.

The Federal Government has denied that its negative attitude to Mr Chen's asylum bid and offer of intelligence information was linked to its pitch for a free trade deal and multibillion-dollar gas contract with the emerging economic power.

However, the Australian National University's Professor Hugh White said: "China has made it clear consistently that the development of an economic relationship is dependent on Australia being sympathetic to China's concerns on political and security issues."

Ms Fu said: "China has moved on. It's not the 1970s. China's not behind a bamboo curtain. I don't see there is any reason he could face jail because there is no civil crime in his behaviour … I don't know why he would be in jail."

Archival Rescue 59 ~ Seeking Asylum

Diplomat in hiding fears persecution if deported to China, Australian government turns down first visa application;

Chen lodges second visa application
June 7, 2005 - 8:50AM Sydney Morning Herald

A Chinese diplomat, who fears persecution if he returns to his homeland, has lodged a second application for political asylum in Australia, this time making a direct request to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.

Chen Yonglin, 37, is seeking asylum in Australia, saying he fears for his life after he walked out of the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney 12 days ago.

He has been in hiding with his wife Jin Ping, 38, and their six-year-old daughter, and says he faces persecution if he returns home after his four-year posting in Australia.

Mr Chen was denied a visa in an application received by the Immigration Department on June 3 but, after meeting a lawyer provided by the Australian Greens yesterday, he has lodged another visa application with Mr Downer for a rare type of visa, called a territorial asylum visa.

"There is now no doubt Chen Yonglin has made a direct written application to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for political asylum in Australia and a copy of that has gone to the Prime Minister," Greens leader Senator Bob Brown told ABC radio.
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He said a claim by the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Madame Fu Ying, that Mr Chen would not be punished if he returned to China was a lie.

"Anybody who believes the ambassador ought to go to the US state department's human rights report on China, the most recent one," Senator Brown said.

"That shows that there are forced confessions of prisoners, torture, arbitrary arrests, extra judicial killings.

"There's over a quarter of a million people in re-education camps.

"They're of course putting the spin that you'd expect from a police state."

AAP

Archival Rescue 58 ~ Congo & Australia

Australian company implicated in war crimes;

Australian company accused of helping troops in massacre
By Meaghan Shaw June 7, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Federal Police will be asked to investigate allegations involving assistance given by an Australian mining company to troops implicated in the massacre of more than 100 villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year.

A human rights lawyer intended to make a submission to the police force asking it to investigate possible crimes against humanity.

The ABC's Four Corners last night reported the company provided vehicles, a charter plane and a guest house to the Congolese army last October to quell an uprising by rebels in the town of Kilwa, 50 kilometres from the company's Dikulushi mine.

Witnesses reported troops using the company's vehicles to terrorise the town, killing and beating villagers and looting their houses. A secret investigation by the United Nations found more than 100 deaths, with at least 28 possibly the result of "summary execution".

The company's chief executive admitted the company provided vehicles and the use of a charter plane to ferry "80 or 100 soldiers".

"This was a military action conducted by the legitimate army of the legitimate government of the country," the executive told the program. "We helped the military get to Kilwa and then we were gone. Whatever they did there, that's an internal issue."

Concerning the troops' use of the company's vehicles, he said "So what?"

Richard Meeran, a lawyer with the firm Slater & Gordon, has been approached by lawyers for two non-government organisations in the Congo and Britain.

"If they provided assistance to the military for the purpose of carrying out this massacre, and they knew that that was going to happen, then they would be guilty of an offence under Australian law," he said.

Archival Rescue 57 ~ Asylum seeker

Australia left me out to dry, says defector
By Tom Allard June 6, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

The fugitive diplomat Chen Yonglin says Australian officials immediately tipped off his bosses when he defected and repeatedly urged him to return to the Chinese consulate, despite his pleas that he was in grave danger.

Mr Chen, a long-term diplomat in Sydney with access to highly sensitive information, is the highest-profile defection since the Petrov affair in 1954. But in an interview with the Herald yesterday he said his request for political asylum was refused within 24 hours of his defection 11 days ago - without even a meeting.

Mr Chen, 37, who is in hiding with his wife and six-year-old daughter, said the information he offered on China's spies and kidnappings in Australia had been spurned. At every turn, he had been discouraged from applying for asylum and denied a safe haven. "I didn't think it would happen like this," Mr Chen told the Herald. "Australia is a democratic country. I thought they would help me. My family is desperate. We are helpless. We need to be in a safe place."

But the Chinese embassy said Mr Chen had been due to return to China and he "fabricated stories which are unfounded and purely fictitious" as a ploy to stay here.

Ties with China have never been closer and Australia is pushing for a new trade deal and lucrative gas contracts. The Australian Workers Union yesterday accused the Government of putting trade negotiations ahead of human rights, and the Greens leader, Bob Brown, said Mr Chen had been treated disgracefully.

Since going public at a rally on Saturday, Mr Chen has alleged there are 1000 Chinese spies in Australia and that abductions sponsored by the Chinese Government take place. ASIO has been concerned about Chinese spies but no intelligence official has yet sought to talk to Mr Chen.

On May 26 he walked from the Chinese consulate in Camper-down into the Department of Immigration offices near Central Station with his wife, Jin Ping, and daughter, Chen Fangong. He says his request to meet the department's state director, Jim Collaghan, was rejected, and other officers called the Chinese embassy. The Chinese consulate then called his mobile, so he fled with his family, taking a train to Gosford. He left behind a letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald. It revealed he had been given the task of monitoring the activities of "five poisonous groups" of Chinese dissidents for four years, including the Falun Gong, democracy advocates and separatists from Tibet, Taiwan and East Turkistan. Mr Chen said he had helped the dissidents, an act that would be viewed as treason and would soon be discovered by his successor.

"As a first secretary, I am able to access top confidential documents," he wrote, suggesting he could be an asset to Australia.

When Mr Chen finally got a meeting with Australian officials last Tuesday, he says he was advised to apply for a tourist visa.

The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said yesterday Mr Chen would not receive any special treatment and his application for political asylum would be considered "in the normal way". She refused to comment when asked if it would be embarrassing to grant a Chinese diplomat political asylum. "I'm simply not going to add to that," she said.

Mr Chen has now applied for a protection visa. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, asked if he believed Mr Chen would be persecuted in China, told Channel Nine: "That's something the Immigration Department will obviously have to weigh up."

It is the foreign minister who approves the very rarely granted visa for political asylum for diplomats. His office and department did not return calls.

The Falun Gong movement's spokeswoman, Kay Rubacek, said the group was shocked when Mr Chen admitted his sympathies, as he often used to confront its members. But she said he was brave to speak out. She said practitioners in front of the Chinese consulate in Sydney had been assaulted and sprayed with hoses, and "we've seen Mr Chen with cameras taking photographs of us".

Archival Rescue 56 ~ Chen defection

Small minded bureaucracy in Australia, as appalling as anywhere else in the world. A defector risks his life and uses his wits to survive the Immigration Department and DFAT;

Defector shunted from pillar to post
By Tom Allard June 6, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

When Chen Yonglin left the Chinese diplomatic mission in Camperdown on the morning of May 26 with his wife and six-year-old child, he knew he was taking a huge risk.

He also knew that if he was posted back to Beijing the following month, as planned, his activities would be uncovered by his successor.

He expected difficulties and stress. What he didn't expect was that one of the world's democratic models would treat his application for asylum in its borders - and the prospect of a treasure trove of priceless intelligence - with disdain.

His extraordinary account of his treatment (to which the Government would not respond last night) begins the day he defected, when the state director of the Department of Immigration refused to see him.

He presented his diplomatic identification to the departmental staff at the counter and begged them not to call the Chinese consulate.

They did, however, and Mr Chen fled the office with his wife when he was called by his boss from the consulate soon after.

"We went to the train station and caught the train to Gosford. There are not many Chinese there … so not much chance of informers on me," he said.

He left behind his explosive letter applying for political asylum and details of his access to top secret Chinese documents. He also left a contact number.

That night, he was called by an Immigration Department officer he names as Louise Lindsay. She asked for a meeting the next day but ignored his pleas for a safe haven and said there was no alternative but to meet at the department's Parramatta offices.

"I was really upset," he said. "I didn't want to go there but I had no choice, it seemed."

Mr Chen said he called Ms Lindsay back: "I asked if we could meet somewhere safe … a police station."

That idea was rejected, as was another option, secure transport to the department's office at Parramatta.

Knowing that the Chinese consulate had been warned of his asylum bid, Mr Chen decided that the risk too high and called off the meeting.

Ms Lindsay called him that afternoon, he said, and told him his bid for political asylum had been rejected.

"She also said it was extremely difficult to get other protection visa. She talked about business visa. I was very upset and ignorant about these visa categories."

Over the weekend, Mr Chen called Ms Lindsay, again asking for a meeting. According to Mr Chen, she said he should come to department's main office in Sydney on Monday.

After a marathon taxi ride to Sydney, "I was in the car park around the back of the building, and then I called her," Mr Chen said.

"She says she is not ready and needed to talk to her superiors in Canberra." Come back the next day, she advised.

By this time Mr Chen was highly agitated, but when he came back the next day he got his meeting with Ms Lindsay and two other women, who said they were a Foreign Affairs protocol officer and a senior Immigration official.

Again, he was told his bid for political asylum had been rejected. He said he was also told by the officer from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that he should return to the Chinese consulate.

He said the immigration official discouraged him from taking out an ordinary protection visa and suggested a tourist visa.

"My feeling was that they were playing with me under pressure of the embassy and the Chinese government," he said. "They discourage me with political asylum but encourage me to return to the Chinese consulate."

In the end, he put in in his temporary protection visa form despite being told it would be "extremely impossible".

Refugee lawyers say he may have saved himself by doing so.

He went public that same day, realising it might be the only way his bid for asylum would be treated seriously.

Archival Rescue 55 ~ Chen defection

Downer could grant diplomat a visa: lawyer
June 6, 2005 - 7:18AM Sydney Morning Herald

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has the power to grant a a Chinese diplomat seeking asylum in Australia a special political asylum visa, an immigration lawyer says.

David Manne, a lawyer and coordinator of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, says Mr Downer could take the unusual step of intervening in the case of Chen Yonglin, who says he fears for his life after walking out of the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney 11 days ago.

"There's a very rare visa under the migration legislation called a territorial asylum visa, it's commonly known as political asylum, and it's generally by the minister, usually in fact by the foreign minister," Mr Manne told ABC radio.

"That shouldn't be confused with refugee status, it's different, but presumably it's for public positions, high public positions, for instance politicians or diplomats who need protection in Australia.

"As far as I'm aware there have only been a handful of visas granted on this basis in the past 45 years."

Mr Chen came out of hiding on Saturday to speak at a rally in Sydney at which he said the Beijing government had 1,000 spies in Australia and Chinese people were being abducted and taken back to China.

The Chinese mission in Sydney said Mr Chen was lying and made up the stories because he was due to return home after four years in Australia and wanted to stay.

The Australian head of the Federation for a Democratic China, Chin Jin, said Mr chen was feeling safer now he had exposed himself to the media.

"He feels okay now, he feels a bit safer then previous days," he told ABC radio.

"After his media public exposure and a lot of media coverage and being with us, he feels a bit safer."

AAP

Archival Rescue 54 ~ Seeking Asylum

Australian Government abandons asylum seeking diplomat;

Australia left me out to dry, says defector
By Tom Allard June 6, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

The fugitive diplomat Chen Yonglin says Australian officials immediately tipped off his bosses when he defected and repeatedly urged him to return to the Chinese consulate, despite his pleas that he was in grave danger.

Mr Chen, a long-term diplomat in Sydney with access to highly sensitive information, is the highest-profile defection since the Petrov affair in 1954. But in an interview with the Herald yesterday he said his request for political asylum was refused within 24 hours of his defection 11 days ago - without even a meeting.

Mr Chen, 37, who is in hiding with his wife and six-year-old daughter, said the information he offered on China's spies and kidnappings in Australia had been spurned. At every turn, he had been discouraged from applying for asylum and denied a safe haven. "I didn't think it would happen like this," Mr Chen told the Herald. "Australia is a democratic country. I thought they would help me. My family is desperate. We are helpless. We need to be in a safe place."

But the Chinese embassy said Mr Chen had been due to return to China and he "fabricated stories which are unfounded and purely fictitious" as a ploy to stay here.
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Ties with China have never been closer and Australia is pushing for a new trade deal and lucrative gas contracts. The Australian Workers Union yesterday accused the Government of putting trade negotiations ahead of human rights, and the Greens leader, Bob Brown, said Mr Chen had been treated disgracefully.

Since going public at a rally on Saturday, Mr Chen has alleged there are 1000 Chinese spies in Australia and that abductions sponsored by the Chinese Government take place. ASIO has been concerned about Chinese spies but no intelligence official has yet sought to talk to Mr Chen.

On May 26 he walked from the Chinese consulate in Camper-down into the Department of Immigration offices near Central Station with his wife, Jin Ping, and daughter, Chen Fangong. He says his request to meet the department's state director, Jim Collaghan, was rejected, and other officers called the Chinese embassy. The Chinese consulate then called his mobile, so he fled with his family, taking a train to Gosford. He left behind a letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald. It revealed he had been given the task of monitoring the activities of "five poisonous groups" of Chinese dissidents for four years, including the Falun Gong, democracy advocates and separatists from Tibet, Taiwan and East Turkistan. Mr Chen said he had helped the dissidents, an act that would be viewed as treason and would soon be discovered by his successor.

"As a first secretary, I am able to access top confidential documents," he wrote, suggesting he could be an asset to Australia.

When Mr Chen finally got a meeting with Australian officials last Tuesday, he says he was advised to apply for a tourist visa.

The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said yesterday Mr Chen would not receive any special treatment and his application for political asylum would be considered "in the normal way". She refused to comment when asked if it would be embarrassing to grant a Chinese diplomat political asylum. "I'm simply not going to add to that," she said.

Mr Chen has now applied for a protection visa. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, asked if he believed Mr Chen would be persecuted in China, told Channel Nine: "That's something the Immigration Department will obviously have to weigh up."

It is the foreign minister who approves the very rarely granted visa for political asylum for diplomats. His office and department did not return calls.

The Falun Gong movement's spokeswoman, Kay Rubacek, said the group was shocked when Mr Chen admitted his sympathies, as he often used to confront its members. But she said he was brave to speak out. She said practitioners in front of the Chinese consulate in Sydney had been assaulted and sprayed with hoses, and "we've seen Mr Chen with cameras taking photographs of us".

Archival Rescue 53 ~ Iraq, trial

Prosecuting Saddam "a waste of time" says Iraqi government;

Saddam will be tried on only 12 charges
June 6, 2005 - 12:38AM Sydney Morning Herald

Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges, but he will be tried on only 12 "thoroughly documented" counts because prosecuting him on all would be a "waste of time", the Iraqi government said.

A prime ministerial spokesman, Laith Kuba, said yesterday Saddam was likely to be tried within the next two months on a range of charges, including alleged crimes committed in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"There should be no objection that a trial should take place within that time frame," Kuba said during a press conference. "It is the government's view that the trial of Saddam should take place as soon as possible."

No date has been set for the trial of Saddam, who is being held in a US-run detention facility in Baghdad since being captured in December 2003.

Kuba said investigating judges believe Saddam will be convicted on 12 "thoroughly documented" charges and could face up to 500 counts, but trying him on all would be a "waste of time."

"The number of charges on which he will be tried are 12 and the judges are confident that he will be convicted of these charges," Kuba said.

Saddam has been accused of ordering the killing of tens of thousands of Shi'ites and Kurds who rose up against him in 1991 following the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

He was arraigned on July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges including killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing the Kurdish and Shi'ite uprising.

Raid Juhi, head of the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Saddam, said the former dictator's morale had plummeted because of the gravity of the war crimes charges he faces.

"The ousted president has suffered a collapse in his morale because he understands the extent of the charges against him and because he's certain that he will stand trial before an impartial court," Juhi told the London based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview published yesterday.

Saddam's lawyer, Khalil al-Duleimi, rejected Juhi's comments, telling The Associated Press that his client was in high spirits and that he was not aware of the 12 cases the judge referred to.

"The last time I met Saddam was in late April and his spirits were very high," al-Duleimi said.

AP

Archival Rescue 52 ~ False alerts "terrorism"

Howard and Downer stung. "Ramping up of emotion" unpopular;

Howard accused of over-reacting to letter scare
By Cynthia Banham and Anne Davies
June 3, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

The Government's rapid response to the embassy scare has met a mixed response, with some saying it was an over-reaction.

Clive Williams, a terrorism expert at the Australian National University, said he believed the Government had mishandled the incident in unnecessarily linking it to the Schapelle Corby case.

The offices of the Prime Minister and of the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, confirmed yesterday that they had linked the letter - written in Indonesian - to protests over Corby's drug-smuggling conviction in Bali before being briefed on a translation of its contents, which are not believed to contain any direct reference to her.

Mr Williams also criticised Mr Downer for referring to the substance in the letter sent to the embassy as a "biological agent", saying it had resulted in a "ramping up" of emotion in Australia and in the foreign press.

He said although anthrax occurred naturally, lethal forms of the substance had only been produced in state laboratories, and not even terrorist groups had managed to manufacture it.

Bacteria belonging to the bacillus groups - as the original analysis of the material indicated it was - exists in most households and is harmless.

Mr Williams said that "coming out and saying biological agent" was "basically just irresponsible", and that describing it as just "white powder" that was being investigated by the Australian Federal Police would have been sufficient.

Another terrorism expert from Monash University, David Wright-Neville, said he believed the Federal Government "did what it had to do".

"I don't think it was an over-reaction," he said. "You have to err on the side of caution with this kind of thing. The last thing you want is to underplay it and have a major diplomatic incident.

"[Sending the letter is] an outrageous and stupid thing to do and I think the Government responded in the only way it could."

But Mr Wright-Neville said he was "a little surprised" by the speed with which the Government described the substance as a biological agent and revealed that the letter to the Indonesian ambassador had been posted from Victoria.

The Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Kevin Rudd, and the Premier, Bob Carr, visited the Indonesian ambassador at his residence in Canberra yesterday.

Mr Carr said he expressed his "commiserations" to the ambassador "about what was a frightening incident".

"I told him it is important to stress that, despite the Corby case, Australia is interested in having a good relationship with Indonesia - strategic, economic and personal exchanges - and that has to be reinforced," he said.

"His spirits were good. I told him Indonesia has a lot of friends in Australia.

"We have to curb anti-Indonesian sentiment that has taken hold in parts of the Australian population."

HOW IT UNFOLDED

Wednesday, 10.28am ACT police receive call from the Indonesian embassy about suspect biological material.

By noon Sample being examined in Canberra hospital.

2.20pm Foreign Minister Alexander Downer tells Parliament the AFP "are investigating a possible suspicious package that was received this morning by the Indonesian embassy".

3.11pm Downer says package contained a "biological agent".

4-5pm The Prime Minister, John Howard, says: "It would be the first time, if the preliminary results are confirmed, that such a biological agent has been sent in Australia … It certainly won't help Schapelle Corby."

6.40pm Howard tells A Current Affair he was told the letter contained bacillus bacteria, some forms of which are linked to anthrax.

7-8pm Federal Police believed to have become aware tests suggest the substance in the letter was almost certainly not an active bacteria.

10.31pm: All Indonesian staff taken home by bus.

Yesterday, 8.08am Downer: "I can confirm there was a message … I haven't seen a translation of it yet, but … the parcel was sent from Victoria."

12.35pm ACT chief police officer John Davies says: "Very unlikely that the substance contained any bacteria of significant pathological significance."

6.23pm Anthrax ruled out.

Archival Rescue 51 ~ EU Constitution

Netherland and French citizens distrust new constitution

Dutch voters deliver another blow
By David Rennie in The Hague
June 3, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

It may take months, even years, for Europe to work out what the double no from the Netherlands and France means for the European Union.

Dutch voters overwhelmingly rejected a new constitution for Europe on Wednesday, following France in undermining the region's ambitions to play a stronger role on the world scene.

Preliminary results yesterday showed a 62 per cent "nee" vote in the Dutch poll, an even more emphatic rejection than the 55 per cent "non" verdict by French voters on Sunday.

But one message has already been made clear to all those countries hoping to join the European Union: Old Europe is turning in on itself. Frightened for their jobs and anxious about losing generous social welfare benefits, voters have little enthusiasm for further expansion of their once cosy club.

If one thing united the very different no votes in France and Holland it was a sense that the EU had expanded too far, too fast. In two decades, it has gone from 10 nations to 25, with Romania and Bulgaria both on course to join as early as 2007.

Croatia and Turkey have begun the formal accession process, while Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia all wish to join.

Interviewing French citizens last week, it often felt as if the vote was a referendum on enlargement, not the constitution.

The debate was dominated by the mythic "Polish plumber" coming to France to undercut French workmen and steal their jobs, and the "Romanian lorry driver" about to roar down French roads for miserly pay, cross-eyed with fatigue thanks to unlimited working hours.

French politicians from the no campaign complained, more subtly, about the speed with which communist nations such as Poland and the Czech Republic had entered the EU. They had a moral argument we could not ignore, said leading campaigners, because they had suffered Soviet domination, and then the Berlin Wall came down. The fall of the Berlin Wall sounded like a trap that France had been unable to avoid.

The French no camp, on the left and the right, was particularly incensed the new member states were proving valued allies of Britain, Ireland and other low tax, free-market EU nations.

One French Green European MP complained that the Franco-German alliance had been replaced by an "Anglo-Polish axis".

Marek Belka, the Polish Prime Minister, said this week that enlargement was in trouble. "That is so obvious you do not need diplomatic language to say so," he said.

One Eastern European official said his government was deeply concerned that a freeze on enlargement would be matched by France, Germany or other founding nations forging their own smaller "hard cores" within a weakened EU. "This outcome in France and Netherlands brings a different quality to the EU," he said. "Maybe old EU states will try to build a hard core; we're really frightened of that kind of integration."

The Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, said Wednesday's outcome spoke clearly of Dutch concerns about a "loss of sovereignty, about the speed of the changes and about our financial contribution".

"The Dutch people won against this crazy constitution," said Tiny Kox, a member of the small Socialist Party, which was pivotal in the "nee" campaign.

Britain remains a staunch advocate of further enlargement, including the admission of Turkey, in the face of clear opposition from voters in France and Holland.

Edmund Stoiber, the premier of Bavaria, said Germany's conservative opposition did not want Turkey in the EU, but rather to enjoy a "privileged partnership".

Telegraph, London, The New York Times

Archival Rescue 50 ~ letter threat "terrorism"

Howard leaps to conclusions, shakily invents more bogeymen;

PM: embassy attack makes it harder for Corby
By Cynthia Banham, Mark Metherell and Joseph Kerr
June 2, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Relations with Indonesia were plunged into uncertainty last night after a dangerous biological agent - possibly linked to anthrax - was sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra in a suspected act of retribution against the Schapelle Corby sentence.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, issued an immediate apology to Jakarta, describing the act as "recklessly criminal", and saying it was a "very serious development for our country".

It was likely the incident was linked to the outrage over Corby's 20-year drug smuggling sentence. "Can I say to people, please, this is not helping her. In fact it will hurt her and anybody who imagines that this kind of gesture towards the Indonesian ambassador is going to alter attitudes in Indonesia - it will have a negative effect on the judiciary, it will have a negative effect on political opinion in that country."

Mr Howard held back from labelling the act as terrorism, but if initial analysis proves correct, yesterday's events will be the first time in Australia a biological agent has been used to further political motives.

The embassy and Indonesian consulates have received a number of death threats since the beginning of the Corby trial.

Yesterday's discovery was made at the embassy when two staff opened a letter addressed to the ambassador, Imron Cotan, and a white powder fell out.

They alerted Australian authorities who closed the embassy for 48 hours. Inside, nearly 50 staff were isolated but allowed to leave late last night after being decontaminated. The substance was sent for testing to the ACT Government laboratories.

The ambassador was not in the building at the time.

An Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Marty Natalegawa, said Indonesia would "not succumb to such acts of intimidation".

Mr Howard said he had been told the substance was a bacteria belonging to the bacillus group. "It's still being tested … it's not an innocent white powder, it's some kind of biological agent," he told the Nine network. "I'm not a scientist but they say it belongs to the bacillus group and is being tested."

He said he could not "overstate the sense of concern I feel that such a recklessly criminal act should have been committed".

Mr Howard told the Herald the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, had phoned the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, last night, who was with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Downer told Dr Wirajuda Australia was very concerned about the incident and strongly condemned it, and that the Government would work hard to track down the perpetrators.

A spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, Marty Natalegawa, told the ABC last night that Indonesia would not be intimidated or close its embassy in Canberra.

Mr Howard said the incident was "damaging" and had put a strain on relations, which had been very strong in the wake of Australia's response to the Boxing Day tsunami.

The incident triggered a high-security operation with hazardous substance experts wearing protective gear and breathing apparatus to begin decontamination measures.

Australian Federal Police cordoned off the block around the embassy for most of the day.

A spokesman for the ACT police refused to say whether security patrols of the embassy had been stepped up. At the embassy, Superintendent Mick Kilfoyle said "the matter is currently being investigated by the AFP as a serious criminal offence".

Police and emergency officials last night appeared to be preparing for a vigil outside the embassy, with support vehicles, including portable toilets, being installed as night fell. Superintendent Kilfoyle would not say if there were any suspects.

The Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Kevin Rudd, said he was disgusted, and that the act was "appalling".

There were 360 white powder incidents in Australia after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.