|
This is a long-term case. We
ourselves write 4 letters every month.
We update the page when there is anything new Updated November
2009.
More developments
in Hada's case.

Hada with his wife and son, photographed in the reception
room of the prison
Hu Jintao Guojia Zhuxi
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie
Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
People's Republic of China
Your Excellency,
Hada should be released at once. He has
already been 14 years in prison, at Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, for the non-crime of upholding Mongolian
indigenous culture.
He is very ill, and his medical records
should be released to his family, so that there can be proper
treatment for him when he is released.
He is allowed almost no reading. He is
a scholar, and is anxious to read books and newspapers so
as to know about the world from which he has been isolated
for 14 years. The books and newspapers sent to the prison
by his family should be given to him.
The case of Hada is very well known to
Mongolian people everywhere and to many people in other countries.
You could use your power to improve the treatment of this
good man and to restore him to freedom.
Yours respectfully and sincerely,
________________________________________
This case has touched the heart of the Amnesty International
group in Lyme Regis, and we have for several years been patiently
sending letters to four different Chinese officials every
month, besides getting hundreds of postcards to Hada signed
by members of the public several times a year, though we fear
they may not reach him in his cell.
Hada is not allowed to read books or newspapers, even the
official Chinese ones; has no access to radio, television
or, of course, the internet; cannot receive mail or phone
calls or talk with other prisoners. The boredom, for a scholar,
writer, and bookseller, must be maddening. When his wife and
child, rarely, can visit, they have to talk by a phone through
a small thick glass window. But at least, because of those
visits, Hada knows of your appeals and is helped by the emotional
support.
If you would like more addresses to which to write
(officials of the central Chinese government and of Inner
Mongolia province), e-mail
to us.
For more about Inner Mongolia and its treatment by
China, see the website of the Southern
Mongolian Human Rights Information Center.
For more about Hada, see the website of SMHRIC's Free
Hada Now campaign.
Information from Amnesty International's Urgent
Actions and from the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information
Center:
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (in Chinese, Nei Menggu
Zizhiqu) is the part of Mongolia included in northern China.
Hada (many Mongols have one-word names) was born on Jan.
16, 1956. He was a teacher and editor. In 1990 he and his
wife Xinna opened a small "Mongolian Studies Bookstore"
in Hohhot (Chinese Huhehaote), the provincial capital. Intellectuals
used to gather there and discuss ways to preserve Mongolian
identity. In 1992 Hada and others founded the Southern Mongolian
Democratic Alliance (SMDA), for peaceful promotion of human
rights, Mongolian culture, and "the concept of a high
degree of autonomy for China's minority nationalities",
as guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution and the Ethnic Regional
Autonomy Law. He edited a journal, The Voice of Southern
Mongolia, and wrote a book, The Way Out for Southern
Mongols, mentioning mass killings, reduction of Mongol
population by birth control, mass immigration of Chinese,
suppression of Mongol religion and culture, and environmental
destruction, but only urging Mongols to stand up for their
rights under China's constitution. (Mongolians have been reduced
to 20% of the 24 million population of Inner Mongolia.) Hada
and others organized a demonstration and a school strike.
On 10 December 1995 World Human Rights Day!
a dozen police raided the bookstore, and arrested Hada.
The next day hundreds of Mongolian students took to the streets
calling for Hada's release. Instead, many of the protesters
were arrested, also Hada's wird Xinna and his brother Has,
who spent 3 months in prison without charge. Hada's small
son Uiles, born in 1984, was left at home alone; the bookshop
was closed down, all the books, research papers and other
properties confiscated. After a year of detention, Hada and
Tegexi, another member of SMDA,were tried behind closed doors
on 6 December 1996 for "splitting the country",
"conspiring to overthrow the government", and "espionage".
They were not allowed a lawyer or to defend themselves. They
were sentenced to 15 and 10 years' imprisonment respectively.
Their appeals were denied two months later. Tegexi was due
for release in 2005; Hada in December 2010.
Hada is in Inner Mongolia's Prison 4, at Chifeng. (The city's
Mongol name is Ulaan-Hada! Ulaan means "red"
and hada means "rock" or "cliff".)
This is 400 miles east of Hohhot and much farther by train.
China's Prison Law allows twice-monthly visits by relatives,
yet they have not been allowed regular visits.
They fear he may not survive to the end of his sentence.
Severe beatings and ill-treatment in prison have broken his
health, and he is very weak. Some of the injuries he sustained
from torture have not healed. He has had a recurrence of tuberculosis,
has arthritis, high blood pressure, and heart problems, for
which he has not received adequate medical treatment. It is
reported that he is not given enough food. He has often been
put in solitary confinement, once as long as 66 days. He is
not allowed to talk to other inmates or to exercise in the
open air. He is not allowed phone calls or letters from his
family.
Xinna and Uiles were left in destitution. The bookshop being
their only source of income, Xinna made long effort to re-open
it, and was at last allowed to, but had to reduce the number
of books, especially those with "sensitive topics".
Police and security people frequently came to harass her and
issue fines for no real reason. They prevented her from taking
jobs. She has been has been harassed by the Bureau of Public
Security and the Bureau of National Security, put under close
surveillance, detained. questioned, and beaten.
Further developments
in Hada's case
|