Sir, - The Chinese Ambassador, Ms Fan Huijuan (February 8th), said that Return to the Dying Rooms "seriously distorted the actual situation of the Chinese orphanages" and that the film makers "failed to differentiate between the government policy and individual cases". We need proof that this is so.
In recent years, reports and allegations of abuses against children have been made in individual state run orphanages scattered across China. Allegations in the last year have been made about orphanages in Nanking, Zhaoquing, Harbin, and in particular Shanghai.
We are gravely concerned by the growing body of credible evidence, including eye witness accounts, film footage, Chinese press coverage, orphanage workers' testimony, and now officially published statistics and records of internal investigations.
We call on the Chinese Government to answer fully these allegations of children being deliberately left to die, sexual and abuse of children, denial, neglect of children. From the most recent evidence, it appears clear that government officials at the highest level were aware of the problem and are therefore fully responsible for any failure to act or to ensure that such abuses do not continue.
Furthermore, access to orphanages appears to have been curtailed following previous reports of abuses, and this can only reinforce suspicion that there may be something to hide. Prearranged visits or limited access are not good enough.
Through the Ambassador, we call on the Chinese Government to allow unrestricted access to orphanages by independent observers. We call for thorough and impartial investigation into each allegation, and insist that perpetrators must be punished.
Finally, China has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and is obliged to take all appropriate measures to protect children. These include demonstrating that existing legislative protect ion of the rights of children in State care, to which the Ambassador referred, is effective in practice. - Yours, etc.,
Director,
Amnesty International,
Fleet Street,
Dublin 2.