12 Jul 2008

China quiets a voice for quake victims

Three weeks after the earthquake in Sichuan Province, five bereaved fathers whose children died in collapsed schools sought help from a local human rights activist named Huang Qi.

The fathers visited Huang at the Tianwang Human Rights Center, an informal advocacy organization in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where Huang worked and lived. They told him how the four-story Dongqi Middle School had crumbled in an instant, burying their children alive.

Huang soon posted an article on his center's Web site, 64tianwang.com (offline now), describing their demands. They wanted compensation, an investigation into the schools' construction and for those responsible for the building's collapse to be held accountable - if there indeed was negligence.

A week later, plainclothes officers intercepted Huang on the street outside his home and stuffed him into a car. The police have informed his wife and mother that they are holding him on suspicion of illegally possessing state secrets.

International Herald Tribune