The third phase of a national program concerning petitions was launched on Thursday. The latest regulations, announced by the Ministry of Public Security, provide that heads of public security departments will receive petitioners face to face. The Guangdong provincial public security bureau (PSB) was one of the local authorities to give force to the regulations. For now, it is starting the ball rolling with a four-week campaign.

Statistics from the Guangdong provincial PSB show that the department had received 13,183 petitioners since the ministry first launched the national campaign on May 18. Over 7,234 complaints had been handled properly, which is 94.1 percent of the total number of complaints received as at August 14.

Some of the measures that the provincial PSB has implemented include obliging department heads to personally listen to petitioner's complaints and personally supervise work to address the complaints; all petitioners are to receive replies in writing within a certain time limit; all complaints will be handled legally, properly until petitioners are satisfied with the results.

According to the provincial PSB, six kinds of petitions will precede all others in priority:

?Cases that have been unduly delayed and which affect petitioners personally;

?Petitions alleging the wrongful extraction of confessions, for example, through torture;

?Petitions alleging abuses of power by policemen that infringe on personal freedoms;

?Petitions involving policemen bending rules for the benefit of friends and relatives;

?Petitions relating to illegally or wrongly imposed fines; and

?Petitions alleging police malpractice and/or negligence resulting in the infringement on personal rights and interests.

Petitions and complaints have to be registered in their hometown police bureaus before submission to the provincial PSB. Petitioners must present their identity cards when making an appointment to meet with the provincial PSB heads.

According to a schedule published by the Guangdong PSB, police chiefs will receive petitioners on August 18, 19, 24, 25, 31 and September 1 and 6. 

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan August 19, 2005)