13 held in bid to mark China lawyer's birthday

Thirteen people have been arrested as they tried to visit the blind Chinese rights activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng -- who is under house arrest -- to mark his birthday, would-be visitors told AFP.

Altogether more than 40 people were blocked by police as they attempted to visit Chen, who has been under house arrest since ending four years in prison in 2010, supporters of Chen said from a bus carrying them towards his home.

Chen, who has been blind since childhood, became well-known after he revealed the forced sterilisations of thousands of women, as well as forced late-term abortions, in his home province of Shandong as part of measures to enforce the country's population control policy.

"About a mile after we left the motorway, police diverted us to the bus line no. 12 car park" in the city of Linyi, supporter Zhang Fuying told AFP on Saturday by telephone from the bus, which set off from Beijing at 6am.

"We have not come to ask Chen to help us. We are here for human rights in China, for which Chen has done so much. He has the right to eat a piece of cake with ordinary people," Zhang said.

He said that of about 44 people who made the 600 kmbus ride to wish Chen a happy birthday, "thirteen have now been taken away by police, and there are 31 people on the bus."

More than 30 police vehicles were parked near their bus, he added, saying that the group were followed when they went to the bathroom and had been unable to buy food since the morning.

"Chen has always been interested in the poor and vulnerable -- now we must take an interest in him," said fellow supporter Mao Hengfeng, also speaking from the bus.

Chinese activists organised through the Internet have been flocking to Chen's village in a bid to win his release from house arrest, but campaigners say that thugs have beaten up many of those who were able to come close.

Foreign journalists who have tried to visit Chen at his home have been roughed up or harassed, and barred from gaining access to the village, while earlier this year Chen's wife said her husband had been beaten and threatened.
 

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