Xinna, Hada and Uiles at Inner Mongolia No.4 Prison reception room (SMHRIC photo)

Seventeen years have passed since the arrest of Mr. Hada in 1995. He was found guilty of “engaging in espionage and splitting the country” and given a 15 year jail term. Exactly two years ago today, Hada completed his full prison term of 15 years in the Inner Mongolia Prison No.4 at Ulaanhad (Chifeng in Chinese) City of Southern (Inner) Mongolia. But on his release date, the Chinese authorities placed him under arbitrary detention. Equally egregiously, the authorities arrested his wife Ms. Xinna and son Mr. Uiles a week before his expected release date.

Due to Hada and his family members’ refusal to admit to any crime or wrongdoing, Xinna was sentenced to 3 years in jail with 5 years reprieve on a trumped up charge of “engaging in illegal business”. The sentence was delivered after Ms. Xinna had spent 16 months under illegal detention. Hada's son Uiles was also put under a de facto indefinite house arrest after a year-long detention accused of “drug possession”. 

“We are not allowed to visit Hada now and are really worried about Hada’s health condition,” Ms. Xinna told the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) in a telephone interview. Their phone line had been cut off for at least a week recently.

“My Internet access has been cut off, and my cell phone has been taken away by police,” Uiles told SMHRIC. Three policemen from the Inner Mongolia Public Security Bureau who followed Uiles around the clock suddenly attacked him on the street and beat him up severely before taking away his cell phone.

“I knew they were following me all the time. I just took out my cell phone and started to take pictures of them,” Uiles described how the beating took place, “then they got close to me and asked what I am doing. I told them I was taking their pictures. They suddenly attacked me and violently beat me up and took my cell phone away.”

Hoping for better treatment following China’s 18^th National Congress, both Uiles and Xinna wrote letters to the Chinese authorities separately. The letters are attached below.

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Xinna’s Letter to IMAR Public Security Bureau Director Ma Ming

To Ma Ming, Director of Inner Mongolia Public Security Bureau,

Greetings!

My husband Hada was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 1995 in connection with an ethnic issue. On Decemebr 10, 2010, he completed his prison term. Yet, he has not been freed. He has already been illegally detained by the Inner Mongolia Public Security Bureau State Security Brigade at Jin Ye Ecological Technical Garden in southern suburban Hohhot for almost two years.

Today, I am writing to you about the following three issues:

1.  Detaining Hada after the completion of his full prison term is an illegal act. I urge you to release him immediately. The authority's reason for the continuing detention of Hada is that he is being deprived of his political rights for four years. This has no legal basis at all. Deprivation of political rights is not equal to deprivation of personal freedom. This type of arbitrary distortion of law is a rare practice in modern China. I hope in your new term you correct this past mistake, exercise justice in accordance with the law, release Hada and grant a reunion with out family as quickly as possible.

2.  In the spirit of “ruling the country by law and building a more humane society”, please allow our family members to visit Hada on a regular basis. Originally the Public Security Bureau State Security Brigade stated that we can visit Hada anytime. However, since mid-July this year, they have failed to live up to their promise, and barred mother and son from visiting Hada. The Prison Act Article 48 clearly states that criminals can be visited by family members regularly in accordance with the law. Even a criminal in prison can be visited by family members, let alone Hada who has completed his prison term but is being illegally detained by the Public Security Bureau. Therefore, barring us today from visiting Hada has no legal justification. It is completely unacceptable that Hada is still being imprisoned even after completing his full prison term. Fifteen years ago, we were somehow allowed to visit Hada occasionally. Today, he is denied the visitation right even though he was discharged from the prison where he completed his full prison term.

3.  Given that the 18^th National Congress has ended, I hope past mistakes can be corrected to start a new beginning, and the long-pending case of our family is resolved in a just manner. I hope after the 18^th National Congress, the rule of law is implemented in the light of day in China. We have been appealing for a just resolution on Hada’s case for years in hopes of “right prevails over evil”. Unfortunately, previous leaders of the authorities failed to address the ethic problems. In handling the case of Hada and his family members, the actions taken by the authorities have been out-dated and full of errors. Indiscriminant political repression has criminalized everyone. Thus, all three members of my family have become “criminals”. In our daily life, we have deliberately been given a hard time; the internet is blocked; telephone line is cut off; we are followed outdoors, and monitored indoors; I am not allowed to run my bookstore or to auction my books. Through these actions they hope to alienate us from the common public and marginalize us from society. When will these days of “prisoners outside prison” be put to an end? Previously I wrote to Mr. Hu Chunhua and Mr. Li Jia. Today I am writing to you in consideration of your youthful age and in hopes of your kind consideration in dealing with politics in ethnic issues.

It has been 17 years already since Hada’s arrest. Life has been extremely difficult for us both mother and son over these years. I believe no one would be calm and unemotional if he or she personally experienced such hardships. One can walk out of the debris of history, but one cannot come out of the dark shadow of persecution.

Sincerely,

Xinna, wife of Hada

November 22, 2012

(English translation by SMHRIC)

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Letter from Uiles to Chinese President Xi Jinping

Dear Mr. President Xi Jinping,

My name is Uiles, 28 years old, ethnic Mongolian. I am the son of Southern Mongolian dissident Hada. I hope after you receive this letter you will please send your Public Security personnel to execute me and my mother or arrest and take us away lest we die at home of hunger and suffering. 

During the Jiang Zemin era, my father was sentenced to 15 years in jail for "engaging in espionage and splitting the country". At that time, I was still a young child left to my mother who on the one hand, raised me by herself and on the other hand appealed for the release of my father during those years. Due to our years of tireless appeals for justice, we have gradually come around to being regarded by the authorities as a "different sort". Unwarranted persecutions were carried over from the political sphere to our daily life. Our bookstore, the only source of our livelihood, has been shutdown. Misery has become our permanent companion.

When it came to the Hu Jintao era, despite our hopes for improvement, things have gone from bad to worse. Due to the fact that during his imprisonment my father did not admit to any crime or wrongdoing, on the eve of his expected release date, the authorities threatened him and said that his wife and son would be thrown into prison if he refused to admit to his crimes. As a result, my father remains in prison even after the completion of his prison term.

My mother has been sentenced (to 3 years in jail with 5 years reprieve) on a charge of "engaging in illegal business". I have been falsely accused of being involved in "drug possession" for answering interviews by foreign news media. As such, all three members of my family have become "criminals". After being discharged from detention, I and my mother found out that during this period the authorities have continued to torture my father physically and mentally. Thus, we appealed to the international community in regards to his situation. For this, we are still under house arrest, and our basic daily expenses have fallen to zero. This is because the authorities have prohibited us from going out to make a living, deliberately pushing us toward the edge of death through starvation at home. My mother has already fallen ill, and I myself have utterly despaired.

The 18th National Congress has ended already. I must say that if you still feel we are causing troubles, please send someone immediately to execute me and my mother, lest we starve to death at our home in a few days and relieve us of the suffering we are experiencing from this miserable life and endless despair.

Citizen Uiles,

November 11, 2012

(English translation by SMHRIC)