SMHRIC

Jan 14, 2011

New York

Below is a sample letter to President Obama suggested by the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, urging the White House to bring the case of Hada and his family to the attention of Chinese President Hu Jintao during his upcoming visit to Washington D.C.:

January xx, 2011
The White House (by Fax 202-456-2461)
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

My name is [Your Name], a resident of [Your Town, State]. The purpose of my letter is to bring to your attention my concerns about an extreme human rights violation in China as heinous as the imprisonment of the Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. It is the story of a prominent ethnic Mongolian dissident who spent 15 years in a Chinese prison on baseless charges of “separatism” and “espionage” and then was immediately taken into detention on his scheduled release day. Equally disturbing is that his wife and son were taken into police custody the week prior to his release date. Since December 18, 2010 there has been a virtual black out of information about their whereabouts or conditions because the authorities have imposed a curtain of silence around their friends and relatives. This is particularly concerning since both Mr. Hada and his wife are ill.

Mr. Hada, an ethnic Mongol scholar, founded the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (SMDA) to promote Mongolian culture and ethnic identity among the Mongols in China, and to advocate Southern Mongolian democracy and human rights. Although the activities of the SMDA were completely in keeping with the laws of China, Mr. Hada was  accused of trumped up charges related to ‘splittism’ and sentenced to an exceptionally long jail term. He suffered unbearably inhumane treatment in prison. Following Mr. Hada’s imprisonment, his family-run book shop was forcibly closed several times by Chinese authorities and his wife and son were frequently harassed and interrogated. His son had to drop out from high school to struggle for a living. The family was supposed to have been reunited after this long traumatic separation on December 10, 2010 however as of today, more than a month following his scheduled release, there is no news regarding the whereabouts of the family. Details regarding events over the past month are available on the website of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (www.smhric.org) as well as articles in the electronic New York Times (www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/world/asia/14china.html) and the Amnesty International website (www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/001/2011/en).

Mr. President, I know you share my concerns about human rights and if you knew the details of this case, you would be as concerned about Mr. Hada, his wife Xinna and son Uiles as I am and therefore I would like to ask that you help find effective channels of communication to the government of China to free Mr. Hada and his family. I urge you to intercede on their behalf and ask President Hu Jintao directly on his upcoming visit to Washington for information about Mr. Hada and his family and to release them on humanitarian grounds. For this, I would be very grateful as would so many other persecuted people within the borders of China who have no voice to speak freely on their own behalf.

Sincerely yours,

[Your name and address]