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	Attorney General Holder to appoint Prosecutor to investigate Torture by American Civil Liberties Union USA   August 24, 2009   Release of CIA Torture Report underscores need for Full Investigation, says ACLU.   Attorney General Eric Holder will appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees in U.S. custody overseas under the Bush administration.   Attorney General Holder said his decision to appoint a special prosecutor was in part influenced by the contents of a CIA inspector general report made public today as part of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The IG report provides a detailed description of torture and abuse of detainees and addresses the legality and effectiveness of the agency"s "enhanced interrogation" program.   "While this is a welcome first step, we are disappointed that Attorney General Holder still appears unwilling to conduct a full investigation and to prosecute any crimes that are uncovered. A preliminary investigation absent a commitment to prosecute violations of the law is simply anemic. How much evidence of wrongdoing and violations of law is necessary before the attorney general commits to launching a full investigation?" said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU.   "The CIA"s own inspector general documented in disturbing detail the level of the torture committed and the extent to which laws were broken. Attorney General Holder"s decision not to launch a full investigation is deeply troubling given the evidence already in the public domain of crimes that were committed. Any investigation that truly follows the facts where they lead would inevitably lead to Prosecutions of High Level Officials – not just rogue agents in the field. This issue will not go away by deferring the hard decisions."   "The Obama administration made a commitment to transparency, and the release of the IG report is a step in the right direction. The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security project. "The information in the report about the origins and scope of the CIA"s torture program further underscores the need for a comprehensive investigation into the torture of detainees and those who authorized it." Visit the related web page
	Distraught Chinese families expose problem of children believed stolen to order by CNN, BBC & agencies China   October 2009   Chinese police have arrested 42 alleged members of a trafficking ring that sold dozens of infants stolen from their rural parents, state media reported.   The ring had separate units to handle the procurement, transport and sale of the children, the Xinhua News Agency reported. It trafficked 52 children over two years, earning the equivalent of nearly $US60,000 ($A64,650), the report said.   China has a thriving black market in girls and women, often used as labourers or as brides for unwed sons. A traditional preference for male heirs also drives the market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls.   Xinhua said the ring had operated in impoverished rural areas of the country"s north. It began to falter after officers stopped a van in May containing three men and a baby boy, the report said.   It said the child had been rejected by his would-be new parents for not being healthy enough and was on his way to being returned to a pair of middlemen who had procured a total of 13 babies for the ring. The ring had earned 400,000 yuan from the sale of the 19 boys and 33 girls, Xinhua said.   Aug 2009 (CNN)   Whenever Deng Huidong sees a little boy around 3 years of age, she can"t help but wonder if he"s her son. Her son, Ye Ruicong, was snatched by human traffickers more than a year ago when he was just 9 months old.   "I imagine how tall he would be, how fast he could run," Huidong said. "I take photos of boys who are about the same age to see; this way I can recognize him if we ever meet one day."   Huidong believes Ruicong was sold, possibly within hours, to a family without a son looking for a male heir.   Males come with a premium price tag in China. During a videotaped confession, a woman caught trafficking children two years ago told police that boys can sell for up to $1,200, girls for just more than $200.   Ruicong was gone in an instant. Recalling the abduction, Huidong said a white van slowly drove by while she was just outside her home with her daughter and son. The van stopped and reversed to the Deng household. The doors opened and a man leaned out and grabbed Ruicong. The van then sped off.   "It all happened within seconds; they didn"t even get out of the car." Huidong gave chase on foot, screaming. A stranger on a motorcycle offered to help and together they chased the van until they reached a police car.   "I went in that damn police car but after a only a few seconds, they took a sudden turn down another road. I asked why but they just kept silent. I was crying and asking; they simply didn"t reply. Later at the police station, I asked why and he told me he was off duty, so it was some one else"s responsibility to catch the traffickers."   Other parents whose children were lost have also complained of police indifference. Like Zhang Chunxiang, whose son went missing five years ago.   "Nobody helped us. The police did not think it was a big deal; it was November. It was not until December when they started to investigate."   Chen Fengyi"s 4-year-old son was abducted while playing outside the family shop. "The local police said our child had strayed by himself. Our entire family looked for him until dawn, I went back to the police station and knelt down to them but they didn"t care, they kept saying "the child went astray, look for him yourself." The reason why they wouldn"t open a case file was because there was no one who saw the abduction, nor was there video surveillance of the child being taken."   Police again declined to be interviewed. But the man in charge of stopping human trafficking in China did agree to talk.   Chen Shiqu, director of the Anti-Human Traffic Division of the Public Security Ministry, confirmed that in the past if there was no evidence a child had been abducted, then police did not have to open a case. But now the law has changed.   "Local police have been told to react as soon as they are alerted and these cases are now being treated as a criminal offense," Chen said. "There were cases in the past with no witnesses, or security video available, police officers would help look for the missing child and investigate but the case wasn"t treated as a crime. But now they"re all treated as crimes."   Even when abduction has been caught on security camera video, there have been charges that the police have been slow to act. Lele was 3 years old when he was taken from a square in the city of Shenzhen, all caught by security camera video, but his father Peng Gaofeng says it took police eight days to watch this tape.   "They didn"t say anything after they watched the video. They just copied it and said it was confidential. I thought they would try to find my kid with the video, but I never heard anything for two months. I asked the policemen and they said this case was confidential".   More than a year later, Lele remains missing, and his father says he is treated like a dissident. "During sensitive times, like Children"s Day, the government forces me to leave town ... they were afraid I would organize some activities like searching for kids. It"s always like that."   Chen did not say how many children and how many women are annually trafficked in China. He disputed the U.S. State Department estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 women and children are trafficked each year in China; he disputes the view from the United Nations that anecdotal evidence suggests the official numbers are low.   Chen said police have launched regular nationwide crackdowns; rescued babies have been shown on state-run television. There"s a new most-wanted list of the country"s worst traffickers, he said. Chen also cited something parents of missing children have been asking for: a new DNA database operating in parts of the country, matching rescued children with their parents.   "The appearance of children missing or stolen changes so that even their parents have difficulty in recognizing them," Chen said.   The parents of the stolen children also have complained that the law does not punish the buyers, providing the child is not mistreated. As long as that doesn"t change, they say, there will always be a market with traffickers eager to do business.   August 2011   China admits death row organ use. (BBC News)   China says it is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants.   According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently provide two-thirds of all transplant organs.   The government is now launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the illegal trafficking in organs.   But analysts say cultural bias against removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to implement.   Thriving black market   About 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only about 10,000 operations are performed annually, according to the health ministry.   The scarcity of available organs has led to a thriving black market in trafficked organs, and in an effort to stop this the government passed a law in 2007 banning trafficking as well as the donation of organs to unrelated recipients.   But in practice, illegal transplants - some from living donors - are still frequently reported by the media and the Ministry of Health.   Human rights groups have often criticised China for its lack of transparency over organ donation, but critics have focused particular concern on the use of body parts from executed prisoners.   In a rare admission of the extent to which this takes place, China Daily - citing unnamed experts - said on Wednesday that more than 65% of organ donations come from death row prisoners.   China executes more people than any other country. Amnesty International said at least 1,718 people were given the death penalty in 2008.   The China Daily quoted Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying that condemned prisoners were "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants".   The new scheme is therefore designed to reduce the reliance on death row inmates, as well as regulating the industry by combating the illegal trafficking of organs.   The system will be piloted in 10 provinces and cities, and a fund will be started to provide financial aid to donors'' families.
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