A letter from a MA resident to Senator KennedyJohn Willshire-Carrera June 6, 2003 Dear Senator Kennedy: I am a lawyer working with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services. I am emailing you concerning the case of Dr. Jianli Yang. I am well aware of how you and your staff have been very supportive of Christina Fu in her efforts to get the Chinese government to release Dr. Yang to date and I want to take this opportunity to thank you. I have worked with Dr. Yang on several Chinese asylum cases and have always found him to be very knowledgeable about China and a strong believer in democracy and human rights. Once again, however, I ask that you please come to the aid of Christina Fu and Dr. Yang by both calling publically for Dr. Yang's release and by sponsoring a Senate Resolution calling for his release using the same language as that passed by the house...House Resolution 199. Your efforts at this time are crucial now that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that the dentention to date of Dr. Yang is "arbirarty" and in "contravention of Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of Article 9 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Righst and falls within category III of the categories applicable to the consideration of cases submitted to the Working Group", and the Chinese government has responded by refusing to acknowledge the harm they have brought to Dr. Yang...they continue to take the position that they are only acting fully in accordance with the law. Aside from the basic violations that the UN Working Group have addressed, as a human rights lawyers with many years experience in representing persons targeted for persecution around the world, including China, I also deeply fear that Dr. Yang is also being otherwise persecuted as he is a well known dissident who for years has been a formidable leader of the Chinese pro-democracy movement in the US. In closing, I would like to thank you once again for all you have already done on behalf of Christina Fu and Dr. Jianli Yang. Sincerely, John Willshire Carrera -------------------------- |