Brussels, October 3, 2002. Ms Xinna, wife of Inner Mongolian political prisoner Mr. Hada, arrested in 1995 for organizing the "Southern Mongolia Democratic Alliance" and sentenced in 1996 to 15 years imprisonment for the crime of "attempt to separating the country and engaging in espionage", reports that her 17-year old son Uiles is being brutally treated by the Chinese authorities in prison in Inner Mongolia. In 2002, Mr. Hada's son Uiles was accused of 'being involved in robbery' and sentenced to 2 years jail. Currently he is serving his detention in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region No.1 Juvenile Jail. According to the report by the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, Uiles has been imprisoned together with 13 other juvenile offenders in a 8 square meter prison cell and forced to do 13 hours hard labor every day. Recently, Uiles has repeatedly been told by prison authorities to break off all relations with his mother. During a recent visit to her son Mrs Xinna has been brutally treated by prison guards because she spoke in Mongolian. Besides she revealed that during her last visit to the prison she observed that her son had been physically tortured, his hands and feet were in a 20-kilogram handcuff-and-shackle for more than 40 hours because he resisted the prison guards' and inmates' brutal treatment. After her husband's arrest in 1995, the 'Mongolian Study Bookstore' and the 'Mongolian Study Reading Club', both owned by Mrs Xinna, have been shut down, her son Uiles was expelled from school shortly after resisting police brutality. According to a report from the New York based human rights organization, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, after Mr. Hada's arrest, Ms Xinna was also detained for 3 months for giving a Voice of America telephone interview. In 1997, when the 50 years anniversary celebration of the establishment of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region took place in Huhhot City, Ms. Xinna and her son Uiles were sent to eastern Inner Mongolia's Ulaanhot City, and were detained there for 2 days. In 1999, a policewoman was sent to her house to monitor their daily life on a 24 hour basis during the Chinese Communist leader Jiang Ze Min's visit to Inner Mongolia.

Question of Olivier Dupuis, MEP, radical, to the European Commission

“What information can the Commission provide about the authority's inhumane treatment of Ms. Xinna and her son and what kind of initiatives did the Commission take or is intending to take in order to convince the Chinese authorities to respect their fondamental civil, political and human rights? What information can the Commission provide about the situation of Mr Hada and the other member of the Inner Mongolia Democratic Alliance arrested by the Chinese authorities? In the light of the facts above reported, which are a mere sample of the ongoing violent and oppressive policy of Beijing against the people of Southern Mongolia, especially those fighting for democracy and rule of Law, which initiatives does the Commission intend to take in order to have the chinese authorities recognize a real autonomy for Southern Mongolian people ?”