3 Gorges Activist Beaten Last Week Now Paralyzed From The Neck Down

Fu Xiancai, a brave campaigner for the rights of people displaced by China's Three Gorges Dam, lies paralysed with a broken neck. He was attacked by thugs on the way home from a meeting with police officials unhappy with his contact with foreign journalists, human rights activists said.

Mr Fu has lobbied provincial governments and local officials since the 1990s to secure compensation for some of the million people resettled to make way for the 185-metre high dam, which opened last month. An energetic, engaging man, his activism annoys local officials intensely. After we met in March, I was detained and questioned for hours by police, made to sign a confession and hand over my notes and photo memory card.

Last Thursday, Mr Fu was called to meet Wang Xiankui, of the Public Security Bureau in Zigui county in Hubei province, about an interview he gave to German television, Human Rights Watch in China (HRIC) said yesterday.

On his way home, an unknown assailant struck him from behind with a heavy object and left him unconscious on the side of the road. The blow was so hard it fractured his neck. He has lost control of all bodily functions except his ability to speak. He has been moved to hospital in Yichang, the main city near the Three Gorges Dam, and his family are struggling to find the £5,400 needed for his medical bills. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of the case.

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