By Patrick Jackson
BBC News
Russia has recorded no attacks resulting in massive loss of civilian life in the year since pro-Chechen militants seized the school in Beslan.
But in Chechnya itself, civilians continue to suffer as the separatist war grinds on - much of it unpublicised because of Russian media restrictions.
Hardly a night passes without a rebel ambush or a raid by security forces, the latter sometimes only reported by human rights groups.
Chechen refugees may no longer spend the freezing winters in tents. But many remain scattered outside their homeland, dispossessed and often living in atrocious conditions, on former dairy farms, in factories and train carriages.
"There hasn't been a war in Chechnya for three years - the war is over," Russian President Vladimir Putin told foreign reporters late last year.
Yet the violence that has engulfed Chechnya and spread beyond has not receded, and Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who claimed the Beslan attack, does not rule out further mass hostage-takings.
As Beslan remembers its lost children, bitterness on both sides continues to drive a particularly brutal conflict.
Lonely fight
If the war is over for Vladimir Putin, it has only gone into its sixth year for the new appointed leader of the Chechen rebels, Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev.
In a speech released online last month, he said no political step taken in the West regarding Chechnya was comparable in significance to a single attack on Russian soldiers by Chechen fighters.
The wagons stopped and the soldiers came round and asked: 'Are there any dead in there?'
Zulpa
Deportation survivor
"If anybody really thinks the fate of the Chechen people is decided in Strasbourg, Washington or Moscow, they are deeply mistaken," he added.
Mr Saydullayev's speech suggests the rebels now despair of any meaningful outside intervention in Chechnya.
They argue that events like Beslan must be viewed alongside their own civilian losses and accuse Russia of pursuing "genocide".
That term has particularly painful associations after Stalin's mass deportation of Chechens and their Ingush neighbours in 1944 on suspicion of Nazi sympathies.
Tens of thousands of Chechens are thought to have perished before survivors were allowed to return from Central Asia in 1957. The event was a key Chechen argument for declaring independence in 1991, while other regions like Ingushetia and North Ossetia, where Beslan is located, were choosing to remain as autonomous republics.
Russia's indiscriminate bombing and shelling of Chechen towns and villages, particularly during the 1994-96 war, and "dirty war" tactics such as kidnappings, are widely believed to have radicalised Chechens further.
"It is undeniable that 'disappearances', killings, torture and ill-treatment continue to be a frequent occurrence, with abuses attributed to both federal and the various Chechen security forces, as well as Chechen armed opposition groups," Amnesty International's Victoria Webb told the BBC News website.
Adding fuel to the fire, many rebels view the conflict as a religious struggle, regarding themselves as Muslims pitted against a "godless" secular state.
Search for leadership
The death of Aslan Maskhadov in a Russian attack in March meant the loss of a veteran Chechen leader who had negotiated a peace deal before Vladimir Putin came to power.
He denounced the Beslan attackers as "madmen," while arguing that brutality by Russian troops may have driven them out of their senses.
Diederik Lohman of Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the rebels have long appeared to lack strong, central control.
"My sense has always been that it is a lot of loosely affiliated little groups that have more or less the same ideas about what they want to achieve, and use the same methods, but it is not necessarily coordinated," he told the BBC News website.
In his book Inside Putin's Russia, Andrew Jack contrasts Chechen fortunes to those of the neighbouring Ingush, whose success in peacefully forging a republic of their own within Russia he attributes largely to good political leadership at the right time.
Though ever a critic of Moscow's use of force, Ruslan Aushev earned broad respect as Ingush president.
At Beslan, he helped negotiate the release of 26 people, including babies, when he went into the school during the siege.
Minutes before the explosions began on the last day, he was still talking to the hostage-takers by telephone.
Impunity
An avowed aim of the Kremlin in the North Caucasus - "freedom and justice" - rings hollow for many.
COST OF CHECHEN CONFLICT
At least 40,000 civilians killed in 1994-96 war
At least 10,000 civilians killed since 1999
No clear figures for Russian losses but military deaths thought to at least equal USSR's Afghan toll of 15,000
Data on civilians supplied by Human Rights Watch
Chechnya has become synonymous with a sense of impunity, as Beslan mothers demand prosecutions over the authorities' handling of the school siege, Chechens point to the small number of Russian soldiers prosecuted for human rights abuses and Russians demand justice for Russian civilians targeted under Chechen rebel rule.
At least 400 Beslan residents signed an open letter to the world on the anniversary of the siege declaring: "We do not want to live any longer in a country where human life means nothing."
Amnesty's Victoria Webb says the situation in Chechnya may be "one of the effects of a government policy that only pays lip service to human rights principles".
Russian security forces sent to Chechnya are influenced by two stereotypes: Chechens as criminals and Chechens as terrorists.
Chechens have been seen as playing a disproportionate part in organised crime in Russia's cities, while attacks on airliners and other civilian targets made for a summer of fear in Moscow before Beslan.
Next morning it snowed/After all the firing/The snow killed me/Put out a short life
Yuri Shevchuk
lyric from Dead City
Russians who speak of "genocide" in Chechnya usually mean something very different: the fate of the estimated 270,000 Russians and other non-indigenous residents who made up nearly a quarter of Chechnya's population when the USSR broke up.
Largely abandoned by the Russian state, they quickly became scapegoats when the rebels declared independence.
Attempts to properly document the extent of the violence they suffered have run up against a wall of silence in Moscow.
In Chechnya, a few years after the second war began, there were practically no non-indigenous residents left, according to the Russian human rights group Memorial.
Now scattered across Russia, embittered Russian refugees pass on a message of unavenged wrongs.
Incalculable cost
"Next morning it snowed/After all the firing/The snow killed me/Put out a short life."
Dead City, Russian rock singer Yuri Shevchuk's requiem for Grozny, captures some of the horror of a war in which innocence may look out of place.
According to an HRW estimate, gleaned through field work among Chechen refugees in the absence of reliable figures from Moscow, a total of about 50,000 civilians died in the two wars, about a tenth of them children.
Beslan horrified Chechens too, Diederik Lohman points out, but the question many also ask is: "Where was the world when our children were dying under Russian bombs?"
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4199146.stm
Published: 2005/09/01 17:31:11 GMT
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Zimbabwe 'collapse in six months'
Zimbabwe will collapse within six months, possibly leading to a state of emergency, according to a briefing report for aid workers in the country.
Rampant inflation will mean shops and services can no longer function and people would resort to barter, it said.
"The memorandum is talking about a situation where there is no functioning government or a total breakdown," an unnamed aid worker told the UK Times.
Zimbabwe's inflation is already 3,714% - the highest rate in the world.
Business quotes were now valid for just one day or even one hour, said the report written by consultants and sent to workers at the United Nations and other aid agencies.
Some firms were already partly paying their workers in food, rather than money, it said.
ZIMBABWE CRISIS
Inflation: 3,714%
Unemployment: 80%
4m need food aid
Life expectancy: 37 (men), 34 (women)
Shops were doubling their prices twice a month, so they could purchase replacement goods.
If this continues, "doubling the current inflation for each of the seven remaining months of 2007 gives 512,000% thus the economic collapse is expected before the end of 2007," said the report, according to the AP news agency.
The security forces who have remained loyal to President Robert Mugabe were also feeling the effects.
The report said an ordinary police officer earned less than aid workers paid their domestic staff.
It said power and water suppliers were already near collapse. Electricity was last month rationed to just four hours a day to save power for farmers.
Just one adult in five is believed to have a regular job.
Some 4m Zimbabweans - a third of the population - will need food aid this year, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Mr Mugabe denies responsibility for Zimbabwe's economic problems, blaming a western plot to bring down his government because of his policy of seizing white-owned land.
(BBC)
Rampant inflation will mean shops and services can no longer function and people would resort to barter, it said.
"The memorandum is talking about a situation where there is no functioning government or a total breakdown," an unnamed aid worker told the UK Times.
Zimbabwe's inflation is already 3,714% - the highest rate in the world.
Business quotes were now valid for just one day or even one hour, said the report written by consultants and sent to workers at the United Nations and other aid agencies.
Some firms were already partly paying their workers in food, rather than money, it said.
ZIMBABWE CRISIS
Inflation: 3,714%
Unemployment: 80%
4m need food aid
Life expectancy: 37 (men), 34 (women)
Shops were doubling their prices twice a month, so they could purchase replacement goods.
If this continues, "doubling the current inflation for each of the seven remaining months of 2007 gives 512,000% thus the economic collapse is expected before the end of 2007," said the report, according to the AP news agency.
The security forces who have remained loyal to President Robert Mugabe were also feeling the effects.
The report said an ordinary police officer earned less than aid workers paid their domestic staff.
It said power and water suppliers were already near collapse. Electricity was last month rationed to just four hours a day to save power for farmers.
Just one adult in five is believed to have a regular job.
Some 4m Zimbabweans - a third of the population - will need food aid this year, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Mr Mugabe denies responsibility for Zimbabwe's economic problems, blaming a western plot to bring down his government because of his policy of seizing white-owned land.
(BBC)
Sudanese students flock to learn Chinese
By Lewis Machipisa
BBC News, Khartoum
Products, companies and restaurants from China have flooded into Sudan in recent years and now the Chinese language has become the latest import.
During a recent language competition, Khartoum University resembled a province in China. Everything became Chinese. The students even laughed in Chinese.
The relaxed mood with which the 100 or so students spoke and joked in Chinese at the Chinese Bridge Speech competition suggests that learning Chinese could be the next big thing in Sudan.
First the students had to compete to see who had become the most proficient in the language. In this category the competition was tough.
Then the students had to prove they could even sing in Chinese - most sounded atrocious.
Foreign draw
More than one billion people around the world speak Chinese as their native tongue.
With China's economy rising fast, the country's government believes that 100 million foreigners will soon be speaking their language.
Among those will be Ayat, a student in Khartoum.
"China is now a big country economically. There are lots of Chinese companies in Sudan so there is a big choice for us to work for the Chinese as translators,'' she says, describing Chinese as a "beautiful language''.
Tong Xiaofeng, a Chinese professor at Khartoum University, says most of the Sudanese students in his class are motivated by money.
"Chinese is mostly welcome because nearly 100% of students who graduate from the department get jobs with Chinese companies," he says, specifically in the oil industry, telecommunications and as travel agents.
China's oil interests in Sudan, already substantial, continue to grow.
Sudan sells about 60% of its oil to China, while Sudanese imports currently make up 5% of China's oil and the China National Petroleum Corp owns 40% of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company - the main player in Sudan.
In addition, another Chinese company is constructing a 1,500km (932 mile) pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where they are also building a tanker terminal.
Proven reserves
Sudanese production and export of light, sweet crude oil - the most easily refined, and therefore most desirable, oil - have risen rapidly in the last few years.
When I graduate, I want to go to China and do my masters there
Halid Sulema
Sudan's energy ministry reports production of some 500,000 barrels per day. Sudan has proven reserves of at least 563 million barrels of oil, with the potential for far more in regions of the country made inaccessible by conflict.
It is this projected oil boom, led by Chinese firms, that has caught the eye of many Sudanese students, and there is also a booming telecommunications sector.
The Chinese government is all for using language as a way of spreading its influence around the world.
By 2008, an estimated 120,000 students will travel from abroad to go to college at a Chinese university, up from 8,000 less than a decade before.
It will provide scholarships for good students to go to its universities.
Halid Sulema is one of the students eyeing that chance.
"When I graduate, I want to go to China and do my masters there. I hope to get a good job with a Chinese company in the end."
BBC News, Khartoum
Products, companies and restaurants from China have flooded into Sudan in recent years and now the Chinese language has become the latest import.
During a recent language competition, Khartoum University resembled a province in China. Everything became Chinese. The students even laughed in Chinese.
The relaxed mood with which the 100 or so students spoke and joked in Chinese at the Chinese Bridge Speech competition suggests that learning Chinese could be the next big thing in Sudan.
First the students had to compete to see who had become the most proficient in the language. In this category the competition was tough.
Then the students had to prove they could even sing in Chinese - most sounded atrocious.
Foreign draw
More than one billion people around the world speak Chinese as their native tongue.
With China's economy rising fast, the country's government believes that 100 million foreigners will soon be speaking their language.
Among those will be Ayat, a student in Khartoum.
"China is now a big country economically. There are lots of Chinese companies in Sudan so there is a big choice for us to work for the Chinese as translators,'' she says, describing Chinese as a "beautiful language''.
Tong Xiaofeng, a Chinese professor at Khartoum University, says most of the Sudanese students in his class are motivated by money.
"Chinese is mostly welcome because nearly 100% of students who graduate from the department get jobs with Chinese companies," he says, specifically in the oil industry, telecommunications and as travel agents.
China's oil interests in Sudan, already substantial, continue to grow.
Sudan sells about 60% of its oil to China, while Sudanese imports currently make up 5% of China's oil and the China National Petroleum Corp owns 40% of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company - the main player in Sudan.
In addition, another Chinese company is constructing a 1,500km (932 mile) pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where they are also building a tanker terminal.
Proven reserves
Sudanese production and export of light, sweet crude oil - the most easily refined, and therefore most desirable, oil - have risen rapidly in the last few years.
When I graduate, I want to go to China and do my masters there
Halid Sulema
Sudan's energy ministry reports production of some 500,000 barrels per day. Sudan has proven reserves of at least 563 million barrels of oil, with the potential for far more in regions of the country made inaccessible by conflict.
It is this projected oil boom, led by Chinese firms, that has caught the eye of many Sudanese students, and there is also a booming telecommunications sector.
The Chinese government is all for using language as a way of spreading its influence around the world.
By 2008, an estimated 120,000 students will travel from abroad to go to college at a Chinese university, up from 8,000 less than a decade before.
It will provide scholarships for good students to go to its universities.
Halid Sulema is one of the students eyeing that chance.
"When I graduate, I want to go to China and do my masters there. I hope to get a good job with a Chinese company in the end."
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Aid agencies suspend operations after killing
BANGUI, 12 June 2007 (IRIN) - The killing of a volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) has compelled non-governmental organisations in the region to temporarily suspend operations, sources said.
Elsa Serfass, 27, was killed by gunfire during an assessment mission in northwestern CAR on 11 June. She was on her first assignment with MSF-France, working as a logistician in Paoua.
"After a 30 May rebel attack in the town of N'Gaoundal and the government's violent reprisals, MSF learned of the catastrophic health conditions in the area and decided to carry out an assessment," MSF said in a statement. "During that mission, our vehicle was hit by gunfire and Elsa was fatally injured."
Following the incident, MSF-France and other organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, temporarily suspended work around Paoua, sources in the CAR capital of Bangui said.
"The tragic death of Elsa Serfass is a terrible shock for MSF and we mourn her loss," the French charity noted. "Our thoughts are with her family and friends."
Sources in Bangui blamed the attack on the Armée populaire pour la restauration de la république et de la démocratie (APRD) rebels who are fighting government forces in the region. The rebels, opponents of President François Bozize, claim he overthrew a legitimate government in March 2003, has mismanaged public funds and divided the nation.
The insurgency has brought suffering to civilians in the region and illustrates the escalating insecurity over the five past years because of armed rebellion and the proliferation of armed bandits, called Zaraguinas.
According to MSF, the local population has been targeted by systematic violence, with many villages along the roadways attacked, pillaged and burned, forcing inhabitants to flee to survive in the bush.
In May, the Italian charity, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), suspended activities in Bozoum, Ouham Pendé prefecture, after the abduction of two health workers. The NGO works in Bozoum, Bocaranga and Ngaoundai, which together have a population of 150,000-200,000.
According to the UN, nearly 300,000 people have fled their homes in the CAR over the past year because of violence.
Elsa Serfass, 27, was killed by gunfire during an assessment mission in northwestern CAR on 11 June. She was on her first assignment with MSF-France, working as a logistician in Paoua.
"After a 30 May rebel attack in the town of N'Gaoundal and the government's violent reprisals, MSF learned of the catastrophic health conditions in the area and decided to carry out an assessment," MSF said in a statement. "During that mission, our vehicle was hit by gunfire and Elsa was fatally injured."
Following the incident, MSF-France and other organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, temporarily suspended work around Paoua, sources in the CAR capital of Bangui said.
"The tragic death of Elsa Serfass is a terrible shock for MSF and we mourn her loss," the French charity noted. "Our thoughts are with her family and friends."
Sources in Bangui blamed the attack on the Armée populaire pour la restauration de la république et de la démocratie (APRD) rebels who are fighting government forces in the region. The rebels, opponents of President François Bozize, claim he overthrew a legitimate government in March 2003, has mismanaged public funds and divided the nation.
The insurgency has brought suffering to civilians in the region and illustrates the escalating insecurity over the five past years because of armed rebellion and the proliferation of armed bandits, called Zaraguinas.
According to MSF, the local population has been targeted by systematic violence, with many villages along the roadways attacked, pillaged and burned, forcing inhabitants to flee to survive in the bush.
In May, the Italian charity, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), suspended activities in Bozoum, Ouham Pendé prefecture, after the abduction of two health workers. The NGO works in Bozoum, Bocaranga and Ngaoundai, which together have a population of 150,000-200,000.
According to the UN, nearly 300,000 people have fled their homes in the CAR over the past year because of violence.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Olympic firm admits child labour
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
A Chinese company making products related to the Beijing Olympics has admitted it used child workers, despite initially denying the allegation.
Lekit Stationery said children aged 12 and 13 were employed by one of its sub-contractors, although they did not work on Olympic-related products.
The news follows an investigation in Dongguan city, where Lekit is based.
It was launched after an advocacy group claimed four firms making Olympic products were exploiting workers.
Lekit manager Michael Lee told the BBC that a sub-contractor called Leter Stationery had hired a number of children in the school holidays last winter.
They were each paid 20 yuan (about $2.50) a day.
'Unaware'
Because it had a large number of orders, Lekit was forced to hire Leter Stationary to make packaging products, such as labels.
Mr Lee insisted these products were not related to the contract it won last year to produce stationery emblazoned with Olympic symbols.
"We didn't know that they would hire children," Mr Lee said, although the sub-contractor's factory is directly opposite Lekit Stationary.
He added: "We will not use them again, and in future we will make sure that all sub-contractors are qualified."
Mr Lee, from Taiwan, said when he was initially interviewed about the allegation by the BBC at his factory he was unaware Leter Stationery had hired children.
He found out only when Dongguan officials released the findings of an initial investigation into the issue.
A Dongguan official said the children had gone to work at Leter Stationery because their parents had no time to look after them during the holidays.
He said they were only involved in "light work" such as wrapping up products.
"The Dongguan government (will) start a campaign to fight child labour in the city soon," said a report published by Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The report that made the initial allegation, issued by an alliance called PlayFair 2008, said Lekit had hired children who often had to work from 0730 to 2230.
"Some of them were brought to the factory to earn money to pay their school fees," the report says.
It also accused three other factories based in southern Guangdong Province of exploiting workers.
They were charged with ignoring local labour laws, disregarding health and safety and forcing employees to work long hours.
The speed with which Dongguan officials published the results of the initial investigation suggests China is keen to avoid bad publicity in the run up to next year's Olympic Games.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6747449.stm
Published: 2007/06/13 07:27:01 GMT
BBC News, Beijing
A Chinese company making products related to the Beijing Olympics has admitted it used child workers, despite initially denying the allegation.
Lekit Stationery said children aged 12 and 13 were employed by one of its sub-contractors, although they did not work on Olympic-related products.
The news follows an investigation in Dongguan city, where Lekit is based.
It was launched after an advocacy group claimed four firms making Olympic products were exploiting workers.
Lekit manager Michael Lee told the BBC that a sub-contractor called Leter Stationery had hired a number of children in the school holidays last winter.
They were each paid 20 yuan (about $2.50) a day.
'Unaware'
Because it had a large number of orders, Lekit was forced to hire Leter Stationary to make packaging products, such as labels.
Mr Lee insisted these products were not related to the contract it won last year to produce stationery emblazoned with Olympic symbols.
"We didn't know that they would hire children," Mr Lee said, although the sub-contractor's factory is directly opposite Lekit Stationary.
He added: "We will not use them again, and in future we will make sure that all sub-contractors are qualified."
Mr Lee, from Taiwan, said when he was initially interviewed about the allegation by the BBC at his factory he was unaware Leter Stationery had hired children.
He found out only when Dongguan officials released the findings of an initial investigation into the issue.
A Dongguan official said the children had gone to work at Leter Stationery because their parents had no time to look after them during the holidays.
He said they were only involved in "light work" such as wrapping up products.
"The Dongguan government (will) start a campaign to fight child labour in the city soon," said a report published by Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The report that made the initial allegation, issued by an alliance called PlayFair 2008, said Lekit had hired children who often had to work from 0730 to 2230.
"Some of them were brought to the factory to earn money to pay their school fees," the report says.
It also accused three other factories based in southern Guangdong Province of exploiting workers.
They were charged with ignoring local labour laws, disregarding health and safety and forcing employees to work long hours.
The speed with which Dongguan officials published the results of the initial investigation suggests China is keen to avoid bad publicity in the run up to next year's Olympic Games.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6747449.stm
Published: 2007/06/13 07:27:01 GMT
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Surprising?
Olympic firms 'abusing workers'
Some official merchandise for the 2008 Olympics in China has been made using child labour, forced overtime and low wages to boost profits, a report says.
Playfair - an alliance of world trade unions - has condemned "severe workers' rights violations" in four Chinese factories ahead of the Beijing games.
The group said it found abuses at the factories - licensed to make official Olympic caps, bags and stationery.
Companies cited in the report have denied the allegations.
International Olympic Committee said it supported ethical practices.
The IOC is committed to being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic Movement that takes care of the Olympic brand in the best way possible
IOC
But in Britain, where the IOC is due to meet on Tuesday, trade unionists said tougher action was needed to make sure that the 2012 Games in London were not tarnished by similar accusations.
Investigators' report - entitled "No medal for the Olympics on labour rights" - cites "gross violations of basic labour standards... including adult wages at half the legal minimum, employment of workers as young as 12 years old".
It also highlights alleged labour rights violations, such as forced overtime, workers being instructed to lie about wages and conditions to outside inspectors and poor health and safety conditions.
BBC visits factories
Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said: "It brings shame on the whole Olympics movement that such severe violations of international labour standards are taking place in Olympics-licensed factories."
The IOC said it did not have direct control over merchandise companies - but that host cities were expected to follow guidelines on fair labour standards.
An IOC statement said: "The IOC is committed to being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic Movement that takes care of the Olympic brand in the best way possible.
"It matters to us is that sourcing is done ethically."
The BBC visited two of the factories named in the report, and managers denied the claims.
Lekit Stationery, is a Taiwanese company which has been operating in the city of Dongguan, in Guangdong Province, for the last 20 years. It is making paper cups, notebooks and stickers adorned with Olympic motifs.
The report accused the company of employing children and forcing them to work up to 13 hours a day.
"It's not true," company manager Michael Lee told the BBC. "We work for some of the best brand names in the world and they check our company every month."
He said the factory's 420 workers earned a basic monthly salary of about 700 yuan ($91; £46) and overtime was paid at time and a half.
'Good living environment'
Mainland Headwear Holdings, on the outskirts of the city of Shenzhen, also denied any wrongdoing.
Production director Samuel Wai told the BBC: "We follow all the government regulations here so I'm not sure where these complaints have come from.
"Employees here enjoy a very good living environment and working conditions."
The BBC spoke to some of the employees who live in the apartment buildings outside the factory, who agreed with Mr Wai's assessment.
Another company named in the report was Eagle Leather Products in Guangdong, which makes Olympics-branded bags.
Most workers were obliged to work 30 days per month, the report said, with forced overtime.
The Associated Press news agency reached the factory, speaking to a woman who identified herself only as Ms Chang.
"I cannot agree with the report," she said.
"Our plant is making bags for the Olympics. Our working hours are 8am to 6pm - no extended hours, no child labour."
Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee said he had not read the report, but added: "When we sign an agreement with a firm they have to make a commitment that they will completely honour China's Labour laws and regulations."
China does not allow child labour, he added.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6739159.stm
Published: 2007/06/10 21:48:10 GMT
Some official merchandise for the 2008 Olympics in China has been made using child labour, forced overtime and low wages to boost profits, a report says.
Playfair - an alliance of world trade unions - has condemned "severe workers' rights violations" in four Chinese factories ahead of the Beijing games.
The group said it found abuses at the factories - licensed to make official Olympic caps, bags and stationery.
Companies cited in the report have denied the allegations.
International Olympic Committee said it supported ethical practices.
The IOC is committed to being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic Movement that takes care of the Olympic brand in the best way possible
IOC
But in Britain, where the IOC is due to meet on Tuesday, trade unionists said tougher action was needed to make sure that the 2012 Games in London were not tarnished by similar accusations.
Investigators' report - entitled "No medal for the Olympics on labour rights" - cites "gross violations of basic labour standards... including adult wages at half the legal minimum, employment of workers as young as 12 years old".
It also highlights alleged labour rights violations, such as forced overtime, workers being instructed to lie about wages and conditions to outside inspectors and poor health and safety conditions.
BBC visits factories
Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said: "It brings shame on the whole Olympics movement that such severe violations of international labour standards are taking place in Olympics-licensed factories."
The IOC said it did not have direct control over merchandise companies - but that host cities were expected to follow guidelines on fair labour standards.
An IOC statement said: "The IOC is committed to being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic Movement that takes care of the Olympic brand in the best way possible.
"It matters to us is that sourcing is done ethically."
The BBC visited two of the factories named in the report, and managers denied the claims.
Lekit Stationery, is a Taiwanese company which has been operating in the city of Dongguan, in Guangdong Province, for the last 20 years. It is making paper cups, notebooks and stickers adorned with Olympic motifs.
The report accused the company of employing children and forcing them to work up to 13 hours a day.
"It's not true," company manager Michael Lee told the BBC. "We work for some of the best brand names in the world and they check our company every month."
He said the factory's 420 workers earned a basic monthly salary of about 700 yuan ($91; £46) and overtime was paid at time and a half.
'Good living environment'
Mainland Headwear Holdings, on the outskirts of the city of Shenzhen, also denied any wrongdoing.
Production director Samuel Wai told the BBC: "We follow all the government regulations here so I'm not sure where these complaints have come from.
"Employees here enjoy a very good living environment and working conditions."
The BBC spoke to some of the employees who live in the apartment buildings outside the factory, who agreed with Mr Wai's assessment.
Another company named in the report was Eagle Leather Products in Guangdong, which makes Olympics-branded bags.
Most workers were obliged to work 30 days per month, the report said, with forced overtime.
The Associated Press news agency reached the factory, speaking to a woman who identified herself only as Ms Chang.
"I cannot agree with the report," she said.
"Our plant is making bags for the Olympics. Our working hours are 8am to 6pm - no extended hours, no child labour."
Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee said he had not read the report, but added: "When we sign an agreement with a firm they have to make a commitment that they will completely honour China's Labour laws and regulations."
China does not allow child labour, he added.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6739159.stm
Published: 2007/06/10 21:48:10 GMT
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