Activist exposed radioactive contamination of Yangtze River

Epoch Times
Jan 29, 2010

Sun Xiaodi, an environmental activist who exposed radioactive contamination of the Yangtze River, was sentenced to a forced labor camp along with his daughter. Groups supporting human rights in China are protesting the sentences.

Sun had worked as a warehouse manager at the No. 792 Uranium Mine in Gansu Province. When he became aware that the mine was discharging radioactive material directly into the Yangtze River, he spent more that a decade trying to expose the problem, according to Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW) in China.

Sun was able to meet with foreign journalists in June 2004 to describe the environmental degradation that was occurring and provide them with relevant materials and photos of the mine. He has been under constant surveillance for his activities over the years and has been detained several times.

Human Rights in China reported that he was sentenced to two years of forced labor for leaking state secrets to foreign agencies by the Diebu County authorities. Sun’s daughter, Sun Dunbai, was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor for her involvement.

Unnamed sources in Gansu Province say that agents of the Chinese Communist Party picked Sun up on June 15, 2009 after he appealed to the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, calling on the international community to pay attention to the severity of the radioactive contamination in China.

On June 12, prior to his arrest, unidentified robbers ransacked Sun‘s house and destroyed half of his book collection. The incident was followed by threats from local police and Domestic Security officials who attempted to warn Sun against reporting on the nuclear contamination in Gansu Province.

They promised to buy Sun a house in another place if he would leave the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture area and stop reporting on the radioactive contamination.     more …