The Supreme People's Procuratorate has established two hotlines to hear reports of job-related human rights violations, a major target of the nation's procuratorates from May 2004 to June 2005.

Human rights violations committed by government officials are defined by the procuratorate as dereliction of duty that causes serious life and property losses, illegal detention and search, extorting confessions and collecting evidence by violence, sabotaging elections and infringing on civil rights of citizens, and maltreating detainees.

Zhang Zhongfang, spokesman for the procuratorate, said reports from the public provide important evidence in such cases.

China has been beefing up human rights protection. The amendments to the Constitution, adopted by China's top legislature in March this year, clearly state, "the state respects and safeguards human rights."

The past months have witnessed a host of government officials punished administratively or in criminal courts for abuses of power that violate human rights. These include the officials responsible for rampant sales of substandard milk powder for babies in Anhui Province and those responsible for the stampede accident in Beijing's suburban Miyun County.

The procuratorate's hotline numbers are (010) 65252000 and (010) 65592000.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2004)