Clashes Over Quake Trial

By RADIO FREE ASIA
August 13, 2009

Chinese writer Tan Zuoren goes on trial, and supporters say his plan to issue an independent report on last year's deadly earthquake is the reason.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have detained dozens of relatives of schoolchildren killed in a devastating 2008 earthquake after they tried to attend the high-profile trial of writer Tan Zuoren.

Sang Jun, whose child died when the Mianzhu Fuxin No. 2 Elementary School collapsed in the May 12 quake, said several hundred parents had tried to enter the public gallery of the Chengdu Municipal Intermediate People's Court on Wednesday.

"There were several parents detained who were representing each school [in the earthquake region]," Sang said.

"A lot of people were taken to the Huangzhong police station, and they haven't yet been released."

"We went there to find them, and the police made us wait outside. There [were] about 400-500 people outside the police station waiting," he added.

Parents from Shifang city, Beichuan county, and Dujiangyan township in the areas worst-hit by the quake had all traveled to the provincial capital to try to attend the trial, which was adjourned without a verdict Wednesday, Sang's lawyer said.

Defamation charge

Tan Zuoren is formally accused of defaming the Communist Party in e-mailed comments about 1989's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.

But activists say he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people died.

Official figures show that 5,335 children died in the quake, although unofficial sources say the number could be as high as 10,000.

Top Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was also outside the courthouse, where he said he was beaten by police.

"I took issue with the legality of their actions, so they turned on me and started beating me," said Ai, who is also a blogger and social commentator and the designer of Beijing's emblematic "Bird's Nest" stadium, which formed the centerpiece of the 2008 Olympics.

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