Given Xu Wenli's state of health, the way the prison is treating him and the general conditions in jail, it will be very difficult for him to recover

Letter to Mary Robinson

In an open letter to Mary Robinson, 35 dissidents ask her to press the Chinese Government to give proper medical treatment to Xu Wenli, who suffers from Hepatitis B and is reported to be seriously ill.

Xu is one of the most prominent dissidents inside a Chinese jail. He received a 13-year sentence in 1998 for trying to organise a pro-democracy political party.

In the letter, which was distributed by the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the dissidents indicate that Xu's health has deteriorated markedly.

He has lost all his teeth and his hair has turned white, they say, but he has only received cheap, basic medicine from the authorities.

Mary Robinson: In China to discuss the labour camp system with the authorities

The dissidents call on Mrs Robinson to ask the government to allow Xu to be treated outside prison, and to let his wife see him.

Among the signatories are Ren Wending, arrested in 1979 during the "Democracy Wall" movement and then again for participating the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, and He Depu, an outspoken member of the short-lived China Democracy Party that Xu helped organise.

Xu's wife, He Xintong, has been under police surveillance during Mrs Robinson's previous trips to China, including one last March when she went on a 24-hour hunger strike to bring her husband's plight to the high commissioner's attention.

Labour camps seminar

Mrs Robinson is to meet Chinese officials in Beijing on Monday while overseeing a two-day seminar on police powers to send suspects to labour camps without trial.

Although the labour camp system was intended for minor offenders such as prostitutes and drug addicts, correspondents say China has used it to punish opponents of communist rule and followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

The seminar - the first of a series under UN auspices that will examine China's courts, police and labour camp system - was part of an agreement the high commissioner signed in Beijing last November.

Mrs Robinson is also expected to urge Beijing to ratify two UN human rights treaties, one on economic rights and the other covering political liberties.

China has signed the two, but its highest legislative body, the National People's Congress, has yet to approve them.