Elderly Chinese Women Sentenced to Labor Re-Education

Two elderly women were sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor" after they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics, according to the son of one of the would-be protesters.

Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, went to Chinese police five times between Aug. 5 and Aug. 18 to seek approval to protest against officials who evicted them from their homes in 2001.

The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau did not approve or deny their applications during the first three visits. On the fourth visit, the women were told that they would receive a year's punishment, until July 29, 2009, for "disturbing the public order."

In response to international pressure, China said it would allow protests in three parks during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games. Earlier this week, the official New China News Service reported that police had received 77 applications but none has been approved

"Punishing Wu and Wang after they applied for protest permits and actively petitioned the government demonstrates that the official statements touting the new Olympics 'protest zones,' as well as the permit application process, were no more than a show," the executive director of Human Rights in China, Sharon Hom, said in a statement.

Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, cast the empty protest zones in a positive light, telling reporters Wednesday that the disputes brought by would-be protesters had been resolved.