The US-based rights group in a new report called on China to shut down the detention facilities, many of which it said were housed in state-owned hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric care units, and bring their managers to justice.

"The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law," said Sophie Richardson, the group's Asia advocacy director.

"The government should move swiftly to close these facilities, investigate those running them and provide assistance to those abused in them," she said in a statement accompanying the report.

Human Rights Watch said it had compiled the report from research carried out in Beijing and several other Chinese cities in April and May this year, including interviews with 38 people who said they were held in black jails.

The group said many of those imprisoned illegally by government officials, security forces and their agents were petitioners seeking redress from authorities over a variety of problems, from land grabs to police misconduct.

"This is a particularly pernicious form of detention," Richardson told a press conference in Hong Kong, noting that it was impossible to know how many "black jails" existed or how many detainees were held as there were no records.

There could be 50 black jails in the Beijing area alone, she said.

In the Chinese capital, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang reiterated Beijing's denial of the existence of such facilities, telling reporters: "I can assure you that there are no so-called 'black jails' in China."

He said petitioners were permitted to go through the "proper channels" to air their grievances, and their cases would be handled "according to the law".

"The Chinese government follows the principle of listening to the people," Qin said.

According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, guards in black jails routinely subject people to abuses such as physical violence, theft, and deprivation of food, sleep and medical care.

Two-thirds of the former detainees interviewed by the rights group said they had been physically abused, and some said they were threatened with sexual violence. Witnesses said minors were among those held.

Guards told a 42-year-old woman from the southwestern province of Sichuan that if she attempted to escape, they would "take me to the male prison and let (the inmates) take turns raping (me)," the report said.

Local officials set up the jails to ensure that petitioners who have travelled to major cities to air their grievances are detained, punished and sent home, according to the rights group.

In this way, they avoid receiving penalties that are imposed if large numbers of petitioners come from their areas, Human Rights Watch said.

"There are significant incentives for local officials to keep petitioners off the street," Richardson said.

"China has laws that set out how arrests and detentions should take place, but the government is blatantly ignoring those in the cases of black jails and those detained in them," Richardson said in a statement.

"A failure to live up to its own legal standards -- let alone international standards -- is not the hallmark of a government aspiring to global respect."

Chinese activist stuck in 'Terminal' limbo at Japan airport
Tokyo (AFP) Nov 12, 2009 - A Chinese rights activist said Thursday he had been stuck in limbo at a Tokyo airport for nine days after his country's communist government denied him the right to return home.

In a situation reminiscent of the stateless man portrayed in the film "The Terminal", Feng Zhenghu has been camped out on a couch near the immigration checkpoint at Narita International Airport since November 4.

"I've been here for nine days, eight nights. I have not had a lot to eat or drink," he told AFP on Thursday at Narita's Terminal 1.

"I have a Chinese passport that is valid for three more years. I have a valid visa for Japan, but I do not want to stay in Japan. I want to go home."

London-based human rights group Amnesty International lists Feng Zhenghu as a prominent activist who has been jailed in the past.

He told AFP, speaking in Chinese, that he had tried to go back to China eight times since he came to Japan in April for a break, having served 41 days in detention at the hands of Shanghai authorities earlier this year.

He said Japan, where many of his family members live, is a safe and comfortable country, but that he now wanted to exercise his right to return to his home country.

"Four times I was turned back by Shanghai authorities at the Pudong airport. They did not let me into the country," he said, adding that he had first tried to go home in June.

"The other four times, Japanese airlines refused to allow me onto the aeroplane. I strongly protest these actions. According to the UN (charter), no nation has the right to refuse the citizenship of its nation.

"Chinese law also stipulates this. What they have done to me is a violation of UN regulations and China's own law."

Despite his ordeal, Feng looked well-kempt and clean shaven, but speaking in broken Japanese, he said, "My stomach has become small."

He was also displaying a Chinese-language message -- which said in part "China Shanghai ... abducted ... difficulty returning home" -- written in black marker pen on a white tank-top that he had draped over his small suitcase.

He told AFP that his lawyer, Mo Shaoping, had sued Chinese local authorities in a Shanghai court for refusing him entry.

Feng said he had also launched legal action in a Japanese court over the airlines' refusal to allow him onto a China-bound plane earlier despite the fact he had a valid passport.

"I haven't seen a case like this before," said a spokesman for the Japanese immigration service at Narita.

"We have tried to convince him to enter Japan, but it is his choice to stay there," he told AFP.

The spokesman added that, until Feng seeks to re-enter Japan, his case is not the responsibility of the immigration service.

"Without such a request, the immigration authority cannot do anything about this," the spokesman said.

Feng said he had bought eight tickets back to China and had not been refunded for any of them.

He started his latest attempt to return to China after visiting the United States in October, the month China held its National Day celebrations.

Overseas-based activists in an unsigned statement said supporters planned to fly into Narita airport on a "Tokyo Airlift" to bring Feng food and offer their support, and called on others to do the same.

The supporters, in a message that gave no sign of affiliation to a political or rights group, said Feng first entered Japan on April 1.

Another rights activist, named as Yang Kuanxing, was quoted as saying: "Feng's situation is the movie 'The Terminal', with starvation. However, Feng's personal remake of Spielberg's blockbuster lacks the same humour and romance."

Steven Spielberg's 2004 film "The Terminal" tells that story of a man trapped in New York's JFK airport when he is denied entry to the United States but cannot return home because a revolution there has invalidated his passport.

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