Chinese Lawyers Help Tainted Milk Victims Despite Suppression By Qiaolong
Radio Free Asia
A Beijing Lawyer Mr. Xu Zhiyong, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Oct. 13 that at least 10 lawyers have decided to take the tainted-milk cases to court, which goes against the Chinese regime’s decision to discourage lawyers from doing so.
It is unclear whether the regime will have any new policy to suppress the lawyers’ actions.
China’s tainted-milk scandal has harmed hundreds of thousands of people. Nevertheless, many lawyers were forced to withdraw from a volunteer group and drop their tainted-milk victims due to pressure from the regime. Beijing lawyer Mr. Xu Zhiyong, who has a Ph. D. in Law, however, told the RFA that some lawyers had recently decided to continue to take on tainted-milk cases. They also posted an announcement on internet telling victims to contact them. “Victims can contact us, and we have made our contact information public in order to help them. We do want to take those cases openly.”
Xu remarked, "We’ve made the decision just recently. The news has not quite spread out yet. At least 10 lawyers are still willing to handle tainted-milk cases.
Prior to this, three lawyers had offered their help to handle the tainted-milk cases but due to interference from authorities, the court did not accept their cases. Despite this, parents of tainted-milk victims have not given up on their demands for compensation.
A parent named Mr. Lu told RFA firmly that he will definitely file a lawsuit.
“I will get a lawyer. The thing is, no lawyer has accepted my case. I have asked the volunteer group of lawyers, which Li Fangping helped initiate. Local lawyers in Shamen, Fujian Province, and lawyers in Sichuan and Funan Province—I have asked them all. But not one single lawyer said that they can definitely handle my case. They just said, ‘I have to evaluate and research it, and also wait to see what government’s policy will be," said Li.
Li continued, "So far no one was able to build a case, including the one filed in Guongdong Province which demanded 900 thousand yuan in compensation. How on earth are we going to file a lawsuit?”
One lawyer told RFA, “We don’t dare to handle this kind of case. The Justice Department has been involved in this. A while ago, we set up a legal advice group to offer pro bono help and our intentions were good. But the Justice Department stepped in and intervened. This is a very twisted situation.”
Many lawyers have told RFA earlier that they had to report to their law firms and the local Lawyers Association when they took on a tainted-milk case, and the Lawyer Association then reported to the Justice Department. Yet their requests were usually turned down, as the authorities would use any excuse to do so.
The Chinese communist regime’s response to the lawyers’ pro bono help has received strong criticism from overseas media.
Hong Kong’s Mingpao newspaper editorialized that the tainted-milk scandal is the most serious food safety scandal since the regime took power in 1949, endangering hundreds of thousands of people. It said that tainted-milk products were put on the market because of dairy companies’ greed, their disregard for people’s health and was done because of government officials’ scandals and corruption.
Mingpao continued and said that the authorities are currently striving to restrict victims from filing for compensation, instead of making efforts to find out the truth, the main culprits, and giving the public a good explanation. Not only were the victim groups tightly monitored by the authorities but lawyers’ efforts to offer legal help were also obstructed. The authorities simply cannot tell right from wrong.
The editorial pointed out that if the authorities try to pressure lawyers and courts, and stop parents from getting compensation, they are indeed trying to shatter those parents’ only hope. Also, it said they are in turn punishing the victims and rewarding the culprits.
Many signs have shown that the authorities’ support for the dairy industry poses a sharp contrast to their indifference toward children sickened with kidney stones.
For instance, the Director of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) and different levels of government officials took the lead to drink milk in public a while ago, calling for people to drink “worry-free milk” and blaming everything on milk collection stations and melamine production firms without implicating dairy companies at all.
The ironic part is, six government bureaus, including the Department of Commerce, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and GAQSIQ issued an emergency notice on Oct. 11, ordering tests on milk that were produced before Sept. 14, 2008 and stated that those products can’t be put back on shelf unless they pass the tests. Some Chinese bloggers have raised doubt about the safety of milk that was produced prior to Sept. 14.
Mr. Zeng Zhu, a Chinese activist commented, “The quest to find the social and political cause of tainted-milk scandal has been suppressed. This has exactly shown that the root cause of tainted-milk scandal is actually the current totalitarian regime.”
|
|
