（奥斯陆，2010年10月9日）国际笔会今天在奥斯陆再度呼吁立即无条件释放今年诺贝尔和平奖得主刘晓波，得到来自世界各地的作家、记者以及政治和民间领袖的响应。
刘晓波是独立中文笔会前会长和30位创会会员之一。由国际笔会会长约翰·拉尔森顿·索罗、狱委主席玛莉安·博茨福特·弗雷泽和独立中文笔会会长廖天琪率领的20余位笔会资深会员组成的代表团，将出席在奥斯陆的诺贝尔颁奖典礼以支持刘晓波博士。
国际笔会还将与国际特赦共同主办12月10日星期五在奥斯陆召开的研讨会，聚焦中国对作家和活动人士的持续镇压，并督促中国政府接受改革。
约翰·拉尔森顿·索罗评论说：“正是中国宪法要求中国政府保障公民权利和政治权利。刘晓波是信奉其全部合法权利的认真公民典范，他应为此得到赞扬而非遭受监禁。中国需要象刘晓波这样的公民。”
看来将无人出现在明天的诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼上领取刘晓波的奖——他目前正在中国监狱里服刑11年，而他的妻子刘霞被软禁在家，失去音讯。
自10月奖项公布以来，一些作家、艺术家、学者和活动人士在中国被当局禁声。根据独立中文笔会的消息，最近两月包括笔会副会长和理事在内的30多位会员，以及数百位其他中国公民遭骚扰、传讯、拘留、软禁，或被阻止离开中国大陆旅行。
廖天琪说：“刘晓波不会是中国的审查制度和文字狱的最后受害者，作为独立中文笔会荣誉会长，刘晓波真正代表了‘让文字自由’的精神；作为诺贝尔和平奖得主，他在明天奥斯陆典礼上的缺席，加强了文字挑战和转变专制政权的力量。”
刘晓波博士是著名的中国作家和人权活动家，在因参加1989年的天安门广场抗议活动而被捕入狱前，他在北京师范大学教中国文学。在学生运动期间，他为数千遭军队包围的示威者推动谈判达成和平撤离。他后来被指控煽动抗议，并失去了大学的工作。1995年，他被“监视居住”九个月，1996-1999年被劳教三年。他的所有著作在中国被禁，虽然继续在国外发表。
2008年，因参与起草《08宪章》——一份要求更多言论自由的人权宣言，已有超过一万名中国各阶层人士签署，刘晓波被中国当局第四次关押。2009年12月25日他被以“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”判刑11年。
国际笔会通过其狱中作家委员会，1990年起关注刘晓波的个案，20年来一直致力于支持处在威胁下的刘晓波和其他中国作家。他也是2010年庆祝狱委成立50周年纪念活动的第50个代表个案。
在国际笔会全球成员中有过多位诺贝尔文学奖得主，包括今年得主、国际笔会前会长马里奥·巴尔加斯·略萨。不过，刘晓波是第一位被授予诺贝尔和平奖的笔会会员。
此外，本周在奥斯陆有一把“刘晓波的椅子”，由海伦斯堡龙蒙德学校的学生和员工为苏格兰笔会所制，已运往奥斯陆，成为笔会“释放刘晓波”活动的视觉中心。椅上印有刘晓波博士像，以及他的一段中文语录：
“我没有敌人，也没有仇恨……因为，仇恨会腐蚀一个人的智慧和良知，敌人意识将毒化一个民族的精神，煽动起你死我活的残酷斗争，毁掉一个社会的宽容和人性，阻碍一个国家走向自由民主的进程。所以，我希望自己能够超越个人的遭遇来看待国家的发展和社会的变化，以最大的善意对待政权的敌意，以爱化解恨。”
“空椅子”代表了所有那些因其写作而被监禁、审查或受到威胁，甚至被杀害而在公共领域缺席的作家。以这种方式纪念缺席的同事已成为笔会多年的传统。
美国笔会会长克瓦米·安东尼·阿皮亚是刘晓波诺贝尔和平奖提名人之一，他说：“诺贝尔委员会选择授予刘晓波和平奖，已经聚焦于他的事业：他所热爱并为之工作的国家的民主化。中国政府的反应显示在这一斗争中还要走多么远。但他自身的平静勇气，鼓舞我们关心自由的所有人，每天努力工作，以帮助中国实现作为每个人权利的基本自由。”
编者注：
国际笔会弘扬文学和促进言论自由。最初在1921年成立以促进文学，目前国际笔会在全球各地104个国家有145个分会。国际笔会的项目、运动、活动和出版物，把世界各地无论何处的作家和读者联系起来。
国际笔会会长约翰·拉尔森顿·索罗将参加12月10日星期五上午9时与国际特赦联合举办的研讨会。独立中文笔会廖天琪和张裕也将参加座谈。活动地点在国际特赦挪威分部办公室：奥斯陆Grensen大街3号。请联系卡尔·莫腾·艾弗森（Carl Morten Iversen）：+47 926 88 023 或 [email protected]。
联系独立中文笔会：
廖天琪：+49 176 5472 3721或 [email protected]
或张裕：+46 70 4857222或 [email protected]
一般媒体查询，请联系尼古拉·斯珀尔：+44 20 7405 0338或+44 772 686 7868 或 [email protected] 。
访问国际笔会网站： www.internationalpen.org.uk
寻找更多关于刘晓波的信息：http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.cfm?objectid=227779C9-3048-676E-26605C8214A0D2AE 和http://liuxiaobo.eu
（独立中文笔会翻译）
PEN INTERNATIONAL REITERATES CALL TO RELEASE LIU XIAOBO AS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARDED IN OSLO
OSLO, 9 December 2010 – Today in Oslo, PEN International has reiterated its call, echoed by writers, journalists and essayists, as well as political and civic leaders around the world, for the immediate and unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo, recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Liu Xiaobo is a past President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) and one of its 30 founding members. A delegation of 20 senior PEN members, led by International President John Ralston Saul, along with Writers in Prison Committee Marian Botsford Fraser and ICPC President Tienchi Martin-Liao, are in Oslo and will be attending the Nobel prize-giving ceremony to represent Dr Liu.
PEN International will also be co-hosting a seminar in Oslo on Friday 10 December, along with Amnesty International, to highlight the ongoing suppression of writers and activists across China and to urge China’s government to embrace reform.
John Ralston Saul comments: “It is the Chinese Constitution that commits their government to civil and political rights. Liu Xiaobo is a model of the serious citizen who embraces his full legal rights. He should be admired for this, not imprisoned. China needs citizens like Liu Xiaobo.”
There will likely be nobody present at tomorrow’s Nobel prize-giving ceremony to receive Liu Xiaobo’s prize – he is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence in China and his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest and incommunicado.
Since the announcement of the prize in October, scores of other writers, artists, academics and activists in China have been silenced by the authorities. According to the ICPC, more than 30 of its own members, including board members and vice presidents, along with hundreds of other Chinese citizens, have been harassed, summoned for interrogation, detained under house arrest or prevented from travelling from mainland China in the last two months.
“Liu Xiaobo will not be the last victim of China’s censorship and literary inquisition,” says Tienchi Martin-Liao. “As current Honorary President of the ICPC, Liu Xiaobo truly represents the spirit of ‘Free the Word’. As Nobel Peace Laureate, his very absence at the Oslo ceremony tomorrow reinforces the power of the word to challenge and transform authoritarian regimes.”
Dr Liu is a renowned Chinese writer and human rights activist who taught Chinese literature at Beijing Normal University until he was jailed for his part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. During these student protests, he had been instrumental in negotiating a peaceful withdrawal for several thousand protestors penned in by the military. He was later accused of inciting the protests and he lost his job at the university. He was detained under house arrest for nine months in 1995 and underwent three years’ re-education through labour from 1996-9. All his writings have been banned in China, although he has continued to publish outside the country.
In 2008, Liu Xiaobo was detained for the fourth time by Chinese authorities for his participation in the drafting of Charter 08, a human rights manifesto which calls for greater freedom of expression and which has been signed by over 10,000 Chinese people from all walks of life. He was incarcerated for 11 years on 25 December 2009 after being convicted of “inciting subversion of state power”.
PEN International, through its Writers in Prison Committee, took up Liu’s case in 1990 and has been working to support him and other Chinese writers under threat for twenty years. He is also the 50th emblematic case commemorated by the Writers in Prison Committee which celebrates its half-century in 2010.
PEN International counts many Nobel literature laureates among its global membership, including this year’s prizewinner, Mario Vargas Llosa, who is a former PEN International President. However, Liu Xiaobo is the first PEN member to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Also in Oslo this week is “A Chair for Liu Xiaobo”. Created by students and staff at Lomond School in Helensburgh, for the Scottish PEN Centre, the chair has travelled to Oslo to become the visual centrepiece of PEN’s campaign to free Liu Xiaobo. The chair contains Dr Liu’s image, along with one of his quotes in Chinese:
“I have no enemies and no hatred… …for hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.”
The “empty chair” represents all those writers who are absent from the public sphere because they are imprisoned, censored or under threat, or have even been killed because of their writing. It has become a PEN tradition over the years to commemorate absent colleagues in this way.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, President of the PEN American Centre, was one of those who nominated Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize. He says: “The Nobel committee, in selecting Liu Xiaobo for the Peace Prize, has thrown the spotlight on his cause: the democratisation of the country he loves and works for. The response of the Chinese government shows how far there is to go in that struggle. But his own quiet courage inspires all of us who care about freedom to work hard every day to help the Chinese achieve the fundamental freedoms that are the right of every human being.”
NOTES TO EDITORS:
PEN International celebrates literature and promotes freedom of expression. Originally founded in 1921 to promote literature, today International PEN has 145 Centres in 104 countries across the globe. PEN programmes, campaigns, events and publications connect writers and readers wherever they are in the world.
John Ralston Saul, PEN International President, will be participating in a joint seminar with Amnesty International on Friday 10 December at 09h00. Also on the panel will be Tienchi Martin-Liao and Yu Zhang of the ICPC. This takes place at Amnesty International’s office at Grensen 3, Oslo. Please contact Carl Morten Iversen at +47 926 88 023 or [email protected].
To speak to the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, contact Tienchi Martin-Liao at at +49 176 5472 3721 or [email protected].. Alternatively, contact Zhang Yu at +46 70 4857222 or [email protected]
For general media enquiries, contact Nicola Spurr at +44 20 7405 0338 or +44 772 686 7868 or [email protected].
Visit the PEN International website at www.internationalpen.org.uk and find out more about Liu Xiaobo at http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.cfm?objectid=227779C9-3048-676E-26605C8214A0D2AE.