China ratifies UN safety convention
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-28 22:35

China's top legislature Saturday passed a resolution ratifying the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, to protect the safety of the increasingly large number of Chinese citizens working overseas.

The 11th session of the 10th National People's Congress Standing Committee, which concluded Saturday, also ratified a cooperative agreement between China and Uzbekistan to combat terrorism, splitism and extremism.

The Convention on the safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, which was formulated by the United Nations and took effect in 1995, has been accepted by 72 countries including Russia, Britain and France.

"As China is taking a more active role in UN peacekeeping operations, the accession to this convention is conducive to the protection of Chinese personnel joining UN peacekeeping actions," said Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui.

"If Chinese peacekeepers are harmed, China has the right to demand the relevant countries prosecute the suspects or extradite them to China according to the convention," he said.

China has sent 2,500 military personnel and 220 civil police to participate in UN peacekeeping operations over the past ten years, with some casualties.

"The convention provides a legal basis for China to make an extradition request to other signing parties," he said.

Another official with the Foreign Ministry said that the protection of ordinary Chinese citizens' safety overseas is also the goal of China's accession to the convention.

In 1978, only 200,000 Chinese citizens went abroad, while in 2003 the figure rose to 20.2 million.

"In recent years we often heard news of Chinese citizens overseas being attacked. In Kirghizstan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Chinese diplomats and citizens have been attacked by terrorists," the official said.

Since the beginning of this year, 10 incidents have occurred in which Chinese citizens got attacked or killed overseas, with more than 70 wounded or dead, according to rough statistics.

The Chinese government has begun to pay great attention to this issue. On July 19 the State Council, China's cabinet, held a special working conference to discuss the safety protection of overseas citizens and organizations.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry last month set up a new department for external security affairs, with the aim to cope with increasing non-traditional security factors concerning Chinese citizens overseas, and study the changes in the new situation.

By May 2004, China had signed just 21 bilateral extradition agreements, which restrained the effort to protect its own citizens overseas, said an official with the Department of Treaty and Law of the Foreign Ministry.

"So China is speeding up the ratification of some multilateral treaties to protect its overseas citizens' safety and interest through judicial means," the official said.

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