Environmental Activist Sun Xiaodi Faces Stepped-up Harassment after International Award

By HRIC
Jan 2, 2007 – 5:59:08 PM

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Gansu-based activist Sun Xiaodi is facing serious harassment by local officials and unknown persons, and has been unable to obtain official permission to seek medical treatment in Beijing for a potentially life-threatening health condition.

Sun Xiaodi has spent more than a decade petitioning the central authorities over radioactive contamination from the No. 792 Uranium Mine in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province. On December 1, 2006, HRIC presented Sun’s acceptance message for the prestigious Nuclear-Free Future Award in Window Rock, Arizona. The award selection was made by a jury of international environmentalists, activists, scholars and journalists.

Sources in China told HRIC that Sun has faced an intensification of harassment since he was presented with the Nuclear-Free Future Award. He is under constant surveillance by State Security officials, and since December 5 has experienced several midnight raids on his home by unknown persons throwing stones at his door and windows. Sources say that when Sun reported the attacks to local state security officers, they told him, “You’re free to leave if you want to!”

Sun has long been a thorn in the side of local officials because of his petitioning over the radioactive contamination, and since being detained briefly in early 2006, he has had his water and electricity shut off numerous times for no apparent reason. Although he is no longer officially under residential surveillance, in practice his every movement is monitored, and if he leaves the area for any reason, he is followed and interviewed by security personnel upon his return. He has also been the subject of official slander.

In November, a medical examination revealed a 4-5-centimeter tumor in Sun’s abdominal cavity. (Residents of the area where Sun Xiaodi lives suffer an unusually high rate of cancer and other health conditions associated with radioactive contamination.) Given the limitations of local medical facilities, Sun put in a request with local public security officials for permission to go to Beijing for further diagnosis and treatment, but after nearly two months he has received no reply. Sun is currently experiencing such physical discomfort that he has difficulty sleeping, and in addition to the tumor he suffers from gall stones and coronary heart disease.

Background information on Sun Xiaodi:

Sun began reporting the illegal resale of contaminated equipment, illegal mining and careless disposal of untreated water in 1988, while he was working as a warehouse manager at Mine No. 792. However, his repeated petitions to provincial and central government officials resulted in nothing more than his dismissal in 1994, and discriminatory treatment of his wife and daughter. In the face of constant persecution and harassment, Sun continued his campaign against the illegal mining practices, which continued even after the mine was officially closed in 2002 and became a private company under the administration of the Gansu Province government and Ministry of Nuclear Industry, with many local officials as shareholders.

Sun observed how a region of green fields, clear waters and woodlands filled with wildlife was transformed into a wasteland in which plants wither, livestock die and people suffer from birth defects and abnormal cancerous growths. Tibetan medical workers have attributed nearly half of the human deaths in the region to a variety of radioactivity-related cancers and immune system diseases.

In April 2005, Sun disappeared while petitioning in Beijing, shortly after meeting with foreign journalists to describe the environmental degradation in Gansu. After being secretly moved from place to place for eight months, he was finally released from Lanzhou Prison on December 27, 2005. Despite official warnings and restrictions on his movement, Sun resumed his petitioning, and was detained again in April 2006. He was released soon afterward, but remains under constant police surveillance, and his communication with the outside world has been severely curtailed.

Related Link about Sun Xiaodi:

http://www.boxun.us/news/publish/chinanews/Sun_Xiaodi_Receives_International_Nuclear_Activism_Award.shtml