AFP
An ailing woman in her eighties, the mother-in-law of Belgium-based Chinese national Hu Yang, says she has been given until Oct. 14 to leave her home in Shanghai's Jing'an district, as it is scheduled for demolition. She tells RFA's Mandarin Service how the decision to develop the area by the authorities has affected her at the end of her life:
Please help me. I can't walk any more, because I am disabled. I need a secure place to live.
I can't sleep at all these days, because I am afraid they will come back and try to demolish my home. I hope you can make my situation known, so that I can spend the last few years I have left in peace.
I don't want to die. I still want to see this amazing world. But I have no other options open to me.
I have been to the district Party committee and the municipal Party committee to file a petition, but neither of them have got back to me.
My son has rushed to Beijing in a hurry to file a petition there, too. But the authorities in Beijing sent him back here again just as fast. There has been no response there either.
We have nowhere left to speak about the injustice we have suffered. My son's wife is worried and at her wits' end as well. So we came to you. I call on people of goodwill throughout the world to come to our aid.
My husband has had surgery ... I have also had surgery to remove a brain tumor. Now I have cirrhosis of the liver, and now there's all this worry on top of that. I really feel as if I can't go on living.
Reported by Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
