ICPC Statement for International Human Rights Day

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For Press Release
8 December 2012

Today is the fourth detention anniversary of Dr. Liu Xiaobo, the former and honorary president of Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), and two days later it will be the second anniversary of awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize. Gazed by the whole world, the CCP’s 18th Congress held in Beijing last month has not resulted in any goodwill toward freedom but launched a new series of crackdown since prior to the Congress to repress freedom of expression and violate basic human rights of Chinese people. Not only Liu Xiaobo and other prisoners of conscience have been still in jail, and Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia, a poet and founding member of ICPC, has been still under house arrest since more the two years ago, but also a young activist Cao Haibo who initiated an online organization Zhenhua Club has been sentenced to 8-year imprisonment in Yunnan Province as well as a dissident writer Li Bifeng has been sentenced to 12-year imprisonment in Sichuan Province, respectively. In recent two months, there have been many forced disappearances, forced travels and illegal house arrest of many dissidents and activists including ICPC members for political “stability”. ICPC expresses its strong protest against these acts of Chinese authorities, and calls on the Chinese authorities to end their persecutions and respect citizens’ basic human rights including freedom of expression guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and the International Human Rights Conventions, and to release Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia and all of others under unjustl imprisonments and house arrest immediately and unconditionally.

According to the report of the Associated Press on 6 December, in her first interview in last 26 months, Liu Xia spoke briefly with AP journalists. Stunned that the reporters were able to visit her, Liu Xia trembled uncontrollably and cried as she described how absurd and emotionally draining her confinement under house arrest since her jailed activist husband, Liu Xiaobo, had named a laureate of Nobel Peace Prize. Liu said her continuing house arrest has been painfully surreal and in stark contrast to Beijing’s celebratory response to this year’s Chinese victory that Mo Yan had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Liu Xia has been confined to her duplex apartment in downtown Beijing with no Internet or outside phone line and is only allowed weekly trips to buy groceries and visit her parents. “This is too absurd. I think Kafka could not have written anything more absurd and unbelievable than this.” Once a month, she is taken to see her husband in prison. She was denied visits for more than a year after she saw him two days after his Nobel win and emerged to tell the world that he had dedicated the award to those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Moreover, Qin Yongmin, ICPC member in Wuhan and a laureate of its 2011 Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award has disappeared for more than one month since 31 October. Sun Wenguang, a retired Professor and ICPC Honorary Director in Jinan and Fan Yanqiong, a woman writer and ICPC member in Fujian, have been restricted at home by the local Police. Dr. Jiao Guobiao, ICPC member in Beijing, was detained for two weeks in September and now on bail pending trial. Zhang Lin, ICPC member in Anhui was forced to repatriate home when he visited friends in Hunan Province in July and now on bail pending trial. Wu Yilong, ICPC member in Hangzhou and a laureate of its 2012 Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award has been repeatedly forced to repatriate home Province of Anhui. Li Yulong, ICPC member in Bijie, Guizhou Province, had been forced to travel for several days because of his exposure of a tragedy that five children had died of using the street dustbins as cold shelters in his home city. Lu Yongxiang, Shen Youlian and Huang Yanming, ICPC members in Guiyang City, have been repeatedly forced to disappear and restricted at home. There are more of ICPC members who were summoned, harassed, or under house arrest since prior to the CCP Congress, such as: Vice President Jiang Danwen, Board Member Mo Zhixu, Deputy General Secretary Wu Wei, Beijing-based member Gao Yu, Hu Shigen, He Depu, Zhao Changqing and Liu Di, Zhejiang-based members Chen Shuqing and Lu Gensong, Shangdong-based member Gong Lei, and Jiangsu-based member Sun Lin. Jiang Danwen, Mo Zhixu, Liu Di, Li Yuanlong, Zhou Yuanzhi and other members in mainland China have been arbitrarily deprived of the right to leave China for visit overseas. On the other hand, two of Chinese citizens based in Sweden have been deprived of the right to enter China, Dr. Yu Zhang, ICPC’s Deputy Secretary-general and Coordinator of its Press and Translation Committee, and Miss Li Jianhong, Coordinator of its Writers in Prison Committee. Moreover, Hada, a Mongolian writer and a laureate of 2011 Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award has been continually illegally detained for about two years after having served 15-year imprisonment, and his wife and son were also detained on false charges. Feng Zhenghu, a dissident writer in Shanghai, has been under house arrest since last February.

For the coming International Human Rights Day, ICPC calls on all the international community once more to concerns with more than 30 writers and journalists in jail in China and urge the Chinese authorities to respect citizens’ basic human rights, to realize the trend of world civilization, to take a right way of constitutionality and human rights, particularly as follows,

  • release Liu Xiaobo and all of others imprisoned for their words, including ICPC members Shi Tao, Yang Tongyan and Zhu Yufu immediately and unconditionally,
  • free Hada, Liu Xia, Qin Yongmin, Feng Zhenghu and all of others under unjust imprisonment and house arrest, and
  • lift all restrictions.over ICPC membersandother citizens in respect to their legal rights to leave and entermainland

 

PEN International is the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. ICPC is among its 145 member centers and aims to protect writers’ freedom of expression and freedom to write worldwide. In particular ICPC also advocates for the rights of writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed in China.

For more information, please contact
Patrick Poon, Executive Secretary
Tel: +852-94173765, Email: [email protected]

Yu Zhang, Coordinator of Press & Translation Committee
Tel: +46-8-50022792, email: [email protected], [email protected]
Websites: http://www.chinesepen.org/english and http://www.liuxiaobo.eu/