huridocs-tech China to use high-tech to fight abductions of women

Dear list members,

This is an interesting example of the use of new technologies by the 
Chinese government to actually PREVENT human rights violations...

-Frank

------------
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 11:32:37 -0400
From: Melanie Orhant <morhant@igc.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list STOP-TRAFFIC 
<stop-traffic@friends-partners.org>
Subject: News/China to use high-tech to fight abductions of women...

APws 3-21-00 7:50 AM

  The Associated Press.

    BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese police will use computer databases and other
high-tech methods in a renewed campaign against widespread kidnappings of
woman and children and trafficking in abducted persons, state-run media
reported Tuesday.

    Minister of Public Security Jia Chunwang announced a four-month
anti-kidnapping drive beginning April 1 that will focus on tracking down
kidnapping rings and preventing the sale of victims, the People's Daily and
other newspapers reported.

    Kidnappings have "seriously threatened social stability and must be
dealt with severely," the reports quoted Jia as saying.

    Trafficking of women and children has flourished in recent years as
gangs capitalize on demographic trends that have left many rural families
desperate for brides and male children.

    Last year, 7,660 women and 1,814 children were reported abducted and
sold. Police say they rescued 6,898 of them, the reports said. But many
cases go unreported.

    In one recent case, police rescued 35 children who had been kidnapped
since 1995 in impoverished Guizhou province and sold in affluent
neighboring provinces. After national newspapers reported the rescued
children were being kept in a welfare center in Guizhou, hundreds of
families turned out to claim them.

    Most children had no recollection of their original parents, so police
resorted to DNA testing to match parents and offspring.

    Police are now setting up databases listing suspected kidnappers as well
as missing women and children that could be accessed from Web sites, the
reports said.

    The reports threatened punishment for people who buy abducted women and
children. Until now, local police have tended to let buyers go, viewing
them as victims because they had paid large sums of money to the kidnapping
rings.




----------------------------------
Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
Mail administrative requests to <majordomo@hrea.org>.
For additional assistance, send mail to: <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.html