Contact:

Oyunbilig

Executive Director

Inner Mongolian People's Party

Oyunbilig@InnerMongolia.org

301.299.0404

www.InnerMongolia.org

Princeton, NJ - Dec. 10, 1999     The Inner Mongolian People's Party recently learned that Mr. Hada, one of the prominent dissidents of Inner Mongolia, is constantly tortured and denied visits from his family members. Mr. Hada, a native of Khorchin Right Wing Front Banner of Inner Mongolia, was chairman of an underground organization "Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance" (SMDA). The goal of the organization is to preserve and protect the endangered Mongol culture and to promote the values of democracy, civil rights in Inner Mongolia by peaceful means. He and a dozen other members of the SMDA were arrested on Dec. 10, 1995 after staging a peaceful demonstration in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. He was charged of espionage and being a separatist and sentenced to 15 years in jail in Dec 1996. He is currently jailed in the Number 4 Prison of Inner Mongolia in the city of Chi Feng with regular criminals.

According to Ms. Xinna, wife of Hada, the jail authority asked the inmates to beat Mr. Hada constantly and even supplied the inmates with rubber clubs and electric prods. 2 officials from the prison, identified as officer Yang and Song by Xinna, threatened to kill Mr. Hada by pointing a handgun to his head twice. The jail authority also demanded Hada to divorce Ms. Xinna.

In a recent interview with us, Mr. Xinna also said that she believes her husband's mental health is in question. Hada experienced severe memory loss and hallucination. Upon repeated demands from Ms. Xinna, Mr. Hada was taken to a mental hospital for examination, but the authorities refused to release the result.

According to Ms. Xinna, visits by Mr. Hada's family members have been denied by the authorities. On August 27, 1999, after getting a refusal from the jail authorities to see Hada, Ms. Xinna applied to stage a demonstration in front of the city hall in the city of Chi Feng with her 14 years old son Uiles. The jail authority then agreed to deliver the clothes Xinna brought to Hada, but still refused to let her visit Mr. Hada. To date, Ms. Xinna hasn't been able to see her husband again.

Xinna believe that attention and pressure from the international community can help his husband. "Hada gets a bit better treatment from the authorities for a while every time there is a pressure from the outside, " She said. Currently her only hope is that the Chinese authorities can grant her request to transfer Mr. Hada to a jail in the city of Hohhot where Ms. Xinna lives. It takes Ms. Xinna about 20 hours to travel to the city of Chi Feng to see Mr. Hada.

Click here for more information on Mr. Hada.