两笔会再次呼吁释放刘晓波

独立中文笔

（纽约2009年12月7日）美国和中国的作家们今天重申他们的呼吁，立即无条件释放一年前被捕而现在面临可能高达15年徒刑的刘晓波。他们把继续监禁这位著名异议作家和笔会会员称为“公然违反对言论自由权，只会加强人们对中国承诺法治的怀疑。”

刘晓波是一位享誉国际的文学评论家和政治活动家，于2008年12月8日在《零八宪章》发表前夕被带走。《零八宪章》是一份突破性的宣言和请愿书，呼吁中国的政治改革、更多人权和结束一党专制。刘晓波被关押在不明之处“监视居住”

达6个半月以后被正式逮捕，并因其参与起草《零八宪章》而被指控涉嫌“煽动颠覆国家政权”。

刘晓波的审判前拘留时间已延长了三次，而警方一直在设法立案对付他，询问他的同事，抄他们的家，骚扰《零八宪章》最初300多位签署者中许多人。刘晓波仍然被关押在北京市第一看守所，一直没有宣布审判日期。与此同时，一万多名中国公民不顾对《零八宪章》起草者和支持者的压力而签署了这份文件。

美国笔会自由写作项目主任拉里。赛姆斯指出：“在刘晓波被监禁一年里，中国当局成功地压制了对”六四“20周年的所有公共意见，镇压了新疆的民众示威，精心举办了中国共产党统治60周年的庆典，策划了围绕奥巴马总统访问的活动，以约束异议声音，并限制信息和思想的自由交流。这些行动在在显示了中国言论自由的状态。刘晓波自80年代中以来一直不懈地在中国制度内争取人权和政治改革，继续关押他对中国政府的方针政策提出了特别尖锐和迫切的人性问题。我们明确地谴责对他的继续关押，并继续呼吁当局立即释放他。”

刘晓波是独立中文笔会前会长。独立中文笔会是国际作家组织一个分会，为推动中国境内言论自由权正脚踏实地的工作。

“去年人权日前夕拘捕刘晓波，对曾期待中国当局会在北京奥运会后以某种方式改善人权记录的人们是一记直接的耳光。”独立中文笔会常务秘书兼狱中作家委员会协调人张裕评论说：“一年后，在缺乏国际强烈抗议的情况下，情况变得更糟，当局最近延长对刘的拘留，并继续拒绝我们两位在狱中患重病的会友保外就医。因此，我们呼吁国际社会更强烈地要求释放他们。”

中国目前还监禁了另外五位笔会会员，包括师涛、杜导斌和张林。张林在狱中渡过了四年半后于今年8月12日提前获释，但因为替狱中的会友向境外媒体发言，于12月3日再次被安徽省蚌埠市公安局拘留。

另外两名服重刑的独立中文笔会会员杨天水和张建红都患有严重的疾病——杨在江苏省在南京监狱因发烧住院，患结核性肠道炎等；张患肌肉萎缩症以致半身瘫痪，尽管转入杭州市的浙江省监狱总医院，但病情仍继续恶化。两人都因“颠覆罪”系狱。

独立中文笔会会长廖天琪说：“中国当局把知识分子和作家关入监狱是心虚的行为。为了维护他们的言论自由权，我们那些勇敢的同仁愿意承担失去自己人身自由的风险。但当局不可能把所有想要进表达自己思想的人都关进监狱，我们太多了。”

美国笔会和独立中文笔会属于国际笔会在全世界的145个分会之列。国际笔会致力推进世界各地作家间的友谊和理性合作，为言论自由奋斗，代表世界文学的良知。更多信息请参阅：www.pen.org/china2008和www.chinesepen.org.

联系人：

美国笔会拉里·赛姆斯（Larry Siems），+1-212-334-1660 ext. 111，lsiems@pen.org
独立中文笔会张裕，+46-8-50022792， wipc@penchinese.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact: Larry Siems, PEN American Center, (212)
334-1660 ext. 105, lsiems@pen.org
        Yu Zhang, Independent Chinese PEN Center, +46-8-50022792,
wipc@penchinese.net

PEN Renews Calls for Liu Xiaobo’s Release

New York City, December 7, 2009—Writers in the United States and China today renewed their appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo, who was arrested one year ago and is facing a possible 15-year prison term, calling the continued detention of the renowned dissident writer and PEN member “a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression” that “only reinforces doubts about China’s commitment to the rule of law.”

Liu Xiaobo, an internationally-recognized literary critic and political activist, was taken from his home on December 8, 2008, on the eve of the release of Charter 08, a groundbreaking manifesto and petition calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China. He was held for six and a half months under “residential surveillance” at an unknown location before he was formally arrested and charged with “inciting subversion of state power” for his participation in the charter’s creation.

His pretrial detention period has been extended three times as police have sought to build a case against him, questioning and raiding the homes of colleagues and harassing many of the original 300 signatories to Charter 08. Liu Xiaobo is still being held at Beijing Detention Center No. 1, and there has been no announcement of a trial date. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 Chinese citizens have signed the Charter 08 petition despite the pressure on the documents creators and supporters.

“In the year that Liu Xiaobo has been in prison, Chinese authorities successfully suppressed all public observations of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, stifled popular demonstrations in Xinjiang, staged elaborate celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Chinese communist rule, and orchestrated events surrounding President Obama’s visit to restrain dissident voices and restrict the free exchange of information and ideas,” said Larry Siems, Director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs of PEN American Center. “These actions speak volumes about the state of freedom of expression in China. The continuing detention of Liu Xiaobo, who has worked tirelessly within the Chinese system since the mid-1980s to win political and human rights reforms, puts a particularly poignant and compelling human face on the Chinese government’s approach and policies. We condemn his continued detention unequivocally and continue to call on authorities to release him immediately.”

Liu Xiaobo is a past president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), a center of the international writers’ organization that is doing on the ground advocacy for the right to freedom of expression inside of China.

“Arresting Liu Xiaobo on the eve of Human Rights Day last year was a direct hit on the faces of those who had been expecting the current Chinese regime to improve its human rights record in some way after Beijing Olympic  Games,” commented Yu Zhang, ICPC’s Executive Secretary and Writers in Prison Committee Coordinator. “A year later, in the absence of strong international protests, the situation has become even worse. The authorities recently extended Liu’s detention and continue to reject the medical parole applications of two of our PEN colleagues who have been seriously ill in prison. We therefore call on the international community to press even more strongly for their release.”

Five other PEN members are currently jailed in the country, including Shi Tao, Du Daobin and Zhang Lin, who spent four and a half years in prison before his early release on August 12, 2009. Zhang was detained again by the Public Security Bureau of Bangbu City in Anhui Province on December 3 for speaking with foreign media on behalf of his other PEN colleagues in prison.

Yang Tongyan (pen name Yang Tianshui) and Zhang Jianhong, two other ICPC members serving long prison sentences, are both suffering from serious ailments. Yang has been hospitalized in Nanjing Prison in Jiangsu Province with a fever, and is suffering from tuberculous intestinal inflammation. Zhang is suffering from muscular dystrophy, a condition that has led to partial paralysis and continues to worsen despite his transfer to the General Hospital of Zhejiang Prison in Hangzhou City. Both have been imprisoned on subversion charges.

“It is cowardly for China to throw its intellectuals and writers into  jail,” said Tienchi Martin-Liao, ICPC’s President. “In order to protect their right to freedom of expression, our brave colleagues are willing to risk their physical freedom. But the authorities cannot put all people who want to express their own thoughts into prison. We are too many.”

PEN American Center and the Independent Chinese PEN Center are among the 145 worldwide centers of International PEN, an organization that works to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere, to fight for freedom of expression, and represent the conscience of world literature. For more information on PEN’s work, please visit www.pen.org and www.chinesepen.org.

——文章来源：《独立中文笔》