Chinese Teacher Detained
A School destroyed by the Sichuan Earthquake
Liu Shaokun, a teacher from the Sichuan Province where this May’s devestating earthquake happened has been detained by the Chinese authorities
Liu Shaokun had taken a number of pictures of school buildings which had been destroyed by the earthquake and posted them on the internet. As a result he has been sent for a year’s ‘re-education through labour’ for ‘disseminating rumours and destroying social order.’
Many questions were asked in the aftermath of the earthquake because so many schools had been destroyed causing the deaths of thousands of children as well as teachers while many buildings in the vicinity had remained intact. The fear was that the schools had been built with shoddy methods and substandard materials. Liu had described them in a media interview as ‘tofu’ buildings.
Under Chinese law anyone can be detained and sent for ‘re-education’ for up to four years without a trial or a formal charge.
July 31 2008 05:37 pm | General
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