China Aid Association
The announcement of this year’s recipient was delayed by almost two weeks. The award is usually presented on International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. Ni’s selection as the 2011 award winner was made by an independent judging committee in late November, but because she was at the time facing trial, her daughter and lawyer requested that the announcement of her selection be delayed to protect her.
The prize “is intended as a tribute to a man or woman who has shown exceptional courage defending and promoting the rights of their fellow citizens,” according to the award’s website at http://humanrightstulip.org/simplepage/home/ . The 2011 award ceremony is planned for early next year. See the announcement from Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs at : http://www.minbuza.nl/en/news/2011/12/ni-yulan-awarded-human-rights-defenders-tulip.html
Ni, a lawyer since 1986, has already served two prison terms. While in police custody, she was permanently disabled as a result of torture and now requires crutches or a wheelchair to get around.
In early April, she was again taken into police custody, and she was formally arrested in May and charged with “creating a disturbance.”
ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu said of Ni’s selection as this year’s Tulip award-winner, “This is a great day for human rights defenders in China and hopefully it will lead to the unconditional release of Ni Yulan.”
He added, “We thank the Dutch Government and our partner organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide for making this award happen. It is a sign that the international community will not forget China’s brave human rights defenders. Hopefully, one day, China will not imprison those peacefully working for human rights. ”
Ni’s activism dates back to 2001, when the Beijing neighborhood where Ni lived was slated for mandatory demolition advance of the 2008 Olympic Games. Ni started to help her neighbors fight to save their homes or claim compensation.
In April 2002, when she videotaped the forced demolition of a neighbor’s house, police immediately arrested her, and in November she was sentenced to a one-year prison term for “obstructing official business.” She was also disbarred.
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ni was arrested again when her own courtyard house was forcibly demolished and was given a two-year sentence for the same crime of “obstructing official business.” When she was released from prison a second time, in mid-2010, Ni and her husband were homeless and lived in a park. When they rented a small room in a guesthouse, they were under such constant harassment by government officials that they were forced back out onto the streets.
Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China and now a Republican presidential candidate, visited Ni and her husband when he was the ambassador in Beijing.
ChinaAid Contacts
Bob Fu, President; Mark Shan, Spokesperson
Tel: 1+ (888) 889-7757 ; Cell: (267) 205-5210
Email: Bob@ChinaAid.org ; Mark@ChinaAid.org
Website: www.ChinaAid.org ; www.MonitorChina.org
2 comments:
People must unite in focus and organization. Please sign the petition to free her (if there is one yet) and end torture and intimidation. Or it will not be long before the United States is in the same situation as China. China should leave Tibet already and the US out of the Middle East and Latin America and Africa, -except to help people. Israel out of the W Bank Gaza and E Jerusalem! Islamic religious extremism was an easy easy nest for the multi-trillion dollar military industrial complex in search of new enemies. Now that Russia was playing ball and all.
Vietnam was no different that the US today. Only with 9/11 they got even bolder and more treasonous. But what was that? People who lived through it would say it was fought to stop the spread of communism. But in fact it was only EVER a corporate war. Staged on the pretext of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. An event we learned decades later that never even happened. All of these wars have been manufactured for corporate greed. And these latest ones have been the most profitable ever! –Read The War Business –Chalmers, article online *or watch the video WHY WE FIGHT. Also online free.
It’s simple: the do what they have always done: rape the rest of us; pillage the Treasury, the workers and our future progeny. How is it that Congress saw fit to give the Vietnamese 'victors' of that gruesome war billions in taxpayer dollars for 'reconstruction aid,' within weeks literally, of the war’s end, when millions of people were dead and other still horribly suffering as a result of the decisions made by these very same peope?
The fed and the whole political and legal system in the US are a symbiotic unit. They print money out of thin air robbing us of it’s value. Vietnam was never about the Communism; but about prolonging the war/
These current wars, with their unprecedented levels of privatization, and no bid contracts, have been the biggest profit-makers of all time, are no different
Add to that the militarization of US police depts and the death of Habbeus corpus and the future looks bleak. indeed. The US now killing it’s own citizens, without due process. It is beyond unacceptable; the very definition of a dictatorship.
These wars killed mostly civilians, like 80% civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan/ ALL, for corporate greed.
Before we invaded we wrote Iraq’s new banking codes. If that isn’t revealing, I don’t know what is. People, the portly American populace, are just too easy to manipulate it is sickening to observe.
I can only imagine that even worse is coming as we become a more autocratic and dictatorial and militaristic state.. The forces of greed and tyranny have always been with us. It is up to the people to speak out and together. So get informed but dont count on the mass media and think you will be as properly informed. Take a more proactive approach to getting informed on ever issue (Especially 911 and the middle east) Pardon this incredibly long rant. Sign the petition for Ni Ulan on change.org , if there isn’t one start one and lets all sign it. She has just been resent to jail o what are obviously phony charges. Shame on China’s rulers who allow such in justices to go on/ And shame on America’s who do the same.
Please look a good look the Reality of 9-11 -not the media spin and half-stories. Got to ajl.smugmug . com/911
Peace
Good luck to Ni Yulan and her family, -my prayers are with you.
http://ajl.smugmug.com/9-11
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