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China quake activist detained: rights group
Beijing (AFP) April 1, 2009 Police in southwestern China have detained an activist who was investigating whether shoddy construction caused school collapses in last year's massive earthquake, a rights groups said Wednesday. The detention of Tan Zuoren comes amid a crackdown by authorities in Sichuan province ahead of the first anniversary of the devastating May 12 quake, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement. Tan was taken away Saturday by police who also searched his home in the provincial capital Chengdu, confiscating some documents, the group said. "It is believed that Tan was detained for mobilising volunteers to conduct an independent investigation (into) the causes of the collapsed school buildings," said the group, a network of domestic and overseas activists. It said Tan was detained on "suspicion of subverting state power," a charge typically used to silence government critics. Chengdu police refused comment when contacted by AFP. AFP efforts to reach Tan and his family by phone were unsuccessful. Schools bore the brunt of the Sichuan quake, with thousands collapsing on top of students, fuelling angry charges from parents that corruption had led to shoddy construction. The 8.0-magnitude earthquake left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing. A top Sichuan official last month declined to give a tally of dead students, saying the figure was still being calculated, nearly a year after the disaster. The rights group said Tan had published online commentaries critical of the government after the quake and in February 2009 urged volunteers to compile a list of dead students and to probe the issue of school construction. The issue is perhaps the most sensitive one for the government, which sought to portray the subsequent relief work as an example of the nation overcoming adversity under Communist Party leadership. Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Tan was just the latest of several local activists detained or summoned for questioning in recent weeks. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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