Chinese activist evicted from flat by security forces
Published on TaipeiTimes
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/10/01/2003273993
AP , BEIJING
Saturday, Oct 01, 2005,Page 5
A Chinese human-rights activist said yesterday authorities have evicted her from her Beijing apartment as part of their efforts to stop her from helping peasants and other people who protest government actions.
Hou Wenzhuo, 36, said she was packing up her possessions following an order to vacate the second-story premises in the capital's Haidian district.
An officer who answered the telephone at the Haidian police station referred questions to the main Beijing city station, where calls were not answered.
Hou is the founder of the Empowerment and Rights Institute, which helps farmers and others with complaints against China's communist government.
She began the group early last year after studying human rights and refugee law at Harvard University Law School and Britain's Oxford University.
Her group is supported by the US-based National Endowment for Democracy.
Hou said she had first been informed that she would have to leave her modest apartment on Wednesday.
"The situation is very tense now," she said, pointing to a uniformed soldier standing in the street adjacent to her building.
"They told me this evening, absolutely this evening by 6 o'clock, if I don't get out by that time they're going to do everything to get me out," she said.
Hou said she had already been evicted from one apartment and that officials had closed the offices of her Beijing institute as part of their campaign to get her to stop work on her human-rights activities.
She said that she had been put under house arrest when UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour visited Beijing in late August.
Hou denied that the activities of her institute constitute a threat to China's government.
"I personally think all I did was moderate human-rights work," she said. "We help farmers, we help petitioners and ordinary laborers.
The type of work we do is just educating ordinary Chinese people about civil rights, about their human rights, and encourage them to participate in local elections."
Hou said the timing of her eviction appeared to be connected to today's National Day holiday, an occasion routinely accompanied by wide-ranging police sweeps aimed at cleansing China's capital of petitioners and other aggrieved citizens.
"I think there are people being watched more, being put under some sort of house arrest," she said.
The measures are part of the government's ongoing efforts to curb a growing number of organized protests, especially in its poverty-stricken countryside.
Demonstrators frequently complain about pollution, incompetent or corrupt local governments, the seizure of farmland for real estate development, and other problems.
Last month the Chinese government signed an agreement with the UN human-rights agency to collaborate on reforming China's legal system in preparation for adopting a key UN treaty on civil and political rights.
Nevertheless, many human-rights groups accuse China of suppressing independent religious groups, harassing labor and political activists and enforcing a birth-control policy that limits most urban couples to one child.
China says it has worked hard to ensure basic human rights by reforming its economy, which has improved the overall standard of living of its people.
"Testing the waters of official tolerance in the communist country."
-The Standard, May 19, 2005
"There are still courageous people in China who despite the risks, are pressing for reform. There's even a Chinese human rights group [the Empowerment and Rights Institute]."
-ABC Radio Australia, July 10, 2005
"Empowerment and Rights Institute, a leading legal and human rights advisory group."
-New York Times, August 30, 2005
"Active in helping farmers fight for their rights in illegal land seizures."
-South China Morning Post, August 31, 2005
