Inner Mongolian Right Activist Beaten in Secret Detention

NTDTV October 4, 2011
New photos show the abuse suffered by a Mongolian rights activist at the hands of local authorities in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The woman, Huuchinchuu Govruud, is a well-known dissident writer. The Chinese regime banned her books for what they called, (quote) “posting separatist content.”

Huuchinchuu disappeared on January 27th. Rights organization the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center recently released the photos and information about her condition. The organization says she’s being held at an undisclosed location in Inner Mongolia’s Tongliao City, and is being subjected to frequent harassment and beatings. This is because of her activism and membership to an organization the Chinese regime has banned—the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance.

A Mongolian rights activist based in Germany, Xi Haiming, says Huuchinchuu has endured years of harassment.

[Xi Haiming, Mongolian Rights Activist]:
“These past few years they haven’t left her alone. They put her under surveillance, her phone was tapped, her Internet was cut off, but she didn’t surrender. She loathed this government control and didn’t cooperate.”

The leader of Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance, Hada has been imprisoned for 15 years and is still in jail although his sentence ended last year. Huuchinchuu was briefly detained and then put under house arrest in late 2010 for rallying for Hada’s release.

Rights activists say the situation is similar for anyone who fights for human rights in Inner Mongolia.

[Mr. Li, Mongolian Human Rights Activist]:
“This is our human rights situation, the risks are extremely great. There are human rights activists here who have vanished without a trace. They are nowhere to be found. They were all legal activists.”

Huuchinchuu is a single mother who was being treated for breast cancer. She had fought for human rights in Inner Mongolia for the last two decades.