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Oil Chinese melamine-in-milk activist arrested
December 23, 2009 Edition 1
BEIJING: Police have formally arrested a man who organised a website for parents of children who became ill after drinking tainted milk after his own son became sick.
Zhao Lianhai founded Kidney Stone Babies to provide information and resources for parents after about 50 000 Chinese infants were hospitalised last year after drinking milk formula deliberately tainted with melamine.
At least six babies died.
Police delivered formal arrest papers to his wife, Li Xuemei, yesterday, charging Zhao with the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, she said.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
Police had taken Zhao away from his home 37 days ago.
After an initial cover-up during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China jailed or executed a handful of farmers, milk dealers and executives at Sanlu, the dairy firm that sold the tainted milk, but never announced the sentences for government officials detained after the scandal.
Farmers and dealers had put melamine, an ingredient in plastics and fertiliser, in poor quality milk to show higher protein levels in tests.
Sanlu executives said they reported the problem to the government in August 2008, shortly before the Olympic Games began, but China took no public action until September, when Sanlu's partner, dairy co-operative Fronterra, took the matter up with the New Zealand government.
China set up a compensation fund for children whose health had been seriously damaged, but many of the parents who allied with Zhao had children who were not eligible for compensation.
Zhao's son, who is now nearly five and in pre-school, became mildly sick after eating products that later tested positive for melamine, Zhao said earlier this year.
On September 11, one year after the scandal became public, Zhao convened a memorial ceremony for parents at his home.
The Kidney Stone Babies website (www.jieshibaobao.com), which features burning Chinese characters against a black background, is currently blocked inside China. - Reuters
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