China Rights Activist’s Family Sends Appeal After Beijing Home was Demolished
Posted by chinaview on November 30, 2008
Human Rights in China, November 24, 2008-
Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that, on November 21, 2008, authorities in Beijing’s Xicheng District used a bulldozer to demolish the home of rights defense activist Ni Yulan (倪玉兰), who has been in detention since April 2008 without a trial.
Her husband, Dong Jiqin (董继勤),has been made homeless and has been sleeping in a train station in Beijing since the forced demolition. Dong has asked HRIC to issue an appeal on his behalf (see below), to call public attention to the plight of the family, and for assistance to the family.
According to Dong, the demolished house is the private property lawfully co-owned by Dong’s family. Dong Jiqin and Ni Yulan have legal rights to the property. Because Ni Yulan was a rights defense activist, however, the developers and relevant government department never entered into talks with the family regarding issues of demolition and compensation. The result was an illegal operation, utilizing official power to carry out forced eviction.
Ni Yulan is handicapped and relies on two crutches to walk. She became a rights defender so that she could use the law to defend her own rights and interests. She also helped other petitioners and people who lost their homes to fight for their lawful rights, and was beaten and detained many times by the authorities because of her work.
In April 2008, she was officially arrested on suspicion of “obstructing official business.” She was originally scheduled to be tried on August 4, but the court postponed the trial without explanation. Ni Yulan has been detained in the Beijing Xicheng Detention Center and has suffered beatings and other ill-treatment, which resulted in her poor health.
The appeal letter available on Human Rights in China (HRIC) website
This entry was posted on November 30, 2008 at 11:09 am and is filed under Beijing, China, City resident, Forced Evictions, Human Rights, Law, Life, News, People, Politics, Social, Women, World, housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
