Britain blasted as 'powerless' over China execution row

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

AFP
By Michael Thurston
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China ignored repeated appeals to show mercy on Akmal Shaikh, who was said to have suffered from a mental illness

LONDON — Relatives of a Briton executed in China accused Britain on Wednesday of being diplomatically powerless due to its economic dependence on the Asian giant, after Beijing ignored London's clemency appeals.

Two cousins of Akmal Shaikh also accused the West of double standards for citing human rights abuses to justify its invasions of countries such as Afghanistan but failing to take the same approach towards Beijing.

Shaikh, a father-of-three whom supporters say was mentally ill, was executed on Tuesday for drug smuggling despite extensive British ministerial lobbying that continued almost up until his execution.

But in a letter to the Guardian newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh lamented the lack of real British influence in the case.

"Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?" they wrote.

"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire."

The cousins noted that "one of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'."

"If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they, too, invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically.

"Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'."

Supporters of Akmal Shaikh held a vigil at the Chinese Embassy in London before his execution

The comments were far stronger than those of two other of Shaikh's cousins, Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, who travelled to China to meet the condemned Briton hours before his death.

China's ambassador Fu Ying was hauled into the Foreign Office hours after the execution on Tuesday to be told of Britain's anger, in what was described as a "difficult" meeting.

Junior foreign minister Ivan Lewis -- who had already summoned the Chinese envoy once on Monday in a last-ditch appeal for clemency -- said afterwards that Shaikh's death was "totally unacceptable."

But in Beijing officials insisted that Shaikh's legal rights had been fully protected, while a foreign ministry spokeswoman expressed "strong dissatisfaction and opposition to Britain's accusations."

Britain has vast trade and economic ties with China, and has long underlined the need to engage closely with the emerging global powerhouse despite criticism notably of China's human rights record.

But its ties with Beijing have also been more complicated than with many other countries, due to historical issues including the 1997 return of Hong Kong to China.

More recently Britain risked Chinese ire in September by sending Lewis to Tibet, where he underlined London's support for greater Tibetan autonomy.

Then at this month's Copenhagen climate summit environment minister Ed Miliband said China had led a group of countries that "hijacked" the negotiations.

Shaikh was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi in far western China with four kilograms (nine pounds) of heroin, but campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs.

He was the first national from a European Union country to be executed in China in 50 years, according to London-based charity Reprieve, which had been providing him with legal counsel.