Show us missing rights lawyer, EU's Ashton urges China

Feb 9, 2010, 19:52 GMT

Brussels - The European Union's foreign-policy director on Tuesday urged the Chinese government to say what it knows about the whereabouts of missing human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, over a year after his disappearance.

'The EU notes with concern that on February 4, 2010, one year passed since the prominent human-rights lawyer Mr Gao Zhisheng disappeared from his home town in Shaanxi province,' Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

'The EU is especially concerned at recent reports that Mr Gao has 'gone missing.' In this context, the EU urges China to clarify without delay the situation of Gao Zhisheng and to open a fully independent and transparent investigation into his disappearance,' the statement said.

Ashton was appointed as the EU's first-ever head of foreign policy, a job created by the Lisbon Treaty, in November. Earlier she served as the EU's trade commissioner.

'During the last year, the EU has repeatedly called on the Chinese government, at the highest level ... to reveal the whereabouts of Mr Gao, to give Mr Gao access to a lawyer and to allow Mr Gao to maintain contact with his family,' the statement said.

China maintains a regular human-rights dialogue with the EU, but maintains that the bloc has no right to intervene in what it sees as purely internal matters, such as detentions.