The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has demanded the immediate release of the wife of imprisoned Mongolian human rights activist Hada, who was arrested last weekend. The book dealer and publisher is said to be a symbolic figure for the Mongolian minority. His sentence will be completed as of 10 December 2010 – which is also Human Rights Day and the day Liu Xiaobo will be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize. His wife, Xinna, was arrested last Saturday in their book shop in Hohot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Her arrest is intended by officials to prevent Xinna from making any public protest to draw attention to the fate of her imprisoned husband.

"China's rulers are showing their ugly face. They are obviously growing increasingly nervous about the upcoming Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony," noted Ulrich Delius, head of the STP's Asia section, on Monday in Göttingen. "If Hada and his wife are not released immediately, there will likely be massive protests and unrest in Inner Mongolia." The 54-year-old book dealer and publisher was arrested on Human Rights Day in 1995 for publishing and distributing books about China's destruction of Mongolian culture.

In the run-up to the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, China hat stepped up the pressure on Mongolian human rights activists and in particular on Hada's family. When his wife was arrested, the authorities also confiscated diaries, business documents, books and computers. The book shop has been searched by police three times in just the past week, confiscating seven boxes of books. Their son, Uiles, was held and interrogated by officials for several hours. He was arrested in an Internet cafe while he was informing exiled Mongolian civil rights activists about the arrest of his mother. Hada's uncle, Haschuluu, a retired teacher, was placed under house arrest in Ulaanhad City and pressured by officials not to grant interviews. Furthermore, dissident author Govruud Huuchinhuu was arrested on 11 November 2010 in the city of Tongliao in southeast Inner Mongolia, and later placed under house arrest. In recent months, the three most important Internet pages of Mongolian human rights activists were blocked by government officials

The roughly 5.8 million Mongolians in Inner Mongolia were systematically "sinicized" throughout the 20th century. As millions of Han Chinese moved to the area, the Mongolians became a minority in their own region. Today they make up only 20 percent of the population. The forced settlement of hundreds of thousands of Mongolian nomads is widely criticized by Mongolians.

For further information, pleace contact Ulrich Delius: 0049-551-4990627

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford