AP: China Accused of Widespread Torture

BEIJING (AP) -- Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and detainees is widespread and systemic in China and the government is not doing enough to fight it, Amnesty International said Monday. In a new report, the London-based group said officials perpetrating abuses include not only police and prison officers, but also tax collectors, family planners, neighborhood watch groups and even business security guards who have tortured and killed complaining customers. " Torture in China remains a major human rights concern. The range of officials resorting to it is expanding, as is the circle of victims, " the group said. " The government has acknowledged for many years that torture is a serious problem but has done little about it." China has in recent years allowed its wholly state-controlled media a somewhat freer hand in exposing police and official abuses of people not accused of political crimes, helping in a few cases to bring officials to justice. But Amnesty said Chinese laws against torture contain loopholes, that the use of torture to extract confessions and against political dissidents " remains commonplace" and that abusive officials are rarely punished. The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement says its followers have been widely targeted for abuse and torture in the government' s relentless 18-month crackdown on the group. Falun Gong says 143 practitioners have died. A Hong Kong-based rights group says it has tallied at least 112 deaths. China has denied that practitioners have died of abuse in custody -- claims Amnesty called " unconvincing." Amnesty published the report less than two weeks before International Olympic Committee inspectors visit Beijing to assess its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Concerns over China' s rights record contributed to Beijing' s narrow loss in 1993 to Sydney for the 2000 Games.