Three Gorges Activist Faces Paralysis after Brutal Assault

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Three Gorges
resettlement activist Fu Xiancai is being treated for serious injuries
following an assault by an unknown assailant.

Sources in China told HRIC
that on the morning of June 8, Wang Xiankui, leader of the security squad of the
Public Security Bureau in Zigui County, Hubei Province, called Fu in for a
discussion about an interview he had recently provided to German public
television station Das Erste. While Fu was walking home after the meeting, an
unknown person struck him from behind with a heavy object, leaving him
unconscious on the side of the road. Approximately half an hour later, a
passerby saw Fu and called for emergency assistance. Fu was taken to the
hospital, where X-rays determined that his neck had been fractured. Fu is
currently paralyzed from his shoulders down and has lost control of all bodily
functions except his ability to speak.

Since the local hospital lacked
the resources to perform the necessary surgery on Fu, he was transferred to the
No. 1 People's Hospital in Yichang City. However, surgery is being postponed
because Fu is still suffering from a fever. An additional threat to Fu's
recovery is a lack of financial resources, as his family has only been able to
scrape together 7,000 yuan out of the estimated 80,000 yuan needed
for surgery. According to HRIC's sources, hospital officials have stated that
all medical treatment for Fu will be stopped if his family cannot come up with
more money.

Sources say authorities have been trying to prevent news of
Fu's assault and injuries from getting out. Police officers have been placed on
24-hour watch outside of Fu's hospital room, and only his immediate family
members have been allowed to visit him. Someone reported the incident to the
German journalist who had interviewed Fu, but when Das Erste's Beijing
correspondent arrived at the hospital with a photographer, police barred them
from entry.

Sources say Fu was interviewed by Das Erste in May for the
program "A Celebration of the Construction of the Three Gorges Dam," which was
broadcast on May 20. Sources say that PSB security squad leader Wang Xiankui
warned Fu Xiancai that this kind of "oppositionist" interview "would not have
good consequences," and that he could easily send Fu off to Reeducation Through
Labor at any time. Sources say Wang also warned Fu of possible negative
consequences to his family.

Since the 1990s, Fu Xiancai and others who
were forcibly resettled for the Three Gorges Dam project have been petitioning
provincial and state authorities over the resettlement terms and compensation.
In many cases, villagers have not only been resettled on land greatly inferior
to that of their original homes, but have also been deprived of the compensation
promised to them by corrupt local officials. These cases are so common and
well-documented that they constitute a systemic abuse that should be addressed
by the central authorities. However, the central government continues to turn a
blind eye to abuses against Three Gorges villagers and victims of land grabs
throughout China, with the result that rural discontent is increasingly becoming
a destabilizing factor nationwide.

Fu Xiancai is one of dozens of
villagers who have been harassed, injured or detained over the past 10 years for
petitioning and protesting the conditions imposed on those resettled for the
Three Gorges Dam project. Over the past year, Fu has come under constant
surveillance, and he and his family members have been subjected to chilling
harassment, threats, assaults and injuries by mafia elements, but local
authorities have failed to apprehend the culprits or provide any protection:

• May 14, 2005 – After Fu was interviewed by American newspaper
  journalists, Wang Xiankui reportedly delivered several threats to Fu and his
  family, saying that Fu would be severely punished for unlawfully accepting an
  interview from the foreign press.
• May 20, 2005 – Tan Bixuan, another representative of Three Gorges
  villagers, received an anonymous phone call telling him to instruct Fu to
  gather up a large sum of money, or Fu's son would be killed. Fu notified the
  Yichang City police, but there was no apparent follow-up to initial police
  inquiries.
• September 20, 2005 – When Fu and some other petitioners were en
  route to Beijing to petition the central authorities, they were assaulted by
  village officials while local police stood by and did not intervene. Sources
  say that one police official at the scene threatened Fu with more serious
  injury if he did not stop his activities.
• October 22, 2005 – Around 3:00 a.m., someone drove a vehicle in
  front of Fu's home and threw rocks at the house, breaking a window. Later that
  morning, Fu departed on a petitioning trip to Beijing. Upon returning home on
  the afternoon of October 26, two thugs burst into his home, beat him
  with wooden poles and fractured his leg. Though Fu reported the incident to
  the police, no one was apprehended.
• November 7, 2005 – Around 9:00 p.m., Du Erhu, the deputy head of
  the Maoping Township PSB dispatch station, came with another police officer to
  Fu's home and reportedly told Fu that he if he went petitioning or left his
  home, his life would be in danger. On November 8, while out on an
  errand, Fu was assaulted at the Sandouping Ferry Pier by three thugs wielding
  police batons. He required three stitches to a wound on his head. A report
  filed with police yielded no results.
• November 17, 2005 – During the night, someone placed funeral
  wreaths outside Fu's home, after which Fu received several threatening
  anonymous phone calls. Fu provided the phone numbers of two callers to the
  police, but there were no arrests.
• January 15 and 18, 2006 – In the early hours of both mornings, a
  car drove up to Fu's home, and someone pelted stones at his house. When Fu
  reported the incidents to the Maoping Township PSB dispatch station on January
  20, deputy station head Du Erhu reportedly said to him, "If you continue with
  your lawsuit, your family will never have peace and will be constantly
  harassed. I don't believe that if we arrest you, the American devils will
  invade China." The next night, someone left a stack of fake money used in
  funeral offerings in front of Fu's door.

HRIC condemns this brutal
assault on Fu Xiancai that has left him critically injured and potentially
paralyzed. As a result of his legitimate petitioning activities, Fu has been
made a target of a chilling pattern of harassment, assault, death threats and
abuse by individuals who have been clearly allowed to act with impunity. HRIC
calls on the Hubei provincial government to launch a full and transparent
investigation into these crimes against Fu Xiancai and uphold its responsibility
to investigate and prosecute crimes against its citizens. HRIC also urges
authorities to address the problem of systemic abuse in local development and
resettlement projects.