Our Amnesty International Chapter once again had a successful Earth Day table bringing a little human rights insight to the environmental movement and the City of Pasadena.Kids and a few grown-ups decorated 57 cards for Tan Zuoren!
Tan Zuoren is a Chinese environmental activist who was arrested after he tried to publicize the number of children that died during the Sichuan earthquake and the corruption behind substandard construction that contributed to their deaths. Tan has been repeatedly questioned by the police about his human rights work. He was also harassed by unidentified men who twice stole his computer and also stabbed and injured his dog. He was arrested in March 2009 after he declared his intention to release an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the quake. Although the initial indictment focused on his work on the earthquake, Tan was ultimately convicted for his commemoration of the crackdown on 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”. Acclaimed artist
Ai Weiwei was prevented from giving evidence at Tan’s
trial when he was detained and severely beaten by security officials
just before he was due to testify. Amnesty International described the
trial as “grossly unfair” and “politically motivated”. In June, Tan’s
appeal against his five-year sentence was rejected after a court session
lasting just 10 minutes.Earth Day visitors were also asked to sign letters and petitions to Royal Dutch Shell to take responsibility and clean up the Niger Delta. You can join us in this action here.
Many thanks to all who made this event a success, especially Candy, Lucas, Paula, Carol, Jim, Kai, Stevi and Joyce for making this happen!
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