PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE:This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International. To mark this, Amnesty, in association with The Irish Times, is profiling a prisoner each month . . .
LAST YEAR more than a thousand diplomats, politicians and celebrities stood in the city hall in Oslo and applauded an empty chair. It was empty because the man who should have been sitting in it, being honoured with the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, was in prison.
Today Dr Liu Xiaobo remains behind bars. He is in the second year of an 11-year sentence for what a Chinese court described as “rumour-mongering, slander and smear”. The true crime of this veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was to write a manifesto for human rights in China, called Charter 08.
It calls for democracy, for freedom of speech and religion, an independent judiciary and many of the fundamental freedoms we take for granted. It was to be launched on December 10th, 2008, International Human Rights Day.
But two days before this, Chinese police arrested Liu. He was kept in solitary confinement and allowed to see his wife, Liu Xia, only twice. Eight months had passed before he was allowed to meet a lawyer to prepare his defence.
On Christmas Day 2009, more than a year since his arrest and after a two-hour trial that he was not allowed to attend, he was sentenced to 11 years. If the Chinese authorities hoped he would be forgotten about after being imprisoned, they were to be disappointed. On October 8th, 2010, it was announced that Liu was to receive the Nobel prize for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
China’s response was to immediately, and illegally, put his wife under house arrest. She is not allowed visitors, her phone has been confiscated and armed security guards sit outside her front door every day. In February she managed a brief online chat with a friend. “Can’t go out,” she said. “My whole family are hostages.”
No one has spoken to her since.
China’s network of internet censors restricted online searchers for anything to do with Liu Xiaobo, the prize, or even the term “empty chair”. Chinese diplomats were mobilised, instructed to threaten any country planning to send a representative to the award ceremony, demanding they boycott the event.
They even invented their own award, the Confucius Peace Prize, to honour those who promote world peace, which they styled as an alternative to the Nobel. Last month they presented it to Vladimir Putin.
When Liu found out he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he broke down and dedicated it to all those who sacrificed their lives in non-violent struggles for peace, democracy and freedom.
More than a year later, he remains in prison.
Liu is the 12th prisoner we have profiled as part of a series this year with The Irish Timesto mark our 50th anniversary. Two of the other 11, Mao Hengfeng from China and Gilad Shalit from Israel, are now free. Tragically, one of them, Troy Davis from the United States, was executed in September despite serious doubts over the evidence against him.
Amnesty International continues to work to help thousands of other prisoners of conscience around the world. This December, as part of our Shine a Light campaign, we are profiling five prisoners or individuals at risk that need your help and you can find out more about them at www.amnesty.ie/shinealight.
Every letter, fax and email you sent over the year helped make a difference.
Please take a moment now to help Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. Ask China to release Liu and to end the harassment and intimidation of his wife. You can write to the Chinese ambassador, Luo Linquan, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, 40 Ailesbury Road, Dublin 4, or take action online at www.amnesty.ie.