The extraordinary expertise of an "Olympic Host" : Silencing the Mothers who have lost their only
child -- Voice seeking answers for parents about school collapse in China is silenced

International Herald Tribune
Voice seeking answers for parents about school collapse in China is silenced
By Jake Hooker
Friday, July 11, 2008

BEIJING: Three weeks after the earthquake in Sichuan Province, five bereaved fathers whose children
died in collapsed schools sought help from a local human rights activist named Huang Qi.

The fathers visited Huang at the Tianwang Human Rights Center, an informal advocacy organization in
the provincial capital of Chengdu, where he worked and lived. They told him how the four-story
Dongqi Middle School had crumbled in an instant, burying their children alive.

Huang soon posted an article on his center's Web site, 64tianwang.com, describing their demands.
They wanted compensation, an investigation into the schools' construction and for those responsible
for the building's collapse to be held accountable if there indeed was negligence.

A week later, plainclothes officers intercepted Huang on the street outside his home and stuffed him
into a car. The police have informed his wife and mother that they are holding him on suspicion of
illegally possessing state secrets.