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