Chinese Nobel laureate's widow 'ready to die' in house arrest
NB: More evidence of the unspeakable tyranny of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. So terrified are they of the truth they will torture a completely innocent woman whose only crime is to have been married to Liu Xiaobo, a brave man done to death for asking China's rulers to respect their own constitution. Liu Xia has 'never been suspected, charged or convicted of a crime, but has lived in a prison for eight years'. This is what remains of the human conscience after the CPC has finished with it. Her continued imprisonment is a crying shame and an abomination. DS
Liu Xia, the widow of
Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, has said she is ready to die in protest at being
held under house
arrest in China for more than seven years. “Now, I’ve got nothing
to be afraid of. If I can’t leave, I’ll die in my home. Xiaobo is gone, and
there’s nothing in the world for me now. It’s easier to die than live. Using
death to defy could not be any simpler for me,” she said, according to a
phone call on 30 April, recorded by her friend and exiled writer, Liao
Yiwu, and posted online.
Liu, 50, has been
under house arrest since 2010 after her husband, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the
Nobel peace prize in absentia for his activism in China. Her husband, a civil
rights campaigner, was jailed in 2009 for subversion and died
last year from liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence. In an excerpt of the
16-minute phone call with Liao, Liu is heard crying and cursing. 'I’m so
fucking angry that I’m ready to die here… If I’m dead, it’ll all be done
with.' At one point, Liu
cries for several minutes. In the recording, Liao plays the song Dona, Dona,
from a Yiddish song released during the second world war about a calf being led
to slaughter. 'Please allow me to
use Liu Xia’s sobbing as its new lyrics', Liao wrote. 'Dona, Dona, give her
freedom. Dona, Dona, please cry out loudly for her.'
Advocates have
repeatedly called
for Liu’s release. A former civil servant and a poet, she has never been
charged with or convicted of a crime.
Chinese authorities insist she “enjoys all freedoms in accordance with the law”, but friends and advocates say her movements have been severely restricted and she lives under constant surveillance. During this time both of Liu’s parents died and she has been taken to hospital at least twice for a heart condition. According to the rights activists, Liu has told her lawyer about having severe depression. After her husband’s death, Liu’s supporters hoped she would be allowed to leave the country. “First they told her to wait until the party congress was over; next they told her to wait until the conclusion of the ‘Two Sessions’ in Beijing in March of this year,” Liao wrote in his post on the US-based human rights site, Chinachange.org, citing legislative meetings held late last year and this year.
Chinese authorities insist she “enjoys all freedoms in accordance with the law”, but friends and advocates say her movements have been severely restricted and she lives under constant surveillance. During this time both of Liu’s parents died and she has been taken to hospital at least twice for a heart condition. According to the rights activists, Liu has told her lawyer about having severe depression. After her husband’s death, Liu’s supporters hoped she would be allowed to leave the country. “First they told her to wait until the party congress was over; next they told her to wait until the conclusion of the ‘Two Sessions’ in Beijing in March of this year,” Liao wrote in his post on the US-based human rights site, Chinachange.org, citing legislative meetings held late last year and this year.
Germany and the US
have both called on China to remove restrictions on Liu and allow
her to leave the country. But activists say Chinese authorities are
likely to keep her silenced to prevent her from becoming a
symbol or rallying point for other dissidents. “The cruelty the
Chinese government has shown Liu Xia is a chilling signal for human rights
defenders across the country that Xi Jinping’s regime does not care about
international pressure. She’s never been suspected, charged or convicted of a
crime, but has lived in a prison for eight years,” said Frances Eve, a
researcher with the advocacy group, Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Xi Jinping
needs to let her go.”
see also
Hong Kong vigil for Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo: dissident's friends angry after hastily arranged sea burial
Liu Xiaobo: dissident's friends angry after hastily arranged sea burial
