LAOGAI.EU
Shocking image/video: Force Eviction in China. Interview of victim: Ms. Li Huanjun.
February 24, 2015 by admin
YibaoChina's Exclusive interview with China's political prisoner Ms. Li Huanjun
(YibaoChina is the Chinese language online publication run by Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China)
Ms. Li Huanjun is available for interview. For English interviews arrangements, please contact danielgong@initiativesforchina.org or call at 240-643-8793
Background: Ms. LI Huanjun, a native of Beijing, victim of forced housing demolition, civil rights activist.
Li Huanjun became a victim of coercion relocation by the local government in Beijing when her own home in Fengtai District's Shiliuzhuang was demolished against her will, and she was repeatedly beaten while in custody on several occasions.
On July 6, 2012, Li joined other petitioners to rally around Zhongnanhai, the center government's headquarters in central Beijing, and was taken into custody for five days on the charge of "disturbing public order." On September 23, 2012, Li defended her property rights by making a temporary shelter on her demolished home with a banner and in ancient victim costume. For that, she was taken into custody for seven days by local Beijing police on a charge of "disturbing demolition works." Gradually, since her home's demolition, Li has become a rights activist.
Since 2013, Li Huanjun has been active in petitioning for the educational rights for Anni, a daughter of dissident Zhang Lin in Anhui Province. She successfully rescued petitioner Li Maolin from illegal "black prison." With other activists, she has called officials to report their private property in Beijing, among many other activities. All these have touched the nerves of the Communist regime that directed local police authority to take her into custody again on a charge of "disturbing public order" which was later changed to "picking quarrel and trouble." Li was formally arrested by Beijing police on August 16, 2013 and taken in custody in Beijing No. 1 Lockup. She was later allowed to return home on parole.
Li Huanjun recently arrived in Washington, DC. YibaoChina has conducted an exclusive interview with this rights activist.
YiBaoChina: First of all, welcome back to America, Ms. Li, and we wish you all the best.
LI Huanjun:First of all, I want to thank Citizen Power/Initiatives for China for your assistance to me. I want to continue China's citizen movement here in America. After all these years of civil rights fights, I have realized the importance of individual rights and those of the general public, which is our mission of the times.
Looking back at those difficult days, the regime conducted coercion demolition by mobilizing nearly a thousand people surrounding my home and the village. I was holding a kitchen knife, and with gasoline all over my body, standing on roof of my house, and talking to the public, and defending my property. What was in my mind then was that if my home was not demolished, I wanted to save my life and live on, but if forced demolition happened, I wanted to burn myself to death to protest such a brutal rights violence by the Communist regime. I had also prepared five barrels of gasoline inside my home, and I was preparing to survive or die inside my home. Under such a devastating situation, my home was not demolished by the regime, which was a success of defending rights against forced demolition.
In order to find relief from pressure, I called several villagers to take a walk on the Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, but was taken into custody for five days by Fengtai local police on a charge of "disturbing public order." Then I found my home disappeared completely when I got out of the lockup five days later.
From then on, I have been on the rights defense road. I sent letters of petition to local Fengtai police department, State Ministry of Civil Affairs, State Commission on Political and Legal Affairs, but no replies came. Some government offices received my letters while others refused. So I had to take the case to local court in the Fengtai district that denied my request by saying that demolition issues are not to be considered.
I had no place to live and had to buy some simple materials to build a temporary shelter on the original land of my home which was already demolished. For that I was again taken into custody for another seven days on a charge of "disturbing construction site."
YibaoChina: Any pretext can be utilized by local authorities to charge you for nothing and without any evidence!
Li Huanjun: While in custody, the contracting party of the demolition project wanted me to nod to their demands. I told them that had been family home for generations, even before the Communist Party was born. I had a property title deed from the Republic times (before 1949). My family got a new property title deed from the Communist Beijing mayor Peng Zhen. Why would such a legal document become void in the hands of the current Communist regime, without any legal procedure? TO me, this is their self-denial of legitimacy of the Communist regime itself. They cannot win over me on such rights defense case, however, when laws and justice come to serve the interests of the Communist regime, laws and title deeds are nothing, like water evaporated into the air.
YibaoChina: In this sense, we want to rediscover the lost morality, justice and laws, in solidarity with groups of all ethnic and religious identity for a new China that recognizes the rule of law with a constitutional order.
Li Huanjun: I agree. With all the Communist reactionaries against people's will, I have come to realize that individual rights such as residence and property cannot be protected if civil rights fail. Without watchdog and civil rights, China saw a series of horrific corruption groups like Zhou Yongkang and Xu Canhou. I now formally pledge to join the Citizen Power/Initiatives for China in order to realize the social justice and rule of law, among other social ideals.
YibaoChina: Welcome aboard! As you probably learned, rights defense lawyer Xiao Guozhen who fled China in 2013 has joined Citizen Power, and constitutional scholar Kong Qi (the nickname "AIR") who left China in 2014 also joined our team. With you and others who support citizen power, we have confidence that citizen movements will move forward to achieve our common goals. Thank you.