A Chinese activist who spent nearly a decade protesting against a polluting uranium mine has been admitted to a Beijing hospital with a life-threatening tumour, a rights group said Wednesday.
Officials in China's Gansu province have allowed Sun Xiaodi to seek treatment in Beijing but his family fears they do not have enough money to pay for medical costs, the New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said.
Sun has spent nearly a decade petitioning the central authorities over radioactive contamination from a uranium mine in the Gannan prefecture of Gansu, the rights group said in a statement.
Residents in the prefecture suffer an unusually high rate of cancer and other health conditions associated with radioactive contamination, it said.
Sun was diagnosed with a tumour in his abdomen in November last year but local officials at first refused to allow him to seek treatment in the capital, it said.
Surgery to remove the tumour could cost up to 120,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), money that Sun does not have, the group said.
Since beginning protests about the mine in 1998, Sun has been fired from his job, harassed by local officials and jailed for his activities.
He won the Nuclear-Free Future Award from the Indigenous World Uranium Summit in December last year, but since has faced even more harassment, including vandalism of his home and constant police surveillance, the group said.
"HRIC condemns the harassment of environmental activist Sun Xiaodi and his family, and the failure of local authorities to protect them," the rights group said.
"HRIC urges the central government to protect Sun's right to petition and access to necessary medical treatment."
Neither Sun nor his family were immediately available for comment.
Source: Agence France-Presse
