By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Police detained a group of parents whose children fell ill from drinking tainted milk in China.  They apparently were trying to block the parents from holding a news conference, according to one of the fathers.  The parents’ news conference was called off after police picked up one of the organizers, Zhao Lianhai, said Li Fangping, a lawyer for some of the parents. “The purpose was to prevent the parents from holding a news conference,” Li Fangping said, adding that 10 parents had planned to participate. The parents were unhappy about a compensation plan made public this week, saying the amounts were too low and the plan was formulated without any input from families.  Under the plan, families whose children died would receive $29,000, while others would receive $4,380 for serious cases of kidney stones and $290 for less severe cases.

Mr. Zhao has a 3-year-old child who fell ill after drinking tainted milk but has since recovered.  He organized other parents and created a website about the contamination.  The website was also blocked on Friday.  It was not immediately clear why.  Mr. Zhao has been released, according to Xu Zhiyong, who is part of a legal team representing 63 families with sickened children.  Mr. Zhao said police held him at Tuanhe Farm conference centre, a compound outside of Beijing where police formerly held people who were to be sent to labor camps. “There are more than 20 police watching me here, and they are not letting me go,” Mr Zhao said.  “I protest this illegal treatment,” he added.

One of the fathers says that some parents, including himself, were also taken to a labor camp on the outskirts of Beijing.  “We are under house arrest now, and the government did not give us any reasons why they kept us here,” the father told Reuters by phone.  “The government said all the medical care is free, but when it comes to the local level, things change. I have already paid more than 50,000 yuan ($7,300) for the operation and cure,” said the father, a migrant worker from Sichuan province.

Last year, at least six children have died from kidney stones and more than 290,000 been made ill from the melamine-contaminated milk produced by Sanlu, a Chinese dairy company. The incident caused massive recalls around the world.

For more information, please see:

AP – Parents of kids in China milk scandal released – 02 January 2009

Financial Times – China cracks down on milk scandal victims – 02 January 2009

New York Times – China: Father in Milk Case Is Detained – 02 January 2009

Reuters – Parents of China milk scandal victims detained – 02 January 2009