Simon Nielsen 5/20/22 Simon Nielsen 5/20/22

From Me In Rain & Other Poems

“Put out the lamp/ Let only the cigarette burn the night’s coldness/ Spill the wine out the window to the night/ Let the darkness get drunk/ To vomit out another dawn/ A daybreak when perhaps there will be news.” Dr. Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia, husband and wife, writers and activists, were imprisoned, put under house arrest, and separated by the Chinese authorities as a consequence of their struggle for human rights. Deprived of social contact and community interaction, the couple had nothing left to do but imagine a life beyond confinement.

By Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia with Independent Chinese PEN Center

Liu Xiaobo’s Poetry:

From Me in Rain

- To Xia

It rains

A drop passes through the sun

I was pushed to the edge of the world

I have to be in shock incessantly

And in obedience reluctantly

The raindrop is not cruel

But its gentleness is full of danger

Alone in nudity

I am the only one naked in the rain

The tints in rain are puzzling

All the umbrellas seem to weakly scream

Disappearing in the rain-soaked time

What I hope for

Is to collapse in rain

And that my thin body

Will leave before the rising sun

I am afraid of every kind of quiet change

And even less capable of bearing

Any feat as a hero

Trying to arouse God's attention

Is self-maltreatment through wishful thinking

I who have no wisdom to commit blasphemy

Can only light a cigarette

1991.7.30

Aloneness in Winter

- To Xia

Aloneness during a winter night

Like the blue background on the screen

Simple as everything at a glance but nothing at all

You may consider me as a cigarette, then,

To light and put out at any time

Smoking and smoking, but never ending

A pair of bare feet is stepping on the snow

Like a piece of ice falling into a wine bowl

Drunkenness and madness

Are the drooping wings of a crow

Beneath the endless shroud of earth

Black flame cries out involuntarily

The pen in my hand has suddenly snapped

Sharp wind is piercing the sky

Stars are fragmented into an adventure, my dream

The incantation drips blood into verse

The tenderness of skin still remains

A kind of brightness returns to you

Aloneness, clear

Is standing, weeping on a cold night

And touching the marrow of snow

While I

Am not a cigarette nor wine nor pen

But an old book

Similar to

"Wuthering Heights" where poisoned teeth grow

1995.1.1

Night and Dawn

- To Little Xia

When falling asleep alone the night

Is extremely cold

The lonely star before dawn looks even more ruthless

Despite the orange bedside light

The cold darkness still

Mercilessly

Swallows all of you

Facing the lamp, you are talking to yourself

And shedding tears while stroking shadows on the wall

At this moment, you should light a cigarette

Or pour yourself a glass of wine

To drunkenly pursue that

Missing person whose whereabouts are unknown

Or who may have been engulfed by deeper darkness

Put out the lamp

Let only the cigarette burn the night’s coldness

Spill the wine out the window to the night

Let the darkness get drunk

To vomit out another dawn

A daybreak when perhaps there will be news

1996.11.11

The Cliff

- To my wife

I was forced to mount a cliff somewhere

While a sharp rock embedded into my skin

An order commanding me to stand and shout

And issue an ultimatum to the world

I could stand but not shout

Or I could shout but not stand

My straight body could only be rigid

While my crazy shout could only be bent

The steepness and sharpness of the abyss

Did not allow straightness to challenge them

The limits of the body could only choose between two ways

But the absolute order demanded both

To choose is a hopeless struggle

Either to stand straight shouting and being crushed to pieces

Or to bend my knees to the abyss

While the huge sky has pressed down

1996.12.15

To My Wife

As if the cold and indifferent moon

Is hanging high over my head

The flashing arrogance is looking down

To suffocate me

Its background is as deep and mysterious

As ghosts vomited from a grave

I am presenting holiness and purity

In exchange for being close to you in a dream

Not seeking for burning skin

But dyeing my eyes with a layer of cold ice

To see the sky-fire dying in its paleness

The sky’s grief is too vast and bare

For the eyes of my soul to see through

Give me a drop of rain

To polish the concrete floor

Give me a ray of light

To show the lightning’s question

One word from you

Can open this door

To let the night go home

1997.1.31

Liu Xia’s Poem

Untitled

- To Xiaobo

You speak you speak you speak the truth

You are talking day and night as long as you are awake

You talk and talk

You are in a closed room while your voice breaks out to spread

The death from twenty years ago has come back again

Come and gone as the time

You are short of many things but with you are the souls of the dead

You have lost daily life to join the outcry of the dead

There is no response and none

You speak you speak you speak the truth

You are talking day and night as long as you are awake

You talk and talk

You are in a closed room while your voice breaks out to spread

The wound from twenty years ago has been bleeding

Fresh and red as the life

You are fond of many things but more passionate accompanying the souls of the dead

You have made a promise to seek the truth with them

On the way there is no light and none

You speak you speak you speak the truth

You are talking day and night as long as you are awake

You talk and talk

You are in a closed room while your voice breaks out to spread

The gunfire of twenty years ago has decided your life

Always living in death

You are in love with your wife but more proud of the dark time with her you spent

You let her be but are more insistent that she continues to write you poems after her death

In the verses there is no sound and none

2009.9.4

(Translated by Yu ZHANG)

Simon Nielsen 5/17/22 Simon Nielsen 5/17/22

Candies

“Several days after that, on the way to school or at home, Droma would quietly take out the half candy to lick it gently. Sometimes when there were no others around at school, she would quietly take it out and lick it a few times. Sometimes at home she would take it out to let her brother lick it a few times and put it back. The sheep dog often stared at Drolma's hands with its big and black eyes, sitting still with an expectant look.” Yang Tongyan (April 12, 1961 - November 5, 2017), a famous dissident writer and social activist better known as Yang Tianshui, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for “subverting state power” because of his critical essays on overseas websites, as well as his political activism.

By Yang Tianshui with Independent Chinese PEN Center

"These are a few pieces of candies, rock candy, milk candy, and fruit candy."

Pointing to the blackboard, a female teacher read aloud, followed by a burst of childish voices echoed among the hills – “These are a few pieces of candies,,,"

Magnificent but patient dawn slowly brightened the Songpan Grasslands; also brightened the southwestern mountains, a village primary school hut halfway up the mountain, the fine chalk handwriting on the blackboard, the nice mild round face of the teacher and a dozen untidy boys and girls.

The female teacher, eighteen or nineteen, was holding a wooden stick to lead the reading again:

"This is a piece of candy."

The sunlight traveled through the door and windows to caress her dark black double pigtails.

The school kids were fully concentrating and reading in slow but sweet childish voices:

"This is a piece of candy."

It was a little bit chilly in the mountains in the autumn; spells of chilly winds eddied around the cottage, and some kids were rubbing their small reddish hands while reading.

The teacher had a look at the southern row of children and said:

"Dear girls and boys, if Drolma has two candies and Sangzhi has one, how many pieces of candies do they have in total? Please hands up to answer," the teacher said.

Some small hands were raised high in the southern row. The teacher said:

"Drolma, please."

A girl in Tibetan robe stood up. Her black little eyes blinked and said:

"A total of three."

The teacher motioned Drolma to sit down while saying “Drolma is right.” She then added:

"Those in Year Two, please be attentive! If Drolma gets nine pieces of candy, but Basang takes four away, how many pieces will be left? “

Some of the children sitting in the mid-row of the classroom began to raise their hands, some turned their fingers to count, and some heads lowered as if they were afraid of being found. With a smile the teacher said to a boy:

"Gelang, do you know the answer?"

A dark, timid boy stood up and said:

"Five."

The teacher smiled happily and said:

"Gelang is right. Sit down, please! Next, those in Year Three, please be attentive! If Drolma, Basang or Jielang was assigned five each, then what is the total number assigned to them? Please use the multiplication to make it out! "

Only one kid among the children sitting in the back of the classroom put up a hand. The teacher gave him a gesture, he stood up and said:

"Three fives is fifteen, the total is fifteen."

Very satisfied, the teacher went up to the back of the classroom and led the kids at back to read the multiplication table. She then went to a boy of fourteen or fifteen and asked:

"Moocuo, now we have fifteen candies, if they are divided equally among Zoma, Basan, Gelang and you, how many does each get then? How many will be left? What will you do with the remainder?"

Moocuo, in a Tibetan robe with dirty sleeves, stood up tamely, looking at the ceiling and said slowly:

"Each could get 3, and two will be left, and to whom should the remaining two be given?"

After thinking for a while, he resumed:

"The remaining two should be given to Drolma who is the youngest among us."

The teacher asked:

"Why do you want the rest candy going to the youngest?"

Moocuo said:

"The elder should take care of the younger. That is what teacher always teaches us"

The teacher said:

"Dear boys and girls, the elder kids should take care of the younger ones, understood?"

The children answered immediately in chorus: "Understood!"

Outside was a sheep dog, standing under a tree and casting his curious eyes into the classroom. On the hill-slope not far away cattle and sheep were moving leisurely: some were chewing grass, some looking at the sky. The teacher opened the green canvas bag on her desk, took out a paper bag, and said:

"Dear boys and girls, let me hand out the candy, okay?"

The girls and boys were excited and active. Some whispered, some twittered. Their tender voices sounded like many little birds singing. Some asked:

"What does candy look like?"

Some asked:

"Really very very sweet?"

Some asked:

"What is rock candy and what is fruit candy?"

The teacher waved to the children and said:

"Please be seated on your seats, I'll distribute the candies among you."

The students kept quiet at once, with joy and an expectant look on each face. The teacher started the distribution from the Year-One kids in the southern row, with each kid having two: one fruit candy and one milk candy. When the teacher walked to Moocuo of the Year Four, only one fruit candy left. "Moocuo, sorry, I will give you another one next time."

"It’s all right, Teacher. I'm older than them. One is enough."

Petting his head gently, the teacher said:

"You are a virtuous good boy!"

Now all kids began eating the candies. Some were chewing noisily, and some were smacking their lips to enjoy the sweet taste. There were also several kids playing with the sweets in their hands. Drolma, who was in the first grade, put one piece of candy into her bag, and then opened the other one, licked it several times, covered it again and carefully put it into the inner pocket. As the teacher intended to resume her lesson, she asked Drolma after seeing what she did:

"Little Drolma, why didn’t you eat your candy?"

Drolma’s deskmate answered:

"Teacher, she ate nothing. That piece of milk candy ... was placed in her bag."

The teacher: "Why don’t you eat them? Are you going to enjoy them later slowly?"

Drolma: "No, teacher. The milk candy is for my brother. I will take it back to him after school."

Teacher: "Little Drolma, you can eat it. I will bring some for you when I return to the city next month."

Drolma: "No, teacher. I don’t like to eat it. I will leave it to my brother. He is very cute."

The teacher approached Drolma, patting her braids and said:

"How old is your brother? What a lovely boy!"

"Four," Little Droma inclined her head with a smile, exposing a mouth of white little teeth.

The teacher went back to the teaching platform, and said:

"Dear boys and girls, lots of plants, crops and fruits contain sugar; canes from the south are sweet; apple, orange, pear, jujube, hawthorns, rock melons and watermelons are all sweet." All the kids listened intently.

She continued:

"These sweet stuffs already existed hundreds and thousands of years ago. However, it was not until Tang Dynasty that people began to make sugar out of the sweet stuffs."

One student asked:

"Tang Dynasty?"

The teacher went on:

"Tang was a dynasty 1200 or 1300 years ago. At that time, Indian people introduced sugar refining methods to China, and our Chinese people started to have sugar to eat."

Then the teacher wrote on the blackboard: "During Tang dynasty, the Indians brought sugar refining skills to China."

She then led the students to read it over and over again. Outside were the clear blue sky and the quiet autumn mountains. The cattle and sheep were still lingering on the grass slope. Probably tired, the sheep dog sat down under the trees and curiously looked into the classroom.

When school was over, Drolma pulled the skirts of her teacher quietly, and asked:

"Teacher, what is rock candy like?"

Teacher answered:

"Rock candy? Just like small broken pieces of smashed ice."

"Sweet?"

"Of course. That’s why we call it candy!"

The sheep dog strode to Drolma, whining and spinning around her with its tail waving. Drolma bent over, pulled out the fruit sugar, bit it into two halves, and put it near the dog’s mouth. That dog reached out its tongue and licked the fruit sugar repeatedly. Later on, it appeared to be eager to swallow the sugar, waving its head and tail violently to show its coquetry. Droma touched its ears and put the half candy into its mouth.

The teacher said: "This dog is as dear to you as your brother."

Drolma said:

“So said my parents."

She added with a mysterious look: "Teacher, next time if you come with rock candies, please give me one more for my younger brother, okay?”

Teacher smiled: "Little Drolma, next time I will bring you some more. Well, hurry home for lunch now. Your mum and dad must be waiting for you."

Getting close to her home, little Droma saw mum and brother standing before their felt tent. She ran to them and took out the piece of candy in the bag, shouted:

"Mum, brother, milk candy."

The dog ran after her eagerly. Drolma went to her brother, bent over, peeled the paper off the milk candy and put it into his mouth, and said:

"Brother, candy."

Her mother asked: "Where did you get it?"

Drolma answered: "Our teacher brought it from the city. Everybody got two except that Moocuo got one."

Mom said: "Teacher Ah-chin is so good. As an 18 or 19-year-old city girl, she put aside all the benefits to come to this remote mountain village to teach you to read and write. What a Buddha!"

Drolma: "Teacher Ah-chin told me she would bring us rock candies when she goes home next time. She said that rock candies are just like broken pieces of smashed ice, bright and clear as crystals."

Mother: "She has only 20-30 yuan per month for her salary. It will cost all that to buy candies for you, won’t it?"

Drolma said: "We can send a goat to her in the future, okay?"

Mother added: "And a scarf as well."

Drolma dropped her bag, and went to help Mum to carry straw to feed the mare about to give birth. Busy for a while, she suddenly realized something. She took out the half candy which she had carried with her, carefully opened the paper, and lifted it to her mother's lips:

"Mum, taste it to see if it is sweet or not?"

Mum said with a smile: "Mum does not like to taste. Candy is always sweet, just like Buddhas always save people, while a wolf licks a lamb.”

Little Droma had to withdraw her hand. She licked it several times, wrapped the candy and then put it back in her inside pocket.

Several days after that, on the way to school or at home, Droma would quietly take out the half candy to lick it gently. Sometimes when there were no others around at school, she would quietly take it out and lick it a few times. Sometimes at home she would take it out to let her brother lick it a few times and put it back. The sheep dog often stared at Drolma's hands with its big and black eyes, sitting still with an expectant look. Every time this happened, Drolma did not like to ignore the dog. She would take some cooked mutton from her pocket to feed it.

Over three months passed. The prairie and the mountain village had been covered with heavy snow. The village school seemed completely isolated except for some wild geese flying southbound in the blue sky occasionally. Only when the female teacher took all the children out of the classroom to bask in the sun, did there emerge some energy halfway up the mountain. At that moment, the sheep dog always stayed near Drolma. The dog was getting more friendly to the teacher. It often ran to kiss her feet and rub her trouser legs. One day near noon, the teacher found Drolma standing before a pile of forage grass. She walked and over talked to her:

"Little Drolma, I'm so sorry. I promised you to bring some rock candies. A few months passed, but I couldn’t get any. It was a palm-sized town, and not enough supplies for everything."

Drolma replied with a grin:

"Teacher, we still had candies."

She took out the half candy to smell and then gently licked it. The dog was beside, listening to their talk. It turned its head toward the teacher when the teacher was talking, and then turned to Drolma when she was talking.

School was over, and she walked home alone with her dog after a short shared journey with some of other students, as her house was far away. The wind rose from humming at first to roaring. The huge cold air was quickly spreading all over the whole grassland and mountains. It made Little Drolma shiver. She put her hands into her sleeves, pulled in her neck and ran to a cliff for shelter. When the dog heard the huge wind, it hesitated for a while at first, and then followed its little master to trot to the shelter under the cliff.

That cliff was dozens of meters high, like a tall black tower. The winding path, on which little Drolma often walked, was to the south of the cliff. Beyond the path was a dozens-of-meter deep valley. In spring or summer, the valley would be full of grass, flowers and trees; in autumn a clear stream would be running down there and many birds would be singing. But it was winter now, the whole valley was covered in silence. Luckily there were some rays of sunshine, shining and bright, opposing the gloomy sternness so as not to turn the chilly silence into dead silence. The cold cliff was too steep. Even the dog dared not go close. The dog shrank back as close as possible to the shelter cliff.

Little Drolma sat beside a huge rock, hugged the dog in her arms, pulled out some broken pieces of mutton to feed the dog. She kissed the dog. Lifting its bright and gentle eyes, it looked at Drolma, whined for a while and turned to the west-side of Drolma. Drolma suddenly felt a bit warmer. She did not want to go home until the wind became weaker. Taking out the text book, she read aloud:

Under the pines I questioned the boy.

“My master’s off gathering herbs.

All I know is he’s here on the mountain----

Clouds are so deep, I don’t know where…”

She read it several times, then she took out the half candy, opened the paper, and licked it a few times.

Suddenly there came a burst of tiger and leopard roars in the distance. The sheep dog made several barks. Little Drolma was so surprised that her candy dropped onto the ground from her hands. The candy rolled away a few feet and landed onto the slope of the cliff, which was just a few feet away.

Little Droma searched for the candy and finally found it lying in a stone nest on the slope. The dark red candy paper was very obvious in the noon-time sunlight. Drolma slowly moved to the cliff top, knelt down, stretched out one arm to reach the candy, but she failed several times. The dog also followed her closely. That dog cowered, lying there with anxious looks.

After a while, sweat came out on her head. With her second try, she finally got it in her hand. Smiles came back to her reddish face. She hastily straightened up to lift her knees to move toward the cliff. Probably with a leg numbed, she swayed and fell down into the valley. The sheep dog was totally shocked. It wanted to go down to the bottom of the valley, but it only pawed the ground anxiously with fear. It made up its mind several times to rush down, but it stopped at last. The dog wandered for a while on the windy path, and ran a dozen of metres in both directions to the east and west. Finding a place with a gentle slope, it went down the valley, trampling on the cracked pieces of ice. It finally sniffed in the right direction and quickly ran to little Drolma.

Drolma was lying on a pile of pebbles. Her dog shoved at her hand and her face worriedly. It waved its tail and barked affectionately at Drolma. Although it waited for a long time, the dog didn’t get any response from little Drolma. It began to head back to the winding path and hurried back to the village school.

In the school kitchen, the teacher had just finished her lunch and was putting the remaining noodles and pickled vegetables back into a very old dark cupboard. When the dog ran over, it kissed her feet and trouser legs, shoved its head into her knees, raised its begging eyes accompanied with its barks and whines, and looked up at the teacher. The teacher smiled:

"Little Droma came to school so early today. Why not going home for lunch? Come here, all the leftover noodles are for you."

Upon saying this, she served a bowl of noodles from the cupboard, and poured it into a pot in the corner. But the dog had no interest in it. It kept making low whines with an anxious and restless look on its face. When it tugged her outside by her pants, the teacher shouted outside:

"Drolma, little Drolma, does your sheep dog want me to teach it to read?"

Just then, a student came in: "Teacher, Drolma is not here, only her dog."

The teacher felt something wrong. They walked out of the door with the dog. The dog ran in front of her and looked back from time to time to check if the teacher was following or not. They hurried to the cliff. The dog looked back at the teacher, and ran along the gentle slope into the valley bottom. The teacher followed. Seeing Drolma lying on a pile of pebbles, she called out: “Little Drolma”. The dog got there one step earlier than the teacher. It shoved up her with its mouth, and looked up at the teacher. The teacher kneeled down, only to find that the blood running from her nose had been frozen into ice. Her small face was purple with freezing. Her eyes were closed. Tightly clutched in her left hand was the half fruit candy.

Simon Nielsen 5/3/22 Simon Nielsen 5/3/22

There Is A Wall Outside the Window - Essays from Prison

“The spring arrived and the earth became light green. At the foot of the high wall, there emerged a patch of tiny grass in light green. Without sunshine, the grass grew thin and yellow. Every day, I concentrated on this patch of light green.” Kang Yuchun, a doctor and writer, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for political issues in 1992.

By Kang Yuchun with Independent Chinese PEN Center

1. A Sunflower in the Shade

Outside the glass window of my cell, less than two meters away, there stands a high wall, blocking the wind, blocking the rain, but also blocking my endless longing for the complex noisy world beyond it.

The spring arrived and the earth became light green. At the foot of the high wall, there emerged a patch of tiny grass in light green. Without sunshine, the grass grew thin and yellow. Every day, I concentrated on this patch of light green. One day, I discovered suddenly that, in this patch of tiny grass, one blade of grass grew especially fast and especially tall, with a thin stalk and large leaves. Oh! That was not an ordinary grass but a sunflower in the shady place under the wall. Although tender and tiny, she staunchly and rigidly grew up. She had been blown down by the storm time after time, but stubbornly raised her head again and again, upward...

I looked at her every day, expected for her every day, and also worried about her every day. I did not dare to hope that she would blossom and bear fruit. One day, however, a tender yellow sunflower blossomed on her fragile head. What was strange is that she was not facing toward the sun, but flashing a smile at me, toward the glass window to express her gorgeous charms. Please, do you know why?

(August 22, 2002)

2. Little Birds Unfearful of Electricity

Not far away outside the window, there stands a wall. On top of the wall, there is an electric fence. The electric wires are exposed and appear to be stainless due to their electrification. I often stand at the window, looking at the big wall and electric fence to dream a daydream. Having lost freedom, I am very familiar with this wall and its fence outside the window. On one brick in the 38th row above the ground, there is a knot, resulting from the brick-baking, which displays its extremely unusual colour under the reflection of the window glass...

Several times, we placed some of food scraps on the windowsill outside the window. By chance there came several little birds. They were unattractive and belonged to a kind of house sparrow, most commonly seen in the north. The people at my hometown called them “old house-thief” to describe their quick reactions. It is very difficult to catch them. Whenever a little bird came, some of us at the window tried to make a surprise attack to catch it. Those fellows were really very crafty. Whatever means we used, whenever we stretched a hand or another tool out of the window to catch it, it would be rapidly flying up, passing between the iron bars outside the window and swaggering away. However, it seemed to care nothing about us. Soon it flew back and squatted on the electric fence not far away. It appeared to be very spirited, twittering to provoke us, as if saying “Chase, chase!” It made us so angry inside the window. Once a prisoner asked suddenly, “How is this bird unfearful of the electricity? There is electricity in the electric fence, isn’t there?”

This question made me feel awkward and think deeply. Yes, the electric fence is so powerful as to electrocute people who are intelligent and wise, but also so reluctant to injure a little house sparrow. Although little and weak, a house sparrow may fly through the iron bars and take up the station on the electric fence. The stronger may be violently powerful over the world, but it still has weaknesses. The weaker is powerless, but also has its opportunity to survive. This is a heavenly principle, but also the highest truth in man’s world.

(November 30, 2002)

(Translated by Yu ZHANG)

Original texts in Chinese can be found here

Simon Nielsen 4/28/22 Simon Nielsen 4/28/22

A Beauty Condemned To Death

“Living in the dormitory without any privacy will inevitably create contradiction and hostility, which constrain human nature and twist human character. Anyone who has ever lived in a dormitory has an intimate knowledge about this. Half a dozen people living together in a room less than 10 square meters over the years is incredible to those who live in a free world. However, in China, you have to bear this for a long time.” Zhang Lin, a dissident writer and social activist, was arrested in 1994 and then sentenced to three years of Reeducation-Through-Labor after contacting foreign journalists about human rights violations near his home village.

By Zhang Lin with Independent Chinese PEN Center

Wang Guocui was a beauty who attracted people at first sight. People often talked about her in Bengbu Detention Centre. She was detained in our neighbouring cell. Those who met her once often talked about her with sparkles in their eyes. Every time the neighbouring iron door clicked, following the tinkling of the leg-irons, prisoners would madly rush to the door. The luckiest guy might catch a glance of her through the peephole. Guocui always brushed her hair with fingers when looking around with a coquettish smile, and then followed the guard toward the interrogation room. Many of those who had seen her highly praised her beauty, especially for her slender figure and tender eyes.

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen her. However, I’ve heard her singing beyond the partition wall during exercise time every day. There were wire fence above the dividing wall, but we could toss crumpled paper over it. We asked her to sing songs for us, and her singing had never been interrupted. Her voice sounded a bit like Cheng Lin, a famous singer, and Guocui especially liked to sing Lin’s songs like Any Empty Wine Bottles to Sell and Travelling through Wind and Rain.

Sometimes, she would dance while singing, using leg-irons as her accompaniment. The tinkles were supposed to be made by a pair of leg-irons weighing 3 kilograms. They sounded pleasant. Sometimes when the jail guard on duty got drunk, he would sigh pitifully for such a beautiful beauty. Every night, the armed policemen on guard leaned over the skylight watching Guocui, talking and flirting with her.

Guocui had been a student of Foodstuff Workers Training School at Bengbu. She was only 19 at that time. She was good at singing and dancing, and was regarded as a campus star. She was chased by many boy students. Finally, her heart was taken by one of them. One day, they hugged together wildly when alone in the dormitory where 10 girls usually lived.

All beauties seem to have unfortunate destiny. A pair of cold eyes belonging to one of Guocui’s roommates had watched them sneaking into the domitory. A long time living together in such an over-crowded place had inevitably brought lots of resentments among the girls. Now it was the roommate’s chance to get revenge.

While Guocui and her boyfriend were carried away in love, the door was kicked open roughly. No knocking or the sound of unlocking was heard when more than a dozen people rushed into the room. They were the principal, vice-principal, chief and vice-chief of the security section, a bunch of security workers, and, last, the informer. These people were staring at Guocui’s body wolfishly. They had finally caught the couple red-handed. The general office immediately decided to expel them from school.

Guocui’s parents were both farmers who had suffered hunger and cold during their several decades of hard working in the fields. Their only wish was that their pretty and smart daughter would not live such a life as theirs, but get rid of the rural household registration and live in the city. Guocui did not let them down. She was admitted into the Foodstuff Workers Training School, and would be regarded as a government official after graduation. When that happened, she would get her own salary every month.

However, after being expelled, the only path for her was to return to the rural area and lead the same life as her parents. She would struggle her whole life under the brutal rule of the rural party members and cadres in her exceptionally poor village, with face down to the earth and back up to the sky, and nobody would ever answer her appeal. The moment she heard the bad news of expulsion, she burst out crying and fell in a fit. After waking up, she became a totally different person with totally dull eyes. She had no appetite for food or drink, and kept talking to herself.

She fell to her knees in front of the principal’s office, crying and begging them not to expel her. She also lay on the floor of the security section, swearing to God that they had no sexual relationship but had only been hugging each other without clothes on, and begged them to check of her body. Still, everybody ignored her. The school only sent a telegram to her parents, urging them to take her away immediately.

It appeared as if Guocui had understood that her fate had been settled with no hope. Her parents would come the next day without knowing what exactly happened. This would be the last day in this school, and the last night sleeping in this dormitory.

Her tears ran dry. Guocui was too ashamed to face her wretched parents who would be heartbroken after knowing the whole story. She gazed at the informer who had fallen asleep soundly. Brandishing a small axe that she had stolen from the carpentry yard, she cried within her heart, “Why did you set me up like this? How did I offend you that made you ruin my whole life like this?”

“Since we are already enemies, let us go to hell together!” Guocui lift the axe and chopped down hysterically. With one hack after another, she altogether chopped 19 times.

Guocui was sentenced to death not long after. On the morning of the execution, Shi Dalai woke me up quietly. He thought there would be 6 people being executed on that day. All the jail guards had a kind of special capability: they were able to open the iron-lock without a sound and pull the door suddenly. Two armed policemen would jump into the cell and pull the prisoner backwards by catching his or her arms. At the same time, two armed policemen with guns would suddenly show up above the skylight, with their guns pointing down. The yard would be filled with armed policemen as well.

After the prisoner was dragged out, the armed policemen would smash the leg-irons after stepping on the prisoner’s body, and then bind their hands and feet until the prisoner could barely breathe or shout. Two buns, put beside the prisoner’s mouth, are the so-called the last dinner.

While being dragged outside the door, Guocui reproached the policemen with a smile, “My high heels, my high heels fell off when you dragged me.” We all knew that her last request to her family and the whole world was to buy her a pair of high heels that she had been wanting for years, at the cheapest price.

She had been worrying being looked down on as a countrywoman, so she hoped that she could go to another world with high heels. She wore the pair of shoes for the whole night before execution. The armed policemen knew about this. They put her down violently, and went back for her shoes.

It was said that she died peacefully, but not like the other condemned prisoners with pale faces and shaking bodies. Several days before her death, she tossed us a piece of crumpled paper, saying:

“I would rather die than live my whole life as my parents, suffering as a peasant, living in hunger and cold. I never had my stomach full until the age of 10. It is extremely horrible living in the countryside. I don't think the hell would be that miserable and awful. I’m leaving. Hope you lucky city residents obtain your freedom very soon, and lead a happy life ever after. Wang Guocui.”

We felt sorry for her for a long time. She was forced to death. The informer was responsible for this, so were those seemingly respectable school leaders, so were the education ministry officials who set so many people in such a tiny dormitory, and so were the Party and government leaders who converted peasants into serfs and brought them poverty and hardship.

Living in the dormitory without any privacy will inevitably create contradiction and hostility, which constrain human nature and twist human character. Anyone who has ever lived in a dormitory has an intimate knowledge about this. Half a dozen people living together in a room less than 10 square meters over the years is incredible to those who live in a free world. However, in China, you have to bear this for a long time.

In Mao Zedong’s time, the cadres in the government and the Party had the power to order the females working for them, because their power was unbounded. They could even control their time of going to the toilet. Every detail of life, including eating, sleeping, seeing a doctor or having a rest, had to be arranged by the leaders. That cannot be counted as violation. However, dating had to be approved by the leaders, or it would be considered as having “bourgeois ideas” and liable for punishment.

After reform and opening up, the cadres in the government and the Party gradually have plenty of money to burn. Ninety per cent of the guests going to the exclusive clubs, restaurants, bathing centres, luxury estates, and hotel penthouses are cadres from the government, the Party and the army. General civilians have been hard-up with no spare money for such entertainments. Even the businessmen who always have strict budgets would not spend money like this, unless they have to socialize with the cadres.

The cadres have been eating the Chinese young women’s youth, but not allowing the young couples to date, otherwise the couple’s whole life of happiness will be ruined, like Wang Guocui. This is the same as the way magistrates are allowed to burn down houses while the common people are forbidden even to light lamps.

It reminds me of the related policy in past dynasties: singles, soldiers and businessmen who were away from home were allowed to seek fun from prostitutes. However, it was strictly forbidden for the officials, because the imperial understood that this would be a bottomless pit as there were so many beauties in the world. Indulging in the beauties would inevitably rapidly lead to corruption.

Even if in the United States, ordinary people’s sex life earns respect. Earvin Johnson (Magic Johnson) admits in his autobiography that he has had sexual relationship with more than 3000 women, but American people still like him even though he suffered with AIDS from it. However, this didn’t work for President Clinton.

The Community Party goes to the opposite extreme. Everything goes contrary to normal society.

Wang Guocui was dead. Another delicate and charming flower was smashed by the giant wheel of Communism.

Original texts in Chinese can be found here

(Translated by Angela Hu)

Simon Nielsen 4/27/22 Simon Nielsen 4/27/22

A Travel Report

“ (…) in my days there are beetles/a dream of stardom, the city of Nanjing/and a pair of hands to bury the ruins.” Shi Tao, a journalist, writer and poet, was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years in 2005 for releasing a document of the Communist Party to an overseas Chinese democracy site after Yahoo! China provided his personal details to the Chinese government. How does the imprisoned travel? What’s his community? Tao reports from a half-buried landscape.

By Shi Tao with Independent Chinese PEN Center

Taiyuan

the city of sunset, the city of Tang poetry

carrying a ticket

issued by Chang An Station of the Empire

I stepped into another dark castle

the sunset is not yesterday’s

sunset, though the Tang poetry is still recited

but you have to take a lift

rocketing up to the top of a fake ancient tower

to the vast groups of people

shouting a loud “Good”

otherwise…

there would be a piece of brick coating

spilling off from the ancient city walls

smashing grey imprints onto your body

to make you remember lifelong

the taste of cultural violence

Yinchuan

sunflower, the fruit of autumn

you introduced one line of a poem

into the tomb of poet Hai Zi

just as within the church of a fairytale

among the groups of people, one pair of eyes

is making pilgrimage to another pair of eyes

tonight, the silent sky

will be with me, together

to mourn a deceased, beloved person

Shanghai

from the eyes of a clown, I

entered a palace of human bodies

withered grass in silence, salt of the desires

the streets cooled down

from the fever of the season

from a thick art magazine, I

reached long-dreamed-of Shanghai

where graffiti in dreams

had turned into landscapes in everyone’s booklet

I used poems to write a six-year-long

travel report. several years later

I forced myself into

a stock house of memories,

“private, repeated and lengthy”

just like a bee yenning to share the happiness of an elephant

Nanjing

worn-out days are like the fallen ancient city

the fragrance of withered weeds on the city walls

also envies my fully soaked nostalgia

my story

once touched a lengthy dark night

silent passion disheartened by the cap of an opened wine bottle

in my days there are beetles

a dream of stardom, the city of Nanjing

and a pair of hands to bury the ruins

Original texts in Chinese can be found here

(Translated by Chen Biao)

Simon Nielsen 4/25/22 Simon Nielsen 4/25/22

A Testimony to the Final Beauty - An Eyewitness’ Diary on TAM Square in 1989

“Roadblock! Roadblock! Roadblock! The students shouted and rushed to the Square West Road and Chang'an Avenue, chasing the tank – actually a light armored vehicle – and throwing soda-water bottles, bricks, and even the pens and books. The vehicle seemed confused for a moment, and then made a sudden U-turn, running away along its previous route towards West Qianmen Street.” Environmentalist, writer, and editor, Tan Zuoren, reimagines a turning point in the life of a Chinese square.

By Tan Zuoren and Independent Chinese PEN Center

As the tanks were approaching, the college students were sitting in a circle on the center of the Square where the Square University of Democracy had started its opening ceremony.

At 11 pm, the night sky in the Capital was still bright, and the gunfire in the distance was making noises from time to time. The people, sitting on the ground, were calm and quiet. Mr. Yan Jiaqi, the first President of the Square University of Democracy, was giving his lecture on the history of democracy, its current situation, democracy and the rule of law, democracy in China ... Breeze was blowing while Mr. Yan was tirelessly talking: Democracy is the majority role, with a respect for minority rights; Democracy is for the people to restrict the government, instead of the government to dominate the people; Democracy must rely on the rule of law and oppose the rule of man; Democracy is a good thing that the Chinese people have struggled hard for 70 years and still relentlessly pursued.

The humming noises suddenly came upon us, seemingly from the sky. Some of the people were standing up and raising their heads to look around. If you were sitting, you felt the earth begin to shudder. Soon, you heard the sounds that you would never forget – the roaring of a tank and the chugging of its high-speed running tracks.

"Roadblocks!" shouted someone. Roadblock, roadblock, roadblock! People jumped up into the air, calling out and rushing toward the tank running fast at the west plaza of the Square, as they were the roadblocks.

That was at 11:10 pm on June 3, 1989, in front of the People’s Great Hall.

The Highest Principle of Peace is Sacrifice

That Democracy had a chance to encounter the tanks had gone beyond many people's expectations. All of the students had been familiar with the history of the Square. From the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to the April Fifth Movement in 1976, the Square had been the venue of public demonstrations. For 70 years, people had been pursuing the footsteps of Mr. De(mocracy) and Mr. Sci(ence) and campaigning here time and again. They had seen the sticks, swords and guns, high-pressure water hoses, and the lethal weapons as well, but never happened to see a minimum of military common sense: the tanks could deal with the crowd, even driving to your home. Perhaps this spirit of insufficient preparation inspired the fears and fierce reactions.

Roadblock! Roadblock! Roadblock! The students shouted and rushed to the Square West Road and Chang'an Avenue, chasing the tank – actually a light armored vehicle – and throwing soda-water bottles, bricks, and even the pens and books. The vehicle seemed confused for a moment, and then made a sudden U-turn, running away along its previous route towards West Qianmen Street.

With neither mobilization nor command by anyone, the Square that had not been fortified instinctively reacted in fear. The traffic-dividing blocks, iron railings, trashcans, and even garbage and debris were moved to the roads to look like obstacles. You, moving the dividing blocks together with other people, thought that at seven o'clock when swearing the oath on the Square, the outcome that you could have imaged was to be beaten black and blue followed by Qincheng Prison. You were willing. Holding fast on the Square for 15 days, you were willing to wait for that outcome. It was because the revolutionary education over 30 years had characterized you, eroded you, and made you believe that you were the Gadfly, Rudin, Che Guevara, Alekos, or Pavel Korchagin, a piece of the flesh doomed to the destruction, disruption, and devotion to the sacrificial altar. Maybe at that time, you did not really know yourself.

Not knowing oneself did not mean not knowing the society, or not knowing the history, or not knowing the nation and people. Forty years ago, somebody loudly declared here that the Chinese people had stood up at that time. However, the Chinese people who had stood up did not know where they were "standing" but became even shorter after "standing up". In 1989, Chinese intellectuals and people gathered together at an unprecedented scale, and finally shouted out their own wishes and determinations to take the world by surprise!

The tank approaching suggested the arrival of the last moment. The students were sitting around the Monument and quietly waiting. They opposed the violence, ready to sacrifice. One and a half hours ago, a quiet soft voice at the broadcast station of the Hunger Strike Group had presented the common will of all: Student Colleagues, Colleagues, the last moment of our peaceful demonstration has come. We must remain rational, remain calm, and maintain the idea of peaceful petition, not to use violence to deal with violence. For two months, what we have insisted is the non-violent peaceful struggle, and the highest principle of peace is sacrifice.

The people on the Square were familiar with this voice, from Chai Ling, who at that time, in one sense, was another Goddess of Democracy on the Square.

Good-bye, Comrades!

The Square calmed down again while the gunfire around started making noise again. First in the distance, the sounds burst like the firecrackers on New Year's Eve, more and more intensively. Then, from the Museum and the People’s Great Hall, the rifle tracer came in fixed or repeated bursts of fire, like the fireworks drawing the sky.

You were at the northwest corner of the Square. In front of a broadcasting bus of the Independent Labor Union, you were counting the shots from the dark windows of the Museum and the Great Hall – after a flash, a shot must be heard. In the mind flashed the idea of observing the firing points. It seemed that you were Huang Jiguang or Dong Cunrui, ready to go for destroying a firing point at any time. In no time, there were too many to count – too many intensive shots, and too many "firing points".

The broadcasting bus was broadcasting the "Militia Training Textbook" to teach people how to fight a tank: blinding its eyes, digging its ears, cutting its belly open, chopping its legs ... ... It really came so quickly. Just thinking of them, a tank came.

At 0:30 am, from the east to the Jinshui Bridge, came the roaring of a tank, bursting more and more intensively. The people on the Square were running there. At the same time, from the crowds running frantically, you heard the news that the tank crushed to death a girl student, one from the Beijing Normal University, some said.

The loud speakers produced a harsh noise. Suddenly, "Militia Training Textbook" was changed to a high-pitched singing of "The Internationale". Then, the broadcasting bus that had been modified temporarily from a public bus did a u-turn. Watching the bus turning and turning around and dragging the speakers on the ground, you understood what it meant – to block the tank, die together! You were chasing it and finally grasping its door. But the door was shut in a sound of thundering, and a cry of farewell came from its cab: "Good-bye, comrades!"

Later, you would see this very bus on TV screen several times. The tank only tens of meters away in front of it would disappear. The bus would be no longer on the Chang'an Avenue, but was changed to have its mission to attack a building instead of intercepting a tank as an evidence of crime.

Strange? No. Greatness and absurdness are relatives, just as the beauty, to other’s eyes, is always ugly.

The most important reason for choosing to remain on the Square and wait for the final outcome was that the Square had been the place where the students dominated the organization, but also where they had been expressing their collective will. The collective will had been to uphold peaceful demonstration: non-violence, disobedience, bloodless, and not to surrender. You agreed with this idea, even though you knew it "inappropriate" at that time. At the same time, however, compared to the street barricade battle with high confrontation and high destructivity, this road of failure might lead to another kind of victory, instead of leading from the disorder to the greater disorder.

Violence came from fear, and excessive violence from excessive fear. At that time, however, not many people understood this point of view. Even understanding it, it was impossible to control the situation, nor to change it, and so it was of no use.

No Beating!

The broadcasting bus rushed to Chang'an Avenue, and stopped tens of meters away from the armored vehicle, because it had been immobilized by the piled trashcans, roaring in vain and then died. Instantly, the armored vehicle 003 became an item for the people to siege and give vent to. Bricks and sticks were pounding this iron turtle, and lit clothing and quilts were immediately piled upon the "Turtle." The people were angry, excited and crowded, as if surrounding a giant baked potato and waiting to divide and eat it.

Holding a bamboo stick, you touched the hot backdoor of the iron turtle. Before the stick hit down, "bang", the door sprang open. In the billowing smoke, two soldiers rushed out. They had been driven out by the heat and smoke in the vehicle; too drowsy to defend themselves, and so immediately stumbled onto the ground by the crowd. In the crowd there were heard only the deep sounds like ramming the earth, without a cry for mercy or help.

You desperately squeezed in, and wanted to beat, or to kill. Perhaps, you did not or need not think anything, but followed the crowd to do what they were doing. It was unexpected – what you did was the opposite. For eighteen years, whenever you have recalled that moment, you have always been confused . Then you have become increasingly convinced that, at that moment, there was a miracle that saved you.

You squeezed into a circle to the left of the armored vehicle, saw the soldier lying on the ground, no longer moving. Someone kicked him on the head, and someone jumped up and stepped on his body, as playing the Kung-fu roles in a movie. The soldier showed no response. You heard yourself shouting: no beating, no beating, the man won’t pull through! Then you pulled up his left hand on your shoulder, bent to carry him on your back with all your strength, and moved toward a first-aid station.

The assault did not stop. Some people began to hit you, and you staggered a step, nearly falling to the ground. Before you knelt down, a pair of hands from your right stretched out to hold you, and then both hands put up the soldier’s right arm to let you straighten the body. "No beating!" shouted someone. No beating! No beating! No beating! People began shouting, more and more loudly, more and more regularly. In such rhythmic cries , and as rich characteristics of the Square at that time, protected by a circle of more than 10 pairs of arms, you were running to deliver the soldier to the first-aid station outside the Museum a few hundreds meters away.

It was heard later that no soldier died on the Square that day, including that big man of more than 180 cm who was bloodied but not sacrificed. It was good luck for all of us.

To Remain Or To Withdraw?

"Tomorrow" arrived in a very strange way: turning off the lights.

At 4:00 am, when the Emergency Notice was rebroadcast, all of the lights on the Square went out. Fear fell as the darkness came. In the east of the Monument, someone lit the garbage. As the soldiers would always have smashed their weapons before they might die, some people collected the sticks and bars together and threw them into the fire and burned them. 3,000-4,000 students were sitting around the base of the Monument, horribly quiet. All were waiting, and waiting for the last moment to come. "The Internationale" was voicing, "This is the final struggle..."

In front of the People’s Great Hall, the spotlight turned on brightly, shining on the infantry phalanxes outside its gates. Near the phalanxes, a detachment hunched, held their rifles and rushed to the Monument. In an instant, a skirmish line surrounded the Monument. Someone called out: all of the city residents get out, out of here! At the same time, gunfire was heard. The soldiers started to act, picking out and shoving away those who did not look like students.. In a short while, someone held your collar, and pulled you out of the encirclement. Those citizens pulled out did not go away but stood outside the encirclement, chanting: Students are innocent! Students are innocent!

Someone was shooting the Monument, which made a shower of sparks. Soon, the big loudspeakers were silenced. After a moment of commotion, however, the students sitting on the steps of its base were still in silence. You admired those children for they had overcome their fear. Then, someone on the base of the Monument loudly suggested deciding to stay or leave based on a vote: which voice would be louder.

In fact, such voting on the Square had been previewed as early as on the first day of the "Martial Law". On May 22, the rumor of "the Square will be assaulted by an air bomb" spread like wildfire, shaking the students’ determination to remain on the square. At that time, the broadcast station of the Hunger Strike Group was broadcasting a public debate. As it was hard to determine which side of “Remaining” and “Withdrawing” was to win, in the southwest corner of the Square there appeared a quiet procession with the banners, rolling up the sleeves and standing in silence in the cold wind at midnight. As one came closer to have a look, my goodness, there were all the national teams of news media: the Central People's Broadcasting Station, China Central Television, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, Beijing Daily ... ... Applause! The students burst into tears! The motorcycle team of the Beijing residents stuck in flags, lined up in ranks and patrolled around the Square to encourage the students. Since then you had started to believe that China's bright future would rely on the intellectuals.

At that time, the intellectuals could indeed impress the heaven and earth, but not the Government.

No Enemy, No Hatred

The students’ commitment to a selection of “staying” to uphold stimulated the soldiers of “cleansing”. In the darkness, they began rifle-shooting intensively at the Monument to increase the pressure. You seemed to see the relief sculpture of the May Fourth’s Youths on the Monument staring with their confused eyes. Thus you crossed the skirmish warning line and returned to the Monument again – to die, together with everyone.

The decision to return to the encirclement and to take the risk actively might not be considered somewhat as heroic but significant. At that time, a large number of Chinese intellectual elite did not hesitate to jump into the fire, purifying their souls and restoring their humanity. On June 2, when staying on the Square had already been very difficult, and when the authorities’ intention of crackdown had already been very obvious, Liu Xiaobo, a doctorate in literature who had returned from the United States, together with Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo and Gao Xin, launched a new round of hunger strike protests. These "Four Gentlemen of the Square" issued a "Declaration on Hunger Strike", saying "China’s history of several thousand years had been fully filled by replacing violence with violence and mutual hatred. To this end, we make a hunger strike to call on the Chinese people for the gradual renunciation and elimination of the enemy consciousness and the hatred sentiment from now on, and for a complete abandonment of the political culture such as the class struggle, because the hatred can only produce violence and tyranny! We must have the spirit of tolerance and consciousness of cooperation in a democratic way to start building democracy in China. Democracy is a politics without an enemy and without hatred. " The 1989 generation of the intellectuals were not only ready to stand for justice, with the courage to feed tigers with their lives, but also profound and far-sighted, fully capable of undertaking the mission of promoting the progress of China's history. In fact, what any of the historians cannot avoid is that the June Fourth Movement in China, by turning over stones caused an avalanche effect, closing the door of Cold War and opening a new era of globalization. Its historical significance is no less than the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The bullets ricocheting from shooting at the Monument were making new casualties from time to time. Within a short while, four men carried a student with a hemorrhaging neck and ran down from the top of the Monument base. With a doctor's instinct, you went to clear the way ahead and guided them to the first-aid station outside the Museum. Arriving there, you were dumbfounded: several ambulances that had parked there for a long time had gone! Ambulance! Ambulance! Ambulance! You were desperately shouting and looking.

During that night, the busiest place on the Square had been the temporary first-aid station in front of the Museum. For the whole night, as the alarms had been ringing and the wheels were rolling, they had been constantly transferring the wounded on the Square as well as those from the neighboring junctions. And now, they had quietly disappeared. You looked at the north of the Square, but could not see an ambulance, only tanks and armored vehicles. In the reflection of approaching daylight, about 40 armored vehicles were lined up, moving like a flock of crouched monsters.

Suddenly, the monsters roared and their engines shot out smoke, instantly obscuring the gray dawn sky that was just appearing.

Kill Li Peng!

An orderly withdrawal from the Square began. When you were directly faced with the tanks' canons at your nose, heavily encircled, and left with a sole passage at the southeast corner, your only way to survive was to leave. Hence at the last minute, it was really peaceful and orderly.

The soldiers adopted push tactics. The students withdrew from one level, and the soldiers took it over. Within a short time, the Monument was full of soldiers. In order to clarify the situation, you even climbed an armored vehicle and saw the leading rank of the withdrawing students had arrived at Qianmen Avenue but its tail just exiting the encirclement. The number was estimated as over 1,000 persons. The time was 5:10 am, in the early morning of June 4.

You jumped down from the armored vehicle to chase the ranks. The residents who got up early were pouring toward the Square. They had heavy faces, but applauding in lines to give you a good farewell – no, a sad one. You caught up with the ranks and asked, “are there any behind?” Some students answered that there were some on the Monument who firmly refused to leave! At this time, a plump girl wearing glasses rushed out of the ranks, squatting on the ground crying. Two or three girls went to pull her, but she hugged the tree and would not get up! Two boys came to persuade her but in vain. Several of them squatted on the ground, crying!

Then you heard yourself shouting a roar that did not belong to you: Kill Li Peng! Kill Li Peng! Kill Li Peng! The students followed and cried three times. The ranks continued to march toward the Qianmen.

Then you believed that, at that moment, if there was something to represent Li Peng standing in front of you, whether it was a soldier or a tank, you would not hesitate to tear it. If there was a machine gun in your hands, you would not hesitate to pull its trigger. At that moment, you had completed the transformation from an intellectual to a spiritual mob, and then across half a step, you would be a street thug, the mob produced by the tyranny. Of course, this result would only prove that you had lost, while those holding the power and weapons would have won.

……

Epilogue

On June 10, on the train home, you took out a notebook. It was noted that, on May 21, the first day of your arrival in Beijing, you copied a poem "Dialogue" on the Monument. The pro-democracy movement in 1989, which went from the original purpose of the dialogue to the outcome of confrontation, has of course got far too many problems to reflect. However, the spirit of "Dialogue" is forever so beautiful!

Therefore, on the train running to the west, you read for all this small piece of the poem to express the deep gratitude to the final beauty of an era.

Dialogue

Child: Mom, these little aunts and little uncles, why not to eat?

Mother: They want to get a gift.

What gift

Freedom.

Who will give them this beautiful gift.

Themselves.

Mom, why so many, so many people on the Square.

This is a festival.

What festival?

Lighting festival.

Where is the light?

In everyone's heart.

Mama, Mama, who is in the ambulance?

Hero.

Why does a hero want to lie down?

To let children on the back row see.

What to see?

A flower of seven colors.

May 22, 2007 in Chengdu

Original texts in Chinese can be found here

++++

Extracts from the Criminal Verdict issued by the Chengdu Municipal Intermediate People's Court on February 9, 2010

The facts are clear, on which the Chengdu Municipal People's Procuratorate, Sichuan Province, have accused the defendant Tan Zuoren, that he cooked up “The Square Diary” and published it at the overseas media, and that he publicized the so-called the "spirit of June 4th" in a way of blood donation; and their evidences are definitely sufficient and so have been confirmed in accordance with the law. Other accusations shall not be affirmed. The evidences submitted by the defense hold no relevance to the confirmed facts, thus inadmissible.

This court found that the defendant Tan Zuoren, in a way of disinformation and defamation, incited subversion of the PRC State power and overthrowing of the socialist system, and that his conducts constituted a crime of inciting subversion of the State power. …… According to the provisions of Item 2 of Article 105, the Item 1 of Article 56, Item 1 of Article 55, Articles 47 and 58 of the PRC Criminal Law, the verdict is made as follows: The defendant Tan Zuoren is found guilty of the offence of inciting subversion of the State power and sentenced to five years imprisonment and three years deprivation of political rights.

Tan Zuoren is an environmentalist, writer, former editor of Literati magazine and honorary member of Independent Chinese PEN center, has been serving 5 years imprisonment on “inciting subversion of state power” since 28 March 2009. He was honored the ICPC’s Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award in 2013, and released on completion of his sentence on March 27, 2014.

(Translated by Yu ZHANG)

Simon Nielsen 3/22/22 Simon Nielsen 3/22/22

How One Piece Of Code Empowered Hundreds Of Thousands Voters In The South African Local Government Elections 2021

Open Cities Lab is using code to create social capital and civic engagement. “My one concern was that it was too simple to be useful,” said founder Richard Gevers. “Clearly it wasn’t and clearly this is something people wanted. If you create an enabling environment, people can and will participate.” This is how hundreds of thousands of voters were empowered in the South African 2021 local government elections.

By Open Cities Lab

The founder of Open Cities Lab (OCL), Richard Gevers, was all over the South African press recently talking about mycandidate.opencitieslab.org — the tool that tells you who you can vote for in the Local Government Elections (LGE). It was only possible because the open data community made it happen. The portal is a collaboration between Richard Gevers (Open Cities Lab leader), Matthew Adendorff (head of Data Science at Open Cities Lab), Adi Eyal and JD Bothma (from OpenUp), Paul Berkowitz (who wrangled data from the IEC), Wasim Moosa (Open Cities Lab Lead developer) and Jodi Allemeier.

At the time of publishing, 118 000 people had used the tool, and we can assume that most of them were registered voters. And possibly more exciting than the site analytics are the stories about people who used the tool and as a result started engaging in conversations with their friends and peers about who their ward candidates were.

How it works: Type in your address and it will identify your ward as well as all the candidates contesting in your ward, as listed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). Each candidate’s name, age and political party appear in the search results including all the other wards in which the candidate is contesting. When you click the name of the candidate, you will be redirected to the google search results for that name. You can also view more information about your ward by clicking the link to Wazimap.

It’s a really simple tool. “I really wasn’t sure if it would be successful,” said Richard Gevers. However the positive reception and media attention mycandidate.opencitieslab.org received proved that at least some people do want to have an active role in society. He said, “If you remove barriers, they can get involved. My one concern was that it was too simple to be useful. Clearly it wasn’t and clearly this is something people wanted. If you create an enabling environment, people can and will participate.” This is how hundreds of thousands of voters were empowered in the 2021 LGE.

How it all started: Just over 2 weeks before the LGE on 1 November 2021, Richard and a few colleagues were having dinner together, when one of OCL’s data scientists, expressed frustration with not knowing who to vote for. Th information about candidates was not easily accessible, even for our tech savvy team.

Amidst the end of the year rush to meet deadlines, Richard had asked Matthew Adendorff (Open Cities Lab lead data scientist), what it would take to get the MyCandidate tool up and running. Knowing that the data on each candidate was published by the IEC in pdf format, Matt was not sure if it was possible within such a short time frame to scrape all the candidate information into a spreadsheet and cross check it for accuracy. The data needed to be available in an open format.

It just so happened that Paul Berkowitz had just done this. With much effort, he had taken all the candidate information in the pdf and made it openly available on this google spreadsheet. So that night, Matt plugged in the now open data and resurrected the mycandidate.opencitieslab.org

It was far from perfect. There was no styling or even any branding but it worked. A few days later at 18:58 on 19 October 2021, Richard tweeted a message asking the twitter community for some user testing feedback. The responses were invaluable, and the retweets and media attention catapulted this simple tool into stardom.

The first version of the MyCandidate tool had been conceived and published just days before the 2016 LGE. The use case then was the same: Who are the candidates running in my ward? Some of us know about the parties contesting in our ward, but who are the candidates, and who are the independent candidates. Five years later, the tool went live in just enough time to reach a wider audience and have a significant impact.

All the hallmarks of Open Data:

The success and impact that the MyCandidate tool has had and will have in the future are testament to the Open Data Mission and the mission of Open Cities Lab: We work to build inclusion and participatory democracy in cities and urban spaces through empowering citizens, building trust and accountability in civic space, and capacitating government. When we can use technology and open data to do this, we do.

The MyCandidate tool is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International. Leading up to the elections, we encouraged media organisations and even the IEC to embed the tool on their site. The embed code is available on the tool itself. We invite you to find, use, test, improve and share the code, which can be found on Github here.

Change Log:
Since the MyCandidate tool went live on 19 October 2021, some changes and improvements were made. Wasim Moosa (Open Cities Lab Lead developer), worked late on Friday night before the Monday election day, to solve the geocoding “problem” we had. It’s a wonderful problem to have so many users that the search functionality needs upgrading. When the number of users exceeded a certain threshold, Wasim needed to switch the geocoding query to google places API.

Thanks to the community of user testing that shaped the tool into what it became, we made the following changes after launch:

1. Added an embed link for others to embed the tool on their sites and in their news articles
2. Added a Favicon for the app
3. Added missing candidate data that was not found in the original dataset
4. Switched the Geocoding query to google places API
5. Updated the ward boundaries using the Open Up Mapit tool

6. Added privacy note on the application stating “The My Candidate tool does not store any user information, including your address.”

7. Added a link to Jodi Allemier’s informative blog piece about how local elections work and what each ballot you receive at the voting stations means.

8. Added the ward number to the search results, making it easier for users to see which ward their street address belongs too.

Future plans for the MyCandidate tool

Open Cities Lab is open to all opportunities to develop the MyCandidate tool further and replicate it in other countries. We are particularly interested in the potential for use in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and other countries in the continent. Whatsapp integration is also on the cards. This would make it possible for users to initiate a request via Whatsapp. And there is also an opportunity More work to potentially create a MyCounsellor type intervention, where we can build a track record for local representatives. We look forward to exploring these ideas and encourage others to contact us about the MyCandidate tool for more information.

Simon Nielsen 3/10/22 Simon Nielsen 3/10/22

Shehron Ke Raaz: Unearthing Invisible Layers Near Bhalswa Landfill, Delhi

Off Centre Collective explores the Bhalswa landfill and asks a fundamental question: Are all citizens equal?

“The authors were shocked to see laughing children treating the pool of leachate as a river, hopping on top of bags of trash they imagined to be their boats. The lack of playgrounds and healthy open spaces is clearly evident. While the increasing height of the garbage hill seems to be the pressing ‘visible’ problem, they are cesspools of poor sanitation, unclean water, and unhealthy spaces, making visible a problem otherwise invisible.” Off Centre Collective explores the Bhalswa landfill and asks a fundamental question: Are all citizens equal?

By Off Centre Collective

*Bhalswa landfill is the second largest landfill after Ghazipur and caters to 50.3% of Delhi’s population. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

“My youngest son was born here (near the landfill) and while I was pregnant, I had to rely on the water from the handpump”, says Anita*, a waste picker living in Shraddhanand Colony adjoining the Bhalswa Landfill in Northwest Delhi. “If you’ve traveled by road to Chandigarh, this is the mountain of trash you would’ve seen. He’s had kidney problems ever since he was born. Within 5.5 years, we have had to get him operated six times! Because of the medical expenses, we have to go without ration for a few days. Stomach, skin, and eye problems are the most common amongst the community”, says Anita, showing us the medical reports of her 6-year-old son.

Just like Anita and her family of five, 50,000 waste pickers in Delhi living near three major landfills, Bhalswa, Okhla, and Ghazipur, risk their health every single day to keep our city clean. Almost 50% of Delhi is responsible for the 2,000 mega tonnes of daily waste dumped at the Bhalswa landfill since 1994.

Forced to depend on scarce amounts of potable water and living in the vicinity of toxic runoff and leachate, the waste pickers communities living in Shraddhanand Colony share a toxic relationship with the landfill.

*Bhalswa landfill lies in the North-west part of Delhi. Illustration by Kanchan Joneja*

*Waste pickers’ basti lies within 200m radius of the Bhalswa landfill. Illustration by Kanchan Joneja*

A Day in the Life of a Waste Picker

Anita’s family, along with the other 50 families, reside in self-constructed bastis built by upcycling the waste from the landfill which it receives from various industries and more privileged homes. Discarded cloth, banners, carpets, and shuttering planks provide both refuge and identity to each home in the basti.

*Waste pickers families reside in self-constructed bastis along the base of the landfill. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

*Open space outside the house used for storage and segregation of waste. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

Starting late at 10 pm with a torch, a bottle of water, and food to suffice till 5 am, groups of waste pickers climb the mountain of trash every night to collect the unsegregated waste the city produces. During the day, the entire family sits in the small open space in front of their house to segregate the waste collected and sell them further. The plastic wrappers and polythene bags are often cleaned with water from a local hand pump, which assures a higher price for the product. They use the same hand pumps, gushing out yellow frothy water, for a bath, after toiling in the heat at the landfill. Temperatures at the top of the landfill are typically higher due to the methane gas emanating from the waste. While some houses have separate handpumps, typically each handpump is shared by 6 to 8 families. Unfortunately, their homes and these hand pumps, lie within a 500-meter radius of the landfill.

*The leachate from the landfill contaminates the groundwater making it unfit for further use. Illustration by Kanchan Joneja*

“In the last 1-2 years, the water from hand pumps has turned from yellow to green. The water feels like petrol, it smells and is sticky“, says Anita.

The leachate from this non-engineered landfill percolates through the ground and contaminates groundwater. With lack of sewage disposal system and leachate control drains in the surrounding communities, the groundwater is further contaminated by percolation of untreated sewage water. The handpump releases yellow water with a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of 5846ppm (parts per million), far from the desirable 500ppm fit for consumption.

Observing the landfill at close range, it is almost impossible to distinguish where it starts and where it ends. The ground is barely visible as it is completely covered with trash. Often, and without warning, huge chunks of garbage fall off, endangering homes and lives.

“During monsoons, homes fill with dirty water and we have to wait for it to dry out for 2 to 3 months. So, families tie the sleeping and kitchen platform 2.5 feet above the ground.”, shared Anita.

The overall air and water quality in the vicinity is dangerous and one can’t stand for too long next to the black runoff from the landfill without getting a headache. The stench of the leachate was perceivable through an N95 mask and the authors wondered how bad it must be otherwise. As for the air, one could say that at any given point a hundred flies were in sight.

The authors were shocked to see laughing children treating the pool of leachate as a river, hopping on top of bags of trash they imagined to be their boats. The lack of playgrounds and healthy open spaces is clearly evident. While the increasing height of the garbage hill seems to be the pressing ‘visible’ problem, they are cesspools of poor sanitation, unclean water, and unhealthy spaces, making visible a problem otherwise invisible.

*Due to lack of drainage network and sewage systems, the leachate and toxic-runoff gets collected at the base of the landfill. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

Home away from Home

The majority of waste pickers living next to Bhalswa belong to the Julaha community, also known as weavers, (listed as Scheduled Caste in the Constitution) hail from rural Bengal who lost their craft to the machine age and moved to Delhi in search opportunities and a better life. Otherwise fluent in Bangla, over the years, they adapted the common Hindi words, to maneuver through the city.

While they call Delhi their home, the city’s service providers have done very little in the past to extend basic WASH services provisioning to them. Just like Anita’s family, majority of the waste pickers have their various national identifying documents (Aadhar, ration, and voting card) issued from West Bengal, and are hence treated as outsiders even by the neighboring communities. With no right to the city’s infrastructure and services, they struggle every day with caste and occupation-based discrimination and are challenged by access to basic services such as water, health, sanitation, and healthy spaces.

“Yahan do porta toilets lage the COVID ke time pe. Jispe inka jhagda hone laga ki use kaun kare, maintain kaun kare. Baadmein unko lock kar diya gaya aur phir hata diya”, narrates Sheikh Akbar Ali, a community leader from NGO Basti Suraksha Manch who has been working with waste picker communities for over 30 years.

[Translation: During the first wave of COVID, porta toilets had been installed at a corner where people from all communities could access them. But due to issues of maintenance and community conflict, they had to be removed]

At the same time, Shraddhanand Colony witnessed mass migration during the height of the pandemic. In the authors’ first few visits in March 2021, out of 50 families living along the foothills of the landfill, only 11 had returned. Faced by a loss of livelihood along with no access to food, water, or relief from the Government – they fled to Bengal, where they struggled to earn but could survive.

*Unhealthy open spaces around the landfill. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

Water Wars: The Price of Water

As one enters the basti, containers of all shapes and sizes can be seen lined outside houses for collecting water from tankers. Earning around Rs 5,000-7,000 per month as a family, almost 25% of Anita’s meager income is spent in procuring potable water used for drinking and cooking from the private tanker that otherwise wouldn’t serve their community. For all other needs, they are dependent on the contaminated groundwater from the handpumps. This contrasts with the pakka houses on the opposite side of the road having access to piped water supply from the government and part of the same Shraddhanand colony.

What the authors found most touching, during their study around the WASH challenges was that the first time they met Anita and her family, they were offered bottled water – which is a luxury for the residents of the community.

“Yahan toh ladai hai, ki in logon ko paani kyun dein. Agar road pe tanker lag jae na, toh inko paani nai milega.”, said Sheikh Akbar Ali. [Translation: There is a fight amongst the people of the neighborhood, why share water with these people. If there is a tanker on the main road for the entire neighborhood, they will not get water]

Every week, on days fixed by groups of six families each, a private tanker comes to the basti to supply almost 350 litres of potable water for the entire week. In terms of water availability, it comes out to 1.7 litres (~ 2 bottles) of water per person per day. Compared with what livability standards like the National Building Code suggest, this is one-sixth of that!

Such shocking figures only confirm that in the absence of adequate quality water supply, people are forced to drastically reduce their water requirement, and depend on unclean water to meet their needs pushing them further into health-related risks such as dehydration and malnutrition.

The following water pricing comparison is based on data from field and secondary sources:

Water Source Price per litre (INR)

Tanker 2.22

Mineral water bottle (20 litres) 4

Swajal water ATM 3.33

DJB central piped supply 0 + service charge for 20,000l per month

This shows that piped water supply is the cheapest and only the privileged few get access to it, while the most vulnerable are left to fend for themselves and pushed further into the poverty cycle.

*Containers of all shapes and sizes are lined outside their homes for collecting water from tankers. Photo by Sukriti Thukral*

Equal Cities and the Right to Life

Following suit from Okhla Landfill’s example, the landfill at Bhalswa is also being turned into an Eco-Park by the NDMC. Bio-mining, greening the surface, reduction in height, slope stabilization and setting up Waste to Energy (WTE) facilities are some of the measures being taken up. While these may be portrayed as the best solutions to tackle the landfills, they do not follow Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 and are far from being sustainable. These cosmetic solutions visually reduce the volume of waste, but the burning of unsegregated waste by WTE plants increases air pollution.

There have been many discussions about residents of Delhi not knowing where their garbage lands up, but the enormous impacts of the landfill on the lives of people living around it have largely been overlooked. The very people who clean our city are the most vulnerable as they do not have access to basic services including drinking water.

The authors’ investigations on the field raise some fundamental human rights questions about the creation of equal cities for all citizens - especially those who are marginalized. Why should one have to be identified by a document in order to avail basic services? Is the right to life reserved only for those who vote in that constituency? Do waste pickers not have the right to clean drinking water? While India works towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we wonder whose development they apply to? Who then has the right to saaf paani** and healthy environment?

*Who has the right to saaf paani**? Photo by Kanchan Joneja*

*Name changed to preserve anonymity

** “saaf pani” in Hindi means clean and safe water

This story was supported by WRI India under the aaco Story Challenge.

Simon Nielsen 2/28/22 Simon Nielsen 2/28/22

Right For Culture - Belarus 2021

In 2019, PEN Belarus began systematically collecting data on the violation of the human and cultural rights of cultural workers in the country. In 2021, the crisis in Belarus continued, and culture remained the focus of the monitoring. The level of repression faced by cultural workers has not decreased since 2020.

The monitoring by PEN Belarus contains statistics and analysis of the violations that took place in 2021. It was prepared using public information collected from open sources as well as direct communication with cultural workers and representatives of cultural institutions throughout the year.

Artistic freedom lies at the heart of all strong communities. Art can teach us to question fixed structures and systems; it shows us that a community will always be a collection of voices, hopes, and visions, never a monologue. Without art, we’re simply losing ourselves, and our communities crumble.

In 2019, PEN Belarus began systematically collecting data on the violation of the human and cultural rights of cultural workers in the country. In January 2021, as the socio-political crisis intensified, PEN Belarus presented a public report of their monitoring results entitled “Belarus 2020: without the right to culture”.

In 2021, the crisis in Belarus continued, and culture remained the focus of the monitoring. The level of repression faced by cultural workers has not decreased since 2020. Among the current political prisoners in Belarus, 68 are cultural workers.

The monitoring by PEN Belarus contains statistics and analysis of the violations that took place in 2021. It was prepared using public information collected from open sources as well as direct communication with cultural workers and representatives of cultural institutions throughout the year.

By PEN Belarus

I. MAIN RESULTS

We recorded 1,455 violations of the cultural rights and human rights of cultural figures in 2021. We collected information on the repression of 628 cultural figures, more than 240 organizations and associations, as well as on questions of cultural heritage and discriminatory policy regarding the Belarusian language.

In 2021, the Belarusian authorities launched a fight against culture, civil society, and dissent with a scope that contrary to expectations turned out to be more severe than critical events we described in our monitoring “Belarus 2020: without the right to culture”.

The dynamics of violations per quarter from 2020–2021 can be seen in the graph below:

The number of violations recorded in 2021 is 2.5 times higher than the number recorded in 2020: 1,455 vs 593 respectively.

CULTURAL WORKERS WHO ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS

As of December 31.2021, there are 969 political (the procedure for recognition as a political prisoner is set forth in a certain framework document) prisoners in Belarus. 68 of these are cultural figures:

architect Arciom Takarčuk – 11.20.2020 sentenced to 3.5 years in a penal colony;
artist Uladzislaŭ Makaviecki – 12.16.2020 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
poet and programmer Anatol Chinievič – 12.24.2020 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
concert agency director Ivan Kaniavieha – 02.04.2021 sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony;
artist Alaksandr Nurdzinaŭ – 02.05.2021 sentenced to 4 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
documentary film author and blogger Paviel Spiryn – 02.05.2021 sentenced to 4.5 years in a penal colony;
poet and director Ihnat Sidorčyk – 02.16.2021 sentenced to 3 years in an open-type correctional institution [OTCI]. He has been serving this sentence since 06.14.2021;
writer and journalist Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvalava) – 02.18.2021 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
cultural manager Lavon Chalatran – 02.19.2021 sentenced to 2 years in OTCI. He has been serving the sentence since 06.13.2021;
designer Maksim Taćcianok – 02.26.2021 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI. He has been serving the sentence since 06.18.2021;
artist and animator Ivan Viarbicki – 03.15.2021 sentenced to 8 years and 1 month in a strict-regime penal colony;
UX/UI-designer Dźmitryj Kubaraŭ – 03.24.2021 sentenced to 7 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
artist, former student of the Academy of Sciences Anastasija Mironcava – 04.01.2021 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
drummer Alaksiej Sančuk – 05.13.2021 sentenced to 6 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
cultural manager Mia Mitkievič – 05.20.2021 sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony;
writer and socio-political figure Paviel Sieviaryniec – 05.25.2021 sentenced to 7 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
poet, founder of the “Medovaya” literary prize Mikalaj Papieka – 06.08.2021 sentenced to 2 years in OTCI. He has been serving the sentence since 09.13.2021;
dancers Ihar Jarmolaŭ and Mikalaj Sasieŭ – 06.10.2021 sentenced to 5 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
arts patron Viktar Babaryka – 07.06.2021 sentenced to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
actor Siarhiej Volkaŭ – 07.06.2021 sentenced to 4 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
lighting designer Danila Hančaroŭ – 07.09.2021 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
musician Paviel Larčyk – 07.09.2021 sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony;
poet and publicist, a former student of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at BSU Ksienija Syramalot – 07.16.2021 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
former students of the Faculty of Aesthetic Education in BSPU – Jana Orobiejko i Kasia Buďko 07.16.2021 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
former student at the Academy of Arts Maryja Kalenik – 07.06.2021 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
former student in the Faculty of Architecture at BNTU Viktoryja Hrankoŭskaja – 07.16.2021 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
designer and architect Raścislaŭ Stefanovič – 07.19.2021 sentenced to 8 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
musician & D.J. Artur Amiraŭ – 08.20.2021 sentenced to 3.5 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
history and social studies teacher Andrej Piatroŭski – 08.25.2021 sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony;
poet, musician, and advocate Maksim Znak – 09.06.2021 sentenced to 10 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
musician and cultural project manager Maryja Kaleśnikava – 09.06.2021 sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony;
musician Jaŭhien Piatroŭ – 09.11.2021 sentenced to 1 year in a penal colony;
researcher at the Center for Research of Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature of the National Academy of Sciences Alaksandr Halkoŭski – 09.14.2021 sentenced to 1.5 years in OTCI. He has been serving this sentence since 10.16.2021;
promoter of history and human rights advocate Taćciana Lasica – 11.03.2021 sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony;
author of prison literature, activist of the anarchist movement Mikalaj Dziadok – 11.10.2021 sentenced to 5 years in a penal colony;
musicians Uladzimir Kalač and Nadzieja Kalač – 12.14.2021 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
promoter of history, blogger Eduard Palčys – 12.17.2021 sentenced to 13 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
author of prison literature, activist of the anarchist movement Ihar Alinievič – 12.22.2021 sentenced to 20 years in a strict-regime penal colony;
musicians Piotr Marčanka, Julija Marčanka (Junickaja) and Anton Šnip – 12.28.2021 sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony;
cultural manager Eduard Babaryka – he has been in pre-trial detention since 06.18.2020;
manager of cultural projects, author of a book of fairy tales written in captivity, businessman Alaksandr Vasilevič – he has been in pre-trial detention since 08.28.2020;
activist, reenactor of history Kim Samusienka – he has been in pre-trial detention since 11.03.2020;
director of documentaries, journalist Ksienija Luckina – she has been in pre-trial detention since 12.22.2020;
poet, journalist and media manager Andrej Alaksandraŭ – he has been in pre-trial detention since 01.12.2021;
author of musical projects and director of typography Arciom Fiedasienka – he has been in pre-trial detention since 03.19.2021 (01.14.2022 Arciom Fiedasienka sentenced to 4 years in a penal colony);
chairwoman of the Union of Poles Anžalika Borys – she has been in remand prison since 03.23.2021;
poet and member of the Union of Poles Andrej Pačobut – he has been in remand prison since 03.27.2021;
artist Aleś Puškin – he has been in pre-trial detention since 03.30.2021;
author and editor, political scientist, and analyst Valeryja Kaściuhava – she has been in pre-trial detention since 06.30.2021;
writer, musician and author of the magazine “Naša historyja” Andrej Skurko – he has been in pre-trial detention since 07.08.2021;
writer, researcher on the history of Belarusian literature, essayist and human rights defender Aleś Bialacki – he has been in pre-trial detention since 07.14.2021;
street-art artist and IT-specialist Dźmitryj Padrez – he has been in pre-trial detention since 07.15.2021;
philosopher, methodologist, and publicist Uladzimir Mackievič – he has been in pre-trial detention since 08.04.2021;
sound engineer Kiryl Salejeŭ – he has been in pre-trial detention since 09.14.2021 (01.11.2022 Kiryl Salejeŭ sentenced to 3 years in OTCI);
former teacher of Belarusian language and literature Ema Stsepulionak – she has been in pre-trial detention since 09.29.2021;
musician, violin teacher Aksana Kaśpiarovič – she has been in remand prison since 09.30.2021;
bass guitarist Viktar Katoŭski – he has been in pre-trial detention since 09.30.2021;
photographer and journalist Hienadź Mažejka – he has been in pre-trial detention since 10.01.2021;
history teacher Artur Ešbajeŭ – he has been in pre-trial detention since 11.02.2021;
founder of Symbal.by, manager of cultural projects Paviel Bielavus – he has been in pre-trial detention since 11.15.2021;
science fiction writer, journalist Siarhiej Sacuk – he has been in pre-trial detention since 12.08.2021;
author of non-fiction books, journalist Aleh Hruzdzilovič – he has been in pre-trial detention since 12.23.2021;
literary and cultural critic Julija Čarniaŭskaja – she has been under house arrest since 05.20.2021 (without the possibility of going outside or any communication with the outside world, with the exception of a lawyer) (01.13.2022 Julija Čarniaŭskaja had her measure of restraint changed and released from house arrest, but she remains a defendant in the criminal case).

*In detention are also the writer, translator, and literary critic* ***Alaksandr Fiaduta****, the local historian and activist* ***Uladzimir Hundar****, and the cameraman* ***Viačaslaŭ Lamanosaŭ****. Illustration: PEN Belarus.*

RIGHT TO LIFE

Vitold Ašurak, promoter of history and activist from Biarozaŭka, died in the colony in Škłoŭ city on May 21, 2021 in unexplained circumstances. The official reason for his death is a heart attack. His relatives, however, insist that he did not suffer from heart problems. Neither they nor the public have received convincing proof that he died of natural causes.

Anatol Pasieka, an employee of the Janka Kupala Museum in Minsk, died in his workplace on August 5, 2021 during a planned fire safety check.

CONVEYOR OF CRIMINAL CASES

In total, 63 sentences were passed against 62 cultural workers.

Data on the sentences of individuals who do not fall within the “political prisoner” category:

cameraman Viačaslaŭ Lamanosaŭ 01.15.2021 sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony;
architect Vadzim Dźmitronak 03.17.2021 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI;
translator Volha Kalackaja 03.24.2021 sentenced to 2 years of home confinement (Restriction of liberty without referral to an open-type correctional facility, i.e. the convicted person remains at home but must comply with a number of rules such as going to work and reporting to the police);
writer and activist Alena Hnaŭk convicted twice: 05.07.2021 sentenced to 2 years of home confinement, 09.03.2021 to 2 more years; in total, considering undone punishment – 3 years of home confinement;
local historian and activist Uladzimir Hundar 05.20.2021 sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony;
musician Uladzisłaŭ Navažylaŭ 06.21.2021 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI;
poet and musician Hanna Važnik 06.28.2021 sentenced to 1 year of home confinement;
librarian Julija Laptanovič 08.04.2021 sentenced to 3 years of home confinement;
designer Taćciana Minina 08.12.2021 sentenced to 4 years of home confinement;
cultural manager Iryna Chvajnickaja 08.20.2021 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI;
cultural manager Rehina Lavor 09.16.2021 sentenced to 2 years of home confinement.

Analyzing the events of 2021, the following 24 cases should also be highlighted:

cultural managers Cimur Hazizaŭ (09.20.21 sentenced to 2 years in OTCI) and Jaŭhien Kračkoŭski (11.09.21 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI), writer and teacher of Belarusian language and literature Aleś Minaŭ (11.25.21 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI), and also art-manager Alaksandr Bahdanaŭ and set designer Maksim Kruk (12.17.21 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI) they are at large awaiting a decision on their appeals;
cultural manager Taćciana Hacura-Javorskaja, translator Andrej Dyńko, poet Siarhiej Sys, an employee of PEN Belarus Volha Rakovič, cultural manager and human rights activist Andrej Paluda, writer Viktar Sazonaŭ, cultural manager Siarhiej Mackievič, writer and journalist Ihar Iljaš, cultural manager Taćciana Vadalažskaja were detained for periods from 1 to 13 days and currently have various restrictions (a travel restrictions, non-disclosure statements, etc investigative actions are being carried out against some of them);
representatives of the Union of Poles in Belarus Hanna Panišava, Irena Biernackaja and Maryja Ciškoŭskaja were released under the condition of “leaving the territory of the country” – actually deported from Belarus on May 25;
art-researcher Ala Šarko and cameraman Pietr Slucki were released from jail on 19 August, where they spent 8 months. Sviatlana Kuprejeva, a poet and member of Viktar Babaryka’s initiative group, was released from jail on October 12 after spending 16 months in prison;
musician Maksim Šaŭlinski (04.23.21 sentenced to 2 years in OTCI) was pardoned and released on September 16;
cultural manager Dzianis Čykaloŭ (03.22.21 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI) and musician Dźmitryj Šymanski (10.29.21 sentenced to 3 years in OTCI) left the country for security reasons;
musician Ihar Bancar (03.19.21 sentenced to 1.5 years in OTCI) on December 17 he served his entire sentence by court verdict.

DETENTION CONDITIONS

We have recorded 110 reports of cultural workers being detained in cruel and degrading conditions. “Preserving human dignity is first and foremost preserving basic sanitary and hygienic norms. Life, if you are a politician, becomes a round-the-clock fight to not become an animal” (© Andrej Dyńko).

Detained cultural workers have reported the absence of medical assistance, the failure to provide such assistance in a timely manner, the refusal of access to examination by specialists, the refusal of access to hospitalization, the refusal to provide necessary medications.

Maryja Kaleśnikava’s father was refused the right to visit his daughter 15 times. He was only able to meet with her one year after her imprisonment. Paviel Sieviaryniec was not allowed to leave prison for his father’s funeral. Valeryja Kaściuhava also did not attend her father’s funeral.

Limiting the right to correspondence is an additional means of pressure applied to practically all detained cultural workers. Alaksandr Fiaduta was forced to refuse medication in protest against the restrictions on his correspondence with his relatives.

There is a special system of psychological pressure for political prisoners. Vitold Ašurak wrote from the Škłoŭ penal colony that it was not difficult to identify political prisoners because the prison administration made them wear yellow tags on their trousers. Journalist Ihar Iljaš highlighted that this is a means of segregating prisoners who have a tendency towards “extremism.” Many detained cultural workers were subjected to such “preventative measures.”

Access to books and printed media is denied without basis.

ANALYSIS OF THE CONDITIONS

Statistics regarding rights violations are as follows:

Persecution for dissent, the right to a fair trial, and arbitrary detention were the most common rights violations in Belarus in 2021. Dividing these violations into groups, it is clear that cultural workers most often suffer the violation of civil and political rights. These account for 80 % of recorded violations.

Against the backdrop of the protracted socio-political crisis, civil and political rights have seen the most violations in 2021, just as they did in 2020. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that in 2021, the number of violations of socio-economic and cultural rights has increased significantly.

To a large extent, these changes are the result of massive pressure on civil society organizations (creation of administrative obstacles for operation, the liquidation of organizations, the seizing of property) and the tendency towards mass censorship.

II. VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF CULTURAL FIGURES

In total, we recorded 1,041 violations of the cultural and human rights of private individuals in 2021. Overall, the rights of 628 cultural workers were violated.

Statistics of the most common types of rights violations can be seen in the graph below:

PERSECUTION FOR DISSENT has been the key characteristic of 2021. We recorded 439 instances of this. Among them are the facts of dismissal from cultural institutions for political reasons as well as punishment for acts of solidarity on the anniversary of an artist’s death. Cultural workers have experienced all forms of pressure, from “preventive conversations” and recommendations not to express political opinions on social media, to dismissals, detention, raids, criminal cases, and expulsion from the country.

In 2021, we recorded:

237 instances of arbitrary detention,
123 illegal dismissals / discontinuation of contract,
122 raids,
105 exits from the country for personal security,
89 instances of persecution through criminal cases,
80 instances of property confiscation,
3 deportations.

Besides these forms of persecution, we also recorded: interrogations, particularly thorough checks when crossing the border, the freezing of bank accounts, expulsions from educational institutions, removal of honorary titles and awards. The well known theater director and documentary filmmaker Valery Mazynski – who had been an ‘honored artistic worker of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic’, the winner of many prizes, and one of the founders of the state theater “Lyalka” in Viciebsk and the “Free Stage” theater in Minsk, was deprived of his pension for ‘meritorious service pension to the Republic of Belarus’. He had criticized state policy regarding the cultural sphere.

RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL / ACCESS TO JUSTICE are the second most common rights that have been violated in the case of cultural workers. They are violated every time a person gets a short-term arrest sentence and fines for expressing political opinions or playing the wrong songs on the guitar. In such trials, there is often no proof, the police records are falsified, and witnesses give false testimony. The right to a fair trial is violated every time cultural workers are sentenced to months, years, or even decades in prison for their participation in peaceful gatherings, for the public expression of opinions, for helping those who have been repressed so that their example will inspire others. Significant trials take place behind closed doors: without relatives, media, the public, or observers. This was the case in the trials of Viktar Babaryka, Maryja Kaleśnikava, Maksim Znak, Eduard Palčys, Paviel Sieviaryniec, Ihar Bancar, and others.

Authorities suspended the investigation into the death of the artist Raman Bandarenka (November 12, 2020) and completely ignored the results of an independent investigation.

No criminal case was launched as a result of the death of political prisoner Vitold Ašurak in the penal colony.

On December 17, Eduard Babaryka had spent 18 months in detention. On 20 December, the authorities launched another criminal case against him instead of releasing him or taking his case to court.

ARBITRARY DETENTIONS

We recorded a total of 237 arbitrary detentions in 2021. In the majority of cases, the detentions were followed by administrative liability proceedings, administrative arrest, or fines. The days spent by cultural workers in prison become years and the fines they paid, in hundreds of roubles, go into the country’s budget.

RIGHT TO LEGAL ASSISTANCE

As in 2020, we note both criminal and administrative liability cases. Lawyers have only 5 minutes to familiarize themselves with the case and to communicate with the defendant in administrative cases. Not allowing lawyers to be present during raids, detentions, interrogations, and hours-long “conversations” is common practice. We record the cases in which lawyers are unable to meet with the defendant for several days. Many of those providing legal assistance to defendants detained on political grounds have been deprived of their lawyer’s license or have been forced to cease their legal activities due to “reforms to the law on law practice” in 2021. The following individuals were deprived of their lawyers and the right to legal assistance in 2021: Viktar Babaryka, Eduard Babaryka, Ala Šarko, Pietr Slucki, Uladzimir Mackievič, Mikalaj Dziadok, Maksim Znak, Maryja Kaleśnikava, and Hienadź Mažejka.

RIGHT TO FREE EXPRESSION

The right of cultural workers to freedom of expression was violated at least 175 times. These violations took place as a result of politically motivated dismissals of cultural figures and students from cultural institutions, detentions for engaging in peaceful assembly and pickets, the expression of opinions in the media, posts or comments on social media, political inscriptions, for a piece of paper with the image of a heart attached to a window or a balcony.

III. VIOLATIONS REGARDING ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITIES

Statistics on the most common types of violations regarding organizations and communities can be seen in the graph below:

The creation of administrative obstacles to operations and the liquidation of organizations are, sadly, the most common types of violations. This type of violation was highlighted in the monitoring in 2021 period following the mass liquidation of non-governmental organizations. In 2020, there were also cases of administrative obstacles for non-governmental organizations, but the data from 2021 indicates that the authorities are now implementing their plan for destroying the non-state-controlled cultural sector.

Shops with National Symbols / Commercial Organizations

The problems of commercial organizations in the businesses selling national souvenirs, symbols and paraphernalia began in 2020 during the first wave of the protest movement and increased interest of civil society in historical symbols. The creator of the store Symbal.by Paviel Bielavus stated that “as of summer [2020], they [the authorities] have constantly been causing problems for us.” At that point, customs officials were already not allowing the sending of packages containing flags and other national symbols. We have recorded the creation of administrative obstacles to the activities of the following shops across Belarus: Prince Vitaŭt, Symbal.by, Roskvit, Moj modny kut, Vokladki, BCHB.bel, Admietnaść, Cudoŭnaja krama, Chameleon, LSTR Adzieńnie, the workshop moj rodny kut, and the Honar designer clothes brand. From the beginning of 2021, the authorities began inspections which sometimes lasted several months. Inspections, raids, and interrogations of shop owners and their premises were conducted by representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Department of Financial investigations, the Department for Combating Economic Crimes, the Department for Combating Organized Crime, the police, the Special Branch of the Police (OMON), the Labor Inspectorate, the State Committee for Standardization, the ideology branch of the City Executive Committee, and others. We recorded the confiscation of goods, technology, documents; the termination of rent agreements, etc.

The creator of Symbal.by and cultural manager Paviel Bielavus, after being summoned by the police on November 15, was detained and sent to pre-trial detention where he remains to this day. He is accused of “participating in group activities that grossly violate public order”. On December 29, he was recognized as a political prisoner.

By the end of 2021, several shops had been forced to shut down: The Brest-based internet shop Prince Vitaŭt, the Hrodna-based Admietnaść, the Orša-based Cudoŭnaja krama, the Minsk-based Budźma-krama, and the Homieĺ-based Mroja (for economic reasons).

Space for the Implementation of Cultural Projects

Since the beginning of 2021, we have recorded the trend of creating obstacles to activities within the cultural sphere. As is the case with shops selling national symbols, many art spaces have been forced to shut down.

On January 5, a representative of the company Art Corporation received an injunction from the ministry of Emergency Situations to cease activities in the cultural space Ok16, after which all events, and the rent agreement with the owner, were canceled. At the beginning of January, the authorities shut down the art-pub Torvald – a cafe and cultural center in Viciebsk. On January 25, the founder of the space Druhi pavierch Alaksandr Karalevič was detained and interrogated. Authorities raided the space. At the end of January, the cultural space Kryly Chalopa (KCh) was forced to cease its activities. The financial police arrived at the premises and seized paper and electronic documents, after which representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived and called the director Aksana Hajko to give explanations at the Department of Financial Investigations. The art space and bar Third place was forced to close for a period of time because the authorities demanded that the landlord cancel the rent agreement with the organization. In April, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and sanitary authorities arrived at the event space Miesca, as a result of which it was closed due to “violations”. On March 1, the platform Moving Art Factory (MAF) was forcibly closed. Its head reported the platform’s complete closure on March 16. The bar-club Hrafici collected money to pay fines for three authorities. In May, the Minsk-based art workshop 6B mastackaja majsternia closed. In October, authorities raided the Babrujsk-based art space “1387”, seized personal and professional technology equipment, items and goods from the premises and shop, and made a video. The activities of the space have been suspended since December 8. Art-Siadziba – a cultural platform that has been popularizing the Belarusian language and Belarusian culture – has been unable to continue its activities.

Mass Liquidation of Non-Profit Organizations

The third quarter of 2021 was characterized by unprecedented pressure on civil society organizations across the country. Several hundred organizations experienced inspections, raids, seizure of documents and property, freezing of accounts, calls to interrogation, discreditation via propaganda channels, blocking sites, liquidation with and without a court decision. These measures are the authorities’ response to the growing solidarity of civil society and the broader population’s protest activities as a result of the events of 2020. Mass repressions and terror continue. Officials made multiple threats against civil society in 2021. On April 10, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Uladzimir Makiej reacted to the discussion of international sanctions as follows: “Any further sanctions will lead to the destruction of the civil society that they are intended to support. I would consider this absolutely justified in this situation” (Makei on calls for sanctions). As a result of the meeting on June 29, the Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev supported Alyaksandar Lukashenka’s claim that outside forces were trying to overthrow him, and that the aim of non-profit organizations was to “overthrow the regime and the authorities” (Patrushev on the “external threat”).

Between July 14–17, many raids against non-governmental organizations, parties, rights defenders, and independent experts were conducted. On July 22, a day before the mass liquidation of non-profit organizations, at a meeting with the Council of Ministers, Lukashenka stated that in Belarus “there are about 2,000 NGOs, thugs and foreign agents. So what? Have you gotten your democracy? Now, everyone finally looked around and realized that it’s harmful for the state. We are conducting a sweep. Do you think it’s easy? There are already thousands of people working there, our people, mostly brainwashed, with twisted brains sponsored by foreign money“ (Lukashenka at the meeting with the Council of Ministers). On July 30, at a meeting with local authorities, Lukashenka stated that “185 destructive structures representing a threat to national security, including the representatives of foreign non-profit organizations, 71 national and local non-governmental associations, 113 institutions” (Lukashenka at the meeting with local authorities). In an interview with the BBC on November 19, responding to the correspondent’s question about the mass liquidation of civil society, Lukashenka stated that “we will destroy all the bastards that you are funding” (Lukashenka at the BBC interview). On December 16, at a meeting on counteracting sanctions, Lukashenka once again stated that “traitors will never be forgiven… Those organizations financed from abroad and who organized a coup d’etat and mutiny, we have liquidated all of them” (Lukashenka dotted the question of NGOs in Belarus). On December 21, with the aim of “defending the sovereignty and independence of Belarus”, deputies adopted – on the second reading – a law which makes participation in liquidated organizations a crime (Law “On Changing the Criminal Code”).

There are currently 309 organizations in the list of NGOs currently in the process of forced liquidation as of 12.31.2021 (Liquidations and suspensions of activities of civil society organizations in 2021). Their activities range from sports and beekeeping to education and rights defending.

As with commercial shops selling historical symbols, targeted pressure on the non-commercial sector began in the autumn of 2020: criminal cases were launched based on foreign funding, and the raids of offices and employees. At that time, however, it was mainly human rights organizations that were experiencing this pressure. From May 2021, the Ministry of Justice began mass unplanned inspections of all types of non-profit organizations. The first organizations to experience such inspections were: PEN Belarus, the Belarusian Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Places, Association of Belarusians of the World “Fatherland”, the Union of Belarusian Writers, and other organizations. All had to provide an unprecedented quantity of information and documents in an extremely short period of time.

We recorded the first liquidation of a cultural non-commercial organization in April 2021. On April 19, the Brest Economic Court decided to liquidate the NGO Polish School in order to “defend the interests of the State and Society” against the backdrop of a propaganda campaign against the Polish ethnic minority. In May, the Hrodna-based cultural-educational institution Center for City Life was liquidated due to an exhibition of the work by Aleś Puškin, in which there was supposedly a painting that violated anti-extremism laws. In June, the Brest-based socio-cultural institution Kryly Chalopa Theater and the cultural-educational organization Soil of the Future were liquidated. At the beginning of July, the Brest-based regional development agency Dziedzič – which organizes cultural festivals and other activities – was liquidated. After the “purges” of non-profit organizations between 14–17 June 2021 – as well as mass raids of offices and detentions of employees – the liquidations of non-governmental organizations began in earnest. Institutions, due to their legal formation, were liquidated in a simplified process, and almost no one from these institutions received written notification of the liquidation or its justification. They often only found out by reviewing the Unified State Register. Organizations liquidated in July include: Mova Nanova (New Language) – an organization promoting the Belarusian language and Belarusian culture; Unovis Forum – a historical-cultural heritage institution; Hrodna Rock Club – an organization founded by the musician Ihar Bancar; The Nil Hilevič University and many other significant cultural organizations were also liquidated, including:

PEN Belarus: a social organization created by well-known writers in 1989, and member of the international PEN club. It was liquidated on August 9 by the Supreme Court.
Art Corporation: Organizer of the international film festival Listapad and the theater art forum “Teart”. It was liquidated on August 25.
Belarusian Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Places. It was liquidated on September 15.
Talaka: Homieĺ-based folklore organization, reviving ancient Belarusian rites and the collection of folklore. It was liquidated on September 15.
Belarusian School’s Society: Liquidated on September 24.
Association of Belarusians of the World “Baćkaŭščyna” (Fatherland): Liquidated on September 24.
Union of Belarusian Writers: A social organization founded in 1934. It was liquidated on October 1 by the Supreme Court.
Francišak Skaryna Belarusian Language Partnership: One of the oldest social organizations in Belarus. It was liquidated on November 8.

One of the most common justifications for liquidation is that “the organization’s activities do not correspond with its charter”, but no one knows in exactly what way they do not correspond. Judging by the words of the Minister of Justice on the STV TV channel on December 5, these organizations were closed because they “undermined the foundations of State authority (New Minister of Justice about NGOs).

As of December 31, 2021, at least 98 non-commercial organizations had experienced the creation of administrative obstacles to operation. We have not seen a single instance in which the court has defended the interests of a non-commercial organization. The courts unquestioningly comply with demands from the Ministry of Justice (and regional justice departments) for the liquidation of such organizations.

It is also important to note the growing number of non-commercial organizations deciding themselves to cease their operations. While this report only records forced liquidations, we are also witnessing requests by the founders of organizations for the liquidation of their organizations due to the unfavorable socio-political situation and/or pressure from the authorities. In total, the Lawtrend list includes 175 organizations that have decided to self-liquidate in 2021 (Decisions to self-liquidate made by non-commercial organizations). About 40 of them we refer to the sphere of culture.

Among the organizations and spaces not mentioned above but also forced to cease their activities in 2021 were the Goethe Institute and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). These are the world’s premier organizations for the study of German language and culture. The Belarusian authorities also put pressure on the American center in Belarus – which facilitated educational trips to the United States and allowed participants to learn the best and most innovative practices on a variety of topics, including environmental protection and the preservation of cultural heritage. On December 20, 2021, the USAID office in Belarus was closed.

After a raid on the editorial office, the TUT.BY Gallery – acquainting visitors with modern Belarusian art – was closed. The Contemporary Artistic Theater was forced to emigrate from Belarus. The troupe of the Free Theater ceased its activities on July 1 and have not planned any further performances in Belarus. The theater laboratory “Fortinbras” – part of the Belarus Free Theater – was forced to suspend its activities. The musical club “Berlin” closed on October 14.

We will mention the forced closure of print publications in the next section.

IV. CULTURAL RIGHTS

CENSORSHIP AND CREATIVE FREEDOM

In 2021, we recorded 198 instances of censorship and 94 instances of the violation of the right to creative freedom.

The following musicians and artists were not allowed to receive necessary certificates for their concert performances: Krama, Kasta, J:MORS, RSP, Daj Darohu!, Znich, Rita Dakota, and others. The Contemporary Artistic Theater was not allowed to stage “Former Son”, a performance based on the novel by Saša Filipienka. The authorities also did not grant permission for the performance of a play based on Uladzimir Niaklajeŭ’s drama “Jahajla” near Kreva Castle. Theatre Ch could not find a venue in which to stage its iconic play “Dziady”. The authors of the dance show “Inner and Outer Space” were denied a concert certificate.

The following exhibitions were censored or closed:

Maksim Saryčaŭ’s “I can almost hear the birds”.
“The machine is breathing but I am not”, organized by Natalla Trenina and Taćciana Hacura-Javorskaja.
“Together” exhibition of the creative association “Pahonia”.
Aleś Maračkin’s personal watercolor exhibition “Akva/areli”.
Nadzia Buka’s “Personal Business”.
Viktar Barysienka’s photo exhibition “Time Itself Remembers”.
Viktoryja Balcar’s “Dance Theater in the Theater”.
Maryna Baciukova’s “Sula. Intact.”

In Grodno, authorities canceled the performance of “Kadyš” and a meeting of the actors; in Minsk, the play “Čarnobyl Prayer” based on the work by Svialana Aleksijevič was – without explanation – replaced with another. It then completely disappeared from the repertoire of the Republican Theater of Belarusian Drama; the Homocosmos Theatre’s play “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” was canceled multiple times; Immediately after the premier of the play “Tyl” in the Jakub Kolas Theater in Viciebsk, the poster promoting it was removed from the billboards.

The Belarusian organizers repeatedly asked the band Kino not to play the song “Changes!” during their concert. After a statement by a “not indifferent” citizen two concerts in memory of Holocaust victims – “Yellow Stars” – were canceled in the Minsk Philharmonic. In 2021, a traditional international festival of spiritual music “Mighty God” – which has taken place every other year since 1993 – was meant to take place in Mahilioŭ but was canceled. The organizers did not comment on the reasons behind the cancellation; however, the authorities had been strongly opposed to the prayer of the same name since the festival’s previous iteration (Lukashenka’s speech: Look, you risk to run into trouble). Due to his previously expressed political views, the Russian author Aleksandr Tsypkin was not allowed to perform his project “Unprincipled Readings”. Musicians performing songs in the metro as part of the social project “Pedestrian” were detained. Due to observation by the security services, the satirical group “Aristocratic Paleness” suspended their activities.

At the demand of Belarus Film, the much-anticipated film “Kupala” was pulled from the Eurasian Film Festival in London. The Belarusian premier of the film also did not take place in 2019 and, after the events of August 2020, it was “put on the shelf” (it featured a scene showing the shooting of peaceful protesters); all video materials related to the film were either blocked or disappeared from social networks. In November, Belarusian viewers could not watch the film “Temptation” – about the love between two nuns – by the director Pol Verkhoven. It had initially received a tour certificate, but later disappeared from billboards due to supposedly “unethical scenes of a sexual nature and sexual perversion”. Alaksandr Anisimaŭ’s film “The Adventures of Pranciš Vyrvič” featuring former actors from the Kupalovkij Theater was banned from being screened.

Works by Sviatlana Aleksijevič, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Nabokov have been banned from the 11th class literature syllabus: Aleksijevič, from the “Prose – Humans and War” section, and Solzhenitsyn and Nabokov from “Dissident Literature”.

LITERATURE

The pressure on independent publishing houses, individual publishers, booksellers, and press, authors, and even readers began in January 2021.

Publishing houses. In January, Hienadź Viniarski and Andrej Januškievič – directors of independent Belarusian language publishers – were detained and interrogated. The offices of Januškievič and Knihazbor were raided, and property – including computers, telephones, and books – was confiscated. The accounts of these organizations – as well as that of the online shop knihi.by, were frozen and remained so for 146 days, almost 5 months. They still had not been unblocked by June 8. During this time, the activities of these publishers were all but paralyzed and the organizations found themselves under the threat of closure, since it was not possible to pay for typographers, resources for new books, and recoup losses.

Without the right to distribute. Belarusian customs authorities have been stopping the distribution of books by certain authors and from certain publishers. The novel “Revolution” by Viktar Marcinovič was withdrawn from circulation. The book entitled “The Belarusian National Idea” by Zmicier Lukašuk and Maksim Harunoŭwas not delivered to foreign buyers. The republished novel “The Dogs of Europe” by Alhierd Bacharevič – printed by the publisher Januškievič in Lithuania – was seized by customs officials on the grounds of supposed extremist content. To this day, the publisher has not been able to distribute the work.

On January 29, 2021, an expert commission in Minsk concluded that the book “Belarusian Donbas” by Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava) and Ihar Iljaš in contained extremist content. They did not specify the exact parts of the book that contained such content. On March 26, a court upheld the “extremist” designation, and the subsequent appeal by the authors was denied. The journalist Raman Vasiukovič, who had imported two copies of the book into Belarus before it had been deemed “extremist”, was fined approximately 220 USD.

On March 4, this same commission concluded that the book “The Belarusian National Idea” – comprising 85 conversations with various people on the Euroradio channel – contained extremist content. The text of the conclusion was identical to that regarding “Belarusian Donbas”. Information about the court that deemed the book “The Belarusian National Idea” as “extremist” has not been made public. An administrative case was launched against Minsk resident Jahor Staravojtaŭ for possession of the book, bought in a State bookshop and withdrawn before the “extremist” designation. The court only dropped the case against Staravojtaŭ because of the expiry of the administrative liability period (2 months).

In February, pensioners were detained and punished for reading books by Belarusian classics on the train – “opposition literature,” according to the police.

The ideological concept of “protest literature” was introduced – as both state media and law enforcement agencies refer to Belarusian classics and contemporary literature. Marcinovič’s “Revolution” and Uladzimir Arloŭ’s books are mentioned most often. We recorded instances of the discreditation of writers and historians by State media and pro-regime Telegram-channels.

Distribution of literature within the country. The administration of Bielkniha – the largest bookseller in Belarus – gradually removed from their shelves, and ceased the distribution of, books by Alhierd Bacharevič, Viktar Kaźko, Uladzimir Niaklajeŭ, Viktor Marcinovič, Barysa Piatrovič, and many other authors. Public libraries have removed works by these and other authors. At the beginning of the year, the business Bielsajuzdruk unilaterally terminated certain print publications, including the cultural publications Novy čas and Naša historyja. In April, one of the biggest State book sellers Akademkniha refused to sell the magazine Naša historyja. Immediately after this, the Belarusian postal service terminated a contract with these publishers, starting from July 2021 one already couldn’t subscribe to them. Since July, the weekly paper Novy čas has been unable to secure the services of private typographers. There have also been a number of difficulties regarding the distribution of this year’s Naša historyja calendar.

Books under arrest. During a raid on the Nil Hilevič university, many books were confiscated from the library. Authorities removed the entire contents of the library from the Orša office of Francišak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society. Books from the series “Belarusian Prison Literature” were confiscated despite attempts by the editor Alena Lapcionak to save them. There have been many instances of the confiscation of books during raids on the property of activists. For example, authorities have already confiscated books twice from the Viciebsk opposition activist and book distributor Barys Chamajda. In December they confiscated 12 of his Belarusian books, which had been officially published in Belarus.

In 2021, the authorities prevented the publication of significant print media. The 2022 subscriber catalog of the Belarusian postal service did not list the magazine Vožyk which marks, this year, its 80th anniversary. It is the country’s only satirical Belarusian language magazine, and has engaged many authors of Belarusian classics and artists. In connection with the liquidation of the founder of the publication Francišak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society, the authorities prevented the publication of the literary journal Vierasień in November. For the last 12 years, it has become an important fixture in the country’s cultural life. On December 29 in Lida, the last edition of the paper Naša slova was published. It had been running since March, 1990. The editor Stanislaŭ Sudnik noted that, on January 5, 2022, an online publication called Naša slova would be launched, but that it would not be the same as the original publication. The Minsk magazine where Minsk – which had covered the capital’s cultural life for 15 years – has shut down due to the economic situation in the country.

CONSUMERS OF CULTURAL PRODUCTS

In 2021, we noted instances in which law enforcement agencies paid particular attention to tour guides and participants in historical excursions. Detentions, or police convoys accompanying such excursions, took place in Polack, Navahrudak, and Minsk. In February, at the holiday resort Spark, near Smaliavičy, at a concert of Belarusian groups Raźbitaje serca pacana, Panska Mos and Ok-Band, performers and audience members were detained. 68 people – including minors – were arrested in total. 59 of these individuals were later transferred to prison cells in Žodzina. In March, police arrived at the free Belarusian language classes given by Mova Nanova in Vaŭkavýsk on the same evening on which the group Krama was meant to perform. In total, 35 people were detained including both students and teachers. The regional branch of the Ministry of Internal affairs detained them for around 40 minutes and took some of their fingerprints. On June 8, police detained 8 people at a joint viewing of the play “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” at the cultural center “Red Palace” in Minsk. The majority were punished with 15 days of administrative arrest. 3 people were detained in September near Orša during rehearsals for a performance as part of the annual festival “Orša Battle ” – they were punished with 10 days of arrest or fines. In November in Orša, police arrived at a celebration of the birthday of the author of Belarusian classics, Uladzimir Karatkievich. Fans gathered in the park Fairytale Country with flowers and read the author’s works. The police said this was an unsanctioned event and recorded the passport information of all the participants.

V. STATE POLICY IN THE CULTURAL SPHERE

In the middle of December 2021, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee published a report on the state of human rights in Belarus in 2020 (Belarus National Human Rights Index, 2020), in which the right to participate in cultural life was evaluated based on 4 components, receiving an average score of 2.8 on a 10-point scale. Although the index was created based on data from 2020, the mass repressions of cultural workers and State interference in the country’s cultural life have only increased in their severity in 2021.

Even before the crisis, state support for the cultural sphere was selective – independent cultural actors received practically no subsidies or preferences from State cultural institutions. This financial situation has not changed. The State has succeeded in its campaign of censorship and repression and, in 2021, also began to exert pressure on State cultural institutions.

State ensembles and orchestras continued to operate as normal throughout 2021 without any Covid restrictions for event attendees. The “Slavianski Bazaar” – a favorite of the authorities – took place without Covid restrictions. Many of the previously advertised artists refused to participate in the festival due to the political situation and requests from citizens not to support the totalitarian regime with their performances. For the first time, the festival – which, in previous years, was considered an unmissable event – did not generate much “buzz” and places had to be filled by distributing tickets through state-owned companies.

For the first time since 2004, Belarus did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest due to its disqualification after violating contest rules and providing the performer with an overly political song. In response, the Belarusian state TV and Radio corporation – the organizer of the national Eurovision selection process – refused to broadcast the contest. Belarus also did not participate in the children’s version of Eurovision.

Without the participation of passionate and engaged specialists and independent experts, the State has not been able to produce high quality events. The current National Theater Award – which, even before, was far from ideal – became the “apotheosis of State policy towards the theater” (© Dzianis Marcinovič). The quality of the film festival “Listapad” also significantly declined, and was deprived of its accreditation in the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF).

Staffing Policy and Dissent

At the end of September 2021, we recorded 64 cases of illegal dismissals. These occurred either as the termination of a contract, or the forcing of an employee to write a resignation letter stating that they were doing so “of their own free will”. Beginning in October, a list of “undesirable persons” to be dismissed from cultural institutions became public. Dismissals due to dissent characterized the final months of 2021. Theater agents entrepreneurs, museum workers, library workers, philharmonic musicians, and many more, were dismissed. The National Historical Museum in Minsk, the Academy of Arts, the National Library, and many other State cultural institutions, underwent “staffing reviews”. The Minister of Culture Anatol Markievič shed light on the true scale of this phenomenon, stating that more than 300 people had been dismissed for their “destructive positions”. He made this statement during a speech in Stoŭbcy on January 20, 2022 (Markevich on staffing) (Note: the minister’s words were removed from the media the next day). By the end of December, we had collected data on 123 dismissals of cultural workers from no less than 30 cultural institutions during 2021 either through public sources or personal communication with the individuals in question. We expect further details on these kinds of dismissals to emerge in the first half of 2022.

One of the reasons why people are reluctant to make the pressure they have experienced public is the hope of getting a job in another cultural institution in Belarus. However, an analysis of changing employment requirements demonstrates that, in many cases, there is a de facto ban on the profession in any cultural institution in the country. “Recommendation” letters advising employers not to hire certain individuals have been sent to recruitment agencies. We will understand more about how this works in practice in 2022.

In his speech, the Minister of Culture also referred to the “optimization” of 1,611 staff units. As a result of this “optimization”, the Ethnology & Folklore faculty of the Belarus State Art & Culture University was dissolved after 20 years of existence.

After a spate of dismissals from the autumn of 2020, in 2021 new appointments began – of directors, artistic directors, producers; the selection of new acting troupes. New vacancies regularly open in the Janka Kupala National Theater. Since its “dispersal” after the 2020 election, in 2021 there have been 5 auditions, to which actors who are “talented and eager to work” between the ages of 21 and 65 were invited. We also recorded new appointments in education institutions in the cultural sphere where employees and directors had previously been dismissed. Museums also witnessed new appointments in 2021: in February, the Great Patriotic War Musem’s Head of Security became the new director of the State Museum of Belarusian Literary History.

VI. INSTEAD OF CONCLUSIONS: OPPRESSIVE TRENDS

Increase in the number of political prisoners since the first arrests in the summer–autumn of 2020. As of 12.31.2021, there were 969 political prisoners in Belarus. 68 of them are cultural workers.

The criminalization of dissent: the increase in the number of criminal cases based on absurd accusations, the introduction of criminal responsibility for organizing or participating in the activities of a public association that has been liquidated.

Expansion of “extremism” laws and the clampdown on peaceful forms of freedom of expression.

Propaganda and hate speech are the languages of State media. The targeted campaign of discreditation of Belarusian cultural workers.

The state sees creative freedom as a threat and seeks to suppress it through censorship and self-censorship. Self-censorship is a means of surviving in the conditions of the socio-political crisis.

The polarization of society into “us” and “them”, which creates the conditions for discrimination and poses a threat to cultural diversity.

Additions.

In 2022, we will publish documents on the state of cultural heritage, the Belarusian language, contested historical memory, the fight against the historical white-red-white symbology.

We now have … an extremist theater, an extremist culture,
we are extremists ourselves, and our whole life is extremist
(© Dzianis Martinovich, theater critic)

METHODOLOGY. Basic concepts and comments

Cases of violations of the cultural and human rights of cultural workers – circumstances leading to the violation of one or more of the rights of cultural workers, organizations, communities, or participants of cultural processes.

Violation – a type of violation within the following categories: cultural rights, civil and political rights, social and economic rights.

People of word – writers, translators, literary researchers, political analysts, and intellectuals. The group “Writers and people of word” is paramount in the context of attributing a cultural figure to one or another creative group. The monitoring does not include journalists and bloggers, although these are also a target group of the International PEN Center.

Data from public sources is collected on a daily basis. The information obtained through personal communications with cultural workers and direct appeals to PEN Belarus is recorded as it comes from these sources. The quantity of cases per quarter reflects the events that took place during the reporting period, as well as those that took place before but which were recorded during this period (about 10 %).

Download the full report as PDF

Simon Nielsen 12/10/21 Simon Nielsen 12/10/21

Cities And Refugees: The German Experience

Urban scholars, Luise Noring and Bruce Katz, examine the need to include cities as full-fledged participants and partners in the refugee response. They find that public, private, and civic leaders in municipalities across Germany and Europe have been on the front lines of refugee reception and integration. In the face of these huge challenges, they are inventing new methods of delivering the services that new arrivals need to be healthy and productive members of their new countries.

By Luise Noring, assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School, & Bruce Katz, Founding Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University

The arrival of large numbers of refugees into Europe poses a significant humanitarian challenge. The scale of the migration, the extent of the human suffering that has driven it, and the political complexities of resolving the situation all add to existing strains within the European Union. The crisis has destabilized the politics of the entire European continent, roiling the political systems of individual countries and threatening the solidarity of the EU as a whole. Leaders in Europe know that they must get a handle on the situation, and fast. Yet to date, the dominant focus of European decision- and opinion-makers has largely been on the immigration policies and perspectives of host countries. As priorities shift to longer-term economic and social integration, there is an equal, pressing need to focus on the role and actions of host cities. The reality is that refugees disproportionately settle in large cities, where they have better job prospects and existing social connections. Ultimately, it is those communities, rather than national governments, that will grapple with accommodating and integrating new arrivals. The responsibilities facing these cities and municipalities are enormous: how to house, educate, train, and integrate individuals from different cultures, with different education levels, who are often in need of emergency health care and special services.

Municipalities across Europe are faced with these responsibilities during a period of great social unease given the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Nice; rising tension in everyday life around cultural and religious differences; and growing volatility in local, state, and national politics. In many respects, this complex and contentious environment requires greater, not less, focus on how cities design and deliver successful integration strategies.

To identify the scale of the challenge facing municipal governments, this discussion paper first investigates the flow of refugees and migrants into Germany’s 15 largest cities, both in terms of immediate allocation and potential secondary migration. The focus on Germany reflects the central role that it is playing in the European refugee crisis: in 2015, 1.1 million refugees crossed the German border; Berlin received nearly 10,000 refugees in November alone, the peak month of that year. The paper then identifies the distribution of responsibilities and funding across Germany’s federal system, the set of tasks that municipalities must undertake to promote social and economic integration, and the ways that German cities are innovating in the delivery of these tasks in the immediate aftermath of the large flows of refugees in 2015.

This paper is the first in a series examining the responses of local government, businesses, and civil society to the refugee crisis. Future research will further explore the city-level responsibilities for social and economic integration, with a specific focus on patterns of housing and social segregation, both within neighborhoods of large cities as well as in small suburban municipalities that surround such cities.

The paper finds that:

1. In the short term, refugees are proportionately distributed across German regions according to tax revenues and total population. The federal quota system for allocating refugees to states within Germany strives to be fair, equitable, and efficient, as it distributes refugees in accordance with a long-standing formula for distributing federal resources based on tax revenues and total population. The predictability and efficiency of the system is illustrated by the fact that the deviations from the assigned quota norm are minimal.

2. By nature of its simplicity, this distribution system imposes unique burdens on large cities, since it does not take into account higher population densities, special housing conditions of these urban communities, or secondary migration patterns. Germany’s large cities face existing pressures around affordable housing, making cost-efficient refugee housing more difficult. Cities also tend to be destinations for secondary migration, as refugees move toward social networks or larger job markets. Finally, the three German city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg face unique challenges, including their geographic boundaries, which remove the potential for greenfield development or the settlement of their allotted arrivals in less-populous regions.

3. Similarly, the current framework for allocating funding and expenditures across federal, state, and city governments imposes uneven burdens on city-states and large cities. Uniform reimbursement rates from the federal government fail to take into account variations in housing costs, cost of living, and per-capita social service expenditures. Recent federal actions will help ease burdens, but more reforms and appropriations are likely to be necessary.

4. Despite these challenges, as they pursue the numerous tasks of economic and social integration, cities such as Hamburg and Berlin have shown a remarkable ability to innovate in the face of crisis. Innovations have included an expanded role of civil society, the use of technology to engage community participation, and the rapid building of non-traditional housing. The city-states have also provided an early warning system for the federal republic and helped to reform restrictive federal laws to be more responsive to local needs and circumstances.

5. The special role played by cities in emergency response and long-term integration requires new policy reforms and institutional practices. Federal and state governments and networks of local stakeholders should explore reforms that empower cities, speed the replication of promising strategies, and give city leaders a permanent seat at the policymaking table.

Read the full report

Simon Nielsen 12/1/21 Simon Nielsen 12/1/21

Sudan Reading

By PEN Perth

On Tuesday 23 November PEN Perth held a reading to protest the military coup which took place on 25 October in Sudan. Afeif Ismail spoke about the coup and about the severe limitations involved in the deal between the military and the civilian Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok reached the day before the reading. The deal saw the release of some political prisoners, but far from all, and far from all writers. Poems by Afeif Ismail, Faisal Mohamed Salih, Alhag Warag, Mahammed Elfaki and Faiz Elsileek were read in Arabic by Afeif and in English translation by Vivienne Glance, David Moody, Annamaria Weldon and Dennis Haskell. The event was shared via Zoom to other parts of the world.

The poems are very different from those in the West: rhetorical but full of imagery, passionate and fearless in their content, and in a folkloric tradition whereby the poets can be sure of a substantial audience. Two of the poems are printed below:

So that Things Become Better

by Faisal Mohammed Salih

Co-transcreated by Vivienne Glance & Afeif Ismail

Oh, young woman!

You are wounded, bleeding inside

a heavy burden weighs down your soul.

You are wronged

but you are stronger than your oppressors

you want the ship of truth to be anchored

so that things become better.

Young woman

you are holding the roar of the world inside you

You are following the compass of your voice to break chains

You are the light when there is only darkness in the world

Inside you lives tomorrow’s Eid festival

And right now, happiness.

You want the ship of truth to be anchored

so that things become better.

How can you see the light when the world around you is dark?

How can you find a smile when you are between two jaws?

How can you take a breath when everything around you is suffocated:

the valley

underground

and above the horizon?

My chest is asphyxiated and my throat is strangled

but I find your certainty wraps around me

and tells me that one day

the ship of truth will be anchored

so that things become better.

Pawns without a board

by Afeif Ismail

Co-transcreated by Vivienne Glance & Afeif Ismail

We own all the streets

and rivers,

the night and the day

the sky with its birds,

its stars

and its moon.

We own what is under our land

and its mountains

Boabab trees

date palms

the branches of the Neems,

our throats that never stop chanting

and

singing,

and the half-cut bricks

that the builders have left especially on street corners.

What do the tyrants have except a palace of glass

and

pawns

and

guns

and

prisons.

17/11/21

Simon Nielsen 9/9/21 Simon Nielsen 9/9/21

The Crisis Of The Global Human Rights Movement And The Meaning Of Sustainable Development Goal 16

“It became very clear that the increase of poverty was not due to resource problems but to problems which have occurred within the administration and have removed many of the measures for accountability that have been present in the past.” Global human rights advocate, Basil Fernando, reports from his home in Hong Kong.

By Basil Fernando

“Travelling from a remote place to Phnom Penh [Cambodia], a group of officers came across a crowd, with a man tied to a tree. Stopping, the UN officers found another man was aiming a gun at the man tied to the tree. When they inquired about the problem, one person from the crowd explained that the man tied to the tree was guilty of sexual abuse and needed to be punished. The officers asked, “Can’t you give him a lesser punishment than death for this offence?” The crowd succinctly explained that without any courts or police investigations, they had to either punish him by killing him, or had to let him go free.

The UN officers then told the crowd that they would like to take the man and bring him to justice under their mandate. The crowd agreed, and the man was brought to Phnom Penh. However, the question then arose as to where he would be tried. There was no confidence in Cambodia’s justice system being anywhere close to international standards, while the UN was bound to uphold international standards. The problem was resolved by designating a building as a court house and appointing a British lawyer as the judge of that court. It was not possible to have a trial however, as that was not within the mandate of the UNTAC. At least the man’s life was saved for the moment though, and a promise was made to the crowd that there would be an effort to bring him to justice.”………[1]

“The author once had an official discussion with a group of Cambodian judges and brought to their notice that judgments are often given without any evidence other than an alleged confession handed over to the judges by the police. In response, the chief judge requested that the author provide the judges with motorcycles through the UN. When the author, unable to see the connection, asked for an explanation, the judge replied that if the judges were not to rely on police investigations, they would need to do the investigations themselves, for which they would need to visit and interview people. The motorcycles were to facilitate such visits. The difference between a judicial inquiry and a police investigation was not within the grasp of the judges as the system under which they had been working did not make such a distinction.”[2]

On a first glance, the two incidents recorded above may sound exceptional. However, on close examination of thousands of instances which goes in the name of justice in many developing countries, basic features of denial of justice bears resemblances to the nature of justice or injustice found in the above mentioned two instances.

The Basic Assumptions

The basic assumption on which this article has been based is that despite of many well intentioned endeavors, the human rights situation of most developing countries has not improved; In fact, in many countries, the situation has become much worse in recent decades.

The implication of this the usual recommendation that is made by the United Nations (UN) human rights agencies and also developed countries authorities like the European Union and others to conduct inquires and prosecute offenders whenever serious violations of rights occur but the fact of the matter is that they have failed to produce much change for the better at the ground level in such countries.

Despite such failure, almost all discourses end in the repetition of the same formula - ‘Investigate and prosecute’.

The name that has been given to the recognition of this failure is ‘impunity’. Perhaps, the most often used word in the human rights discourse is ‘impunity’. The valiant call for ending impunity, is being made almost every day to investigate and prosecute. Such repetition is itself a proof that these calls have not produced positive results. In fact, calls for ‘ending impunity’ are another way of restating the formula ‘investigate and prosecute’.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been studying this situation and the causes of the failure of this approach for the last 20 years, on the basis of ground research done in 10 Asian countries. On that basis, the AHRC published a quarterly magazine under the title Article 2, meaning Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR ) {State Parties undertake to respect and ensure to all individuals within its territory, and subject to its jurisdiction, the rights recognized in the Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status}, from 2001-2017. This research was aimed at demonstrating through empirical data, the causes for the prevalence of impunity.

What these studies demonstrated was that within the given legal systems in the relevant countries, the defects of the public institutions for the administration of justice, namely, police investigation, prosecution and judicial systems themselves were the cause of the failure to investigate serious human rights violations. Thus, these institutions were designed in a way to ensure a guarantee of impunity. Further, there is a clear distinction between legislation and the actual implementation of the laws by these institutions. While legislation may be based on principles opposed to impunity, law enforcement is practiced in way so as to ensure impunity.

This problem has not been addressed by international agencies, although their reports show that they are aware of the problems. In making recommendations, international agencies seem to consider it inconvenient to consider the existence of institutions that negate the possibility ensuring accountability.

The Ground Realities in Developing Countries

In my book, ‘Body, Mind, Soul, Society’, I have tried to give a detailed account from several countries in Asia of the kind of problems or nightmares caused to the people by the virtual absence of State institutions that enjoy public confidence in their capacities to protect the basic rights of the people. I have provided details of actual incidents and events which I have myself been able to witness, to study and also to intervene to some extent about the kind of situations faced by the people for which they find that there is hardly any solution either at the domestic level or even at the international level.

One major difficulty in writing the book was that the kind of situations that are described through various actual incidents would be very difficult for a person living outside that particular experience to grasp or to comprehend. Even within a domestic situation itself, people living in more affluent circumstances would find it beyond their belief if they come across detailed accounts of what some of their fellow country folk have faced under various circumstances.

We may try two examples to illustrate this:

The author once had an official discussion with a group of Cambodian judges and brought to their notice that judgments are often given without any evidence other than an alleged confession handed over to the judges by the police. In response, the chief judge requested that the author provide the judges with motorcycles through the UN. When the author, unable to see the connection, asked for an explanation, the judge replied that if the judges were not to rely on police investigations, they would need to do the investigations themselves, for which they would need to visit and interview people. The motorcycles were to facilitate such visits. The difference between a judicial inquiry and a police investigation was not within the grasp of the judges as the system under which they had been working did not make such a distinction.

This is of course more aggravated when the communication is between persons from what I usually call developing countries and those who are from nations known as developed countries. The developed countries are those which have had a few centuries of experience of the traditions of enlightenment, methodologies and attitudes which have developed in terms of rational thought and in terms of science. These developments are also supplemented by technological advances which have created a new kind of people in the developed countries who would consider the normal experiences that the ordinary people go through in the developing countries contexts as simply abnormal or exaggerated or even untrue.

The result is that despite the massive changes brought about by communication, changes which humanity has been experiencing particularly during the last few decades and the actual understanding of the people about each other has not improved. In fact, it could be said that what has increased is a great deal of confusion. The average person who grows up in a developed country and has acquired a degree of attachment to the traditions of science and rationality would, when confronted with narratives of actual situations that people have faced elsewhere feel that they simply cannot fathom how if something could have happened, if they had happened at all.

This huge confusion has resulted in making even well intentioned attempts to be of some assistance to resolve some problems particularly in developing countries to end in creating greater confusion than in fact resolving these problems. Influenced by the way things are done in countries where traditions of science and rationality have been established and where urbanization of the most of the population has been achieved as a reality, one would often find societies that have not had those levels of urbanization and also the use of traditions of science and rationality over a long period of time

In my book, I have explained these in greater detail, particularly about two countries. One is my own country of origin, Sri Lanka, and the other is Cambodia where I had the opportunity of working while the UN Transitional Authority of Cambodia was in operation and for a short time thereafter.

Regarding Sri Lanka, I have tried to explain the developments that took place there for about the last 50 years. Instead of relying on a lot of data which is nowadays even freely available via Google or through other means, I have tried to narrate my direct experiences of people who have had to face some horrific experiences. For most Sri Lankans reading my book, the narratives that I have mentioned would resonate with their own experiences which they would have heard from persons who were known to them or it may even be that the readers themselves would have had experienced similar problems as I have described. For them, the idea of the normal is the kind of things which are revealed in the narratives that I have recorded.

But for almost everyone else who reads these narratives, if they are from the background of a developed country, they are very much likely to be seriously puzzled about or get greatly confused by what they read.

For example, one of the worst experiences that Sri Lanka has witnessed in the recent decades is the experience of the large scale causing of enforced disappearances. In fact, Sri Lanka is regarded as the country which has the second highest number of enforced disappearances in the world. For many people, even in places like the first world countries in Asia like Hong Kong and Singapore, these words ‘enforced disappearances’ are a term that they could not make any sense out of. If it is explained to them that this means the kidnapping of somebody in place of arrest, insulting and torturing that person while in custody, then killing that person and disposing of the body in secret so as to avoid the possibility of any legal consequences, the reaction of the listener is often one of skepticism or an admission that it is simply not possible to understand this.

The difficulty is simply not about providing more and more evidence of actual instances as proof because the listeners’ problem is not about proof but about the very possibility of such things taking place except in some rare instances. If the situation described itself is regarded as something that cannot be true, then no amount of proof is going to be of use to convince a person that this is an actual reality faced within particular contexts.

In such situations, conversations break down not so much by way of disagreements but simply by way of failures in comprehension. The failures in comprehension are a major obstacle in the modern world for resolving many of the problems that are faced in the developing countries. When solutions are proposed to problems which have not been thoroughly comprehended, then such solutions will end up in failure when there is an attempt to implement them. In the end, the mere fact that a large amount of resources may be allocated in order to attempt to implement such solutions, does not however, make much of a difference.

The meaning of Sustainable Development Goal 16

A recurring question that has been raised is about the link of justice related work to the problem of poverty. The difficulty involved in grasping this link on which this whole global project on human rights and all it’s activities are based.

The difficulty may be due to the fact that in the development studies, this aspect of the link between the operational systems of justice and the issue of development in general and particularly distribution of resources in the manner that the poor would benefit has not been to my knowledge been pursued very much in the development studies. Thus, it appears as if the two elements are not so intertwined. Some concession may be made by others saying that if the justice works relates in some way directly to provide some relief to some individual or group who is faced with a problem of poverty, as recognized within the 15 goals of the sustainable development program, then it may have some relevance.

While we recognize that aspect of providing relief for individual or group directly affected by poverty, the main thrust of this article is not that approach. The basic approach is that there is a systematic delinking of the possibilities of achieving sustainable development goals as contained in the UN sustainable development goals for 2030, by disempowering the very processes of justice and thereby creating a situation where the people are pushed into a very powerless situation. And this disempowerment process helps the governments to impose extremely harsh conditions on the poor which destroys or undermines even the achievements they have made in the past. If in the past certain improvements have been made to the life of the poor by desire of empowerment of the judicial process, new legislative or other measures could be brought to take away those gains. For example, minimum in terms of goal number one of the sustainable development goals is for a minimum of one dollar twenty five cents income for an individual as a daily income. At one point, the state may have taken some steps to implement this and thus improve the most minimum income to some extent. And then the same government imposes a devaluation of the currency which reduces the real value of that one dollar twenty five cents. If we explain by way of one example that is from Sri Lanka, the dollar value now is about 206 rupees which is very regularly increasing. In 2010, the value of a dollar was about around 150 or 160 rupees per dollar. Thus, there is almost 50 rupee devaluation from 2010 to 2021. Even if that one dollar twenty five cents daily wage has been achieved (very often that has not been achieved) the real value in terms of a dollar now would be about two thirds of what it was in 2010. Added to these are uncontrolled forms of price hiking and the indirect taxation on the goods. If we again take the same years as a reference, the distinction between the prices of basic commodities like rice or other food items and most essential items, have gone up many times higher. Thus, it would be a complete misunderstanding to think that the fact of one dollar twenty five cents at the time increase has achieved the sustainable development goals. Despite of all these other increases, the amount of money’s the poorest group receives has not increased but the value of the money has decreased. This is just one example. The same thing could be said about basic expenditures for primary education, healthcare and the minimum requirements that are in the 15 goals. In the state exercise of policies, when the process of accountability is removed, or seriously undermined, then the state can make many measures that increases the level of poverty of the general population.

The start of this project was based on observations over a long period about this phenomena. How is it that countries which have achieved some form of improvement for the poor are going back and getting things much worse? This took several years of work and working on in fact many thousands of cases as well as gathering of other kinds of data analysis and discussions with many groups. It became very clear that the increase of poverty was not due to resource problems but they were due to problems which has occurred within the administration which has removed many of the measures for accountability that has been present in the past.

Detailed explanation of this will take a long time but we could give a short summary. The basic accountability system within the government is the parliamentary supervision of the government expenditures. For this there are various organizations at work like Auditor General’s Office, Central Bank and the avenues for public discussions on the matters relating to government expenditures. Now if the government takes measures to reduce the role of the parliament in the exercise of all its powers and reduces the parliament to kind of a rubber stamping position where the sole authorities passes into a small group that is around a key figure like the prime minister or the president, then they could undermine this whole process by making decisions outside their usual legally allowed limit.

Within a normal system, this process of abuse of power by the executive is prevented by the authority of courts as the ultimate guardians of the legal process. Now if the executive reduces the power of the judiciary and reduces to an extent that they cannot intervene into the area of public finances and other matters, then the main instruments by which the cheques and balances work which is the judiciary cannot any longer do that function that is expected of them.

Diagram 1: Government’s grant to the poorest families

In Sri Lanka, the government grant to a very small group of selected persons who are considered the poorest is SLR. 5000 a month for a family

Equivalent of US Dollars 25 (approximately): One US Dollars at present is equal to SLR. 200

This amount is distributed to the family members and the minimum average would be about 4 members for a family

This means US Dollars 6 (approximately) for a month for a family

This when distributed for 30 days a month would be 1/8th of a US Dollars for a family

#This is similar and applicable to Nepal, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Questions

Q. Why is the government able to maintain such an absurd situation causing unbearable hardships?

A. If the government is able to remove checks and balances to the power, executive can enforce any hardships on livelihoods without any institutional hindrance.

Q. How does the government remove checks and balances to its power?

A. By legislative, judicial and administrative measures to cause such removal of checks and balances. (In UN language, this means by violation of the article 2 of the ICCPR which prescribes that a government is obliged to provide legislative, judicial, and administrative measures to protect rights: In the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the same is stated with greater clarity by stating in SDG 16 that the government must provide for functional institutions to ensure access to justice. When that fails, the situation described in these diagrams is the result.)

Q. How does this project address this problem?

A. By activating the civil society through education and awareness building to get engaged in the issues related to article 2 of the ICCPR and SDG 16 with the view to improve the government’s capacity to develop checks and balances and monitoring mechanisms for accountability and transparency, so that improvements of conditions of life of the people including adequate health to the poorest can take place.

If the civil society does not intervene to bring about this change in creating conditions for accountable system of governance, under the present circumstances of the countries where this project is taking place, will get worse and not better for the people, especially for the poor. Poverty will not decrease, in fact it will increase.

Diagram 2: Basic structure of an accountable governance

The Government

Making policy, allocation of funds and monitor implementation and accountability

Based on principles of checks and balances

The Bureaucracy

Public and private institutions that have the authority to control the functions of the governance. This include civil service in various aspects of public life, systems of administration of justice, law enforcement and system of monitoring of accountability and transparency

This vast bureaucracy is bound by the rule of law, system guaranteeing access to justice, principles of democracy guaranteeing of participation of the people

Diagram 3: Governance without accountability

Unlimited and uncontrolled power of the Executive

Negation of independent functioning of the institutions of bureaucracy

By this means, executive attempts to run each of the public institutions directly by private commands without the mediation of law, regulations and procedures

Undermining the administration of justice and access to justice

Helpless citizens exposed to hardships and unable to find any legitimate forms of relief: This also includes suppression of the rights to protest against harsh conditions

How does this project try to address the problems discussed in diagrams 2 and 3?

This project try to help the civil society to understand the problems of the destruction of the legitimate structures of governance in creating the conditions which imposes extremely harsh conditions of life, including livelihood problems on the people without internal structural barriers for doing so.

By trying to create that awareness, we are trying to activate the civil society to get engage in this problems as an unavoidable part to improve livelihoods.

By this way, we try to make the civil society aware that problems relating to destruction of avenues for access to justice as problem that is directly related to their livelihood problems.

By this, we are encouraging the civil society to develop a holistic approach in understanding and fighting against the hardships that they face in their lives.

The explanation about the above mentioned position

From the point of view of this project and the work relating to overcoming the most difficult problems of the poorest sections in an underdeveloped country in a developed country SDG 16 should be treated as the precondition for achievement of other goals in the UN Sustainable Development Goals 16.

From this set follows independent work should be done to create the understanding of the implications of the SDG 16 to resolving of the harshest problems of poverty faced by the larger part of population of an underdeveloped country and in particular the poorest sections. It follows that if this independent work is not done, the situation of poverty will not only not improve but it is most likely it will increase the harsher conditions of poverty. It is not difficult to show empirically that this has already happened in the 4 countries that we have mentioned in this project, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

There should be independent work on the SDG 16 because there is a separation of matters relating to governance and access to justice on the one hand and poverty alleviation as a separate subject on the other hand. This separation has had tremendously negative effect on the work of civil society organizations. The result is there are serious failures in the work relating to governance and civil and political rights on the one hand: And on the other, there is a bewildering increase of poverty despite of various efforts to alleviate poverty. Thus, the failure to understand the implications of the SDG 16 implies repetition of failures in the civil society work and increasing demoralizations and frustrations among the civil society activists themselves in the developing countries.

Why was SDG 16 included in the UN SDG 2030?

In the Millennium Development Goals for 2000 to 2015, a provision similar to SDG 16 was not included. SDG 2030 was developed in a process of critical examination of Millennium Development Goals of 2000 to 2015. One could assume that the drafters of SDG 2030 realize that without dealing with functional institutions which sustains the SDGs and ensuring access to justice in a comprehensive sense, it is not possible to achieve the proposed Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, inclusion of SDG 16 was not an accident, but a deliberate move arising out of the analysis of the previous experiences.

Our work in the developing work in Asia confirms that inclusion of the SDG 16 was a very significant breakthrough in trying to address the questions of poverty.

Very hard objections to SDG 16 approach in the past

There was within the human rights movement itself very strong objections to dealing with problems of dysfunctional public institutions and the problems of effective access to justice on all matters including improvement of livelihood conditions. These objections were based on a world view on human rights which narrowed the focus only to civil and political rights violations. General view was that such civil and political rights violations should be investigated, prosecuted and redressed. However, the basic problem that without functioning institutions of justice, that such investigations, prosecutions and redress was avoided as an inconvenient fact. Thus, the objective of redressing violations of civil rights was pursued only abstractly but in the real lives in the developing countries, this abstract positions has had no practical impact.

It was this problem that led to the introduction of SDG 16 to the SDG 2030.

However, the takers of this issue were few. So far, adequate knowledge about promoting this goal has not developed adequately. The AHRC is among the first groups that has taken this goal as a matter of crucial importance and trying to introduce it into civil society discourse with the hope to build a knowledge base relating to this goal and also to develop practical experiences of how to work this out at the ground level.

Justice As A Bucket with a Big Hole at the Bottom

In terms of developing countries it is not an exaggeration to state that JUSTICE is a bucket with a big whole at the bottom.

The problem is that all the work on human rights are premised on the firm belief that justice is a bucket that can hold water.

Thus, there is an expectation that a very bad system can be made to avoid illegal arrests, illegal detentions, torture and custodial killing killings, including enforced disappearances. The same is true of the expectation that such a Policing System can conduct credible investigations into grave crimes. Expecting Politicized Prosecution and Justice Systems is a similar illusion.

Illusions help to conveniently overlook difficult problems.

It is those who want water to drink that knows when the bucket has a big hole at the bottom. It is they who know the sufferings involved when thirst is not quenched.

To these people denied JUSTICE in developing countries, global human rights movements have nothing much to offer except empty resolutions and condemnations.

This contradiction needs to be resolved if global efforts for protectioning justice and human rights is to have any meaning for people in the developing countries.

[1] Fernando, Basil: Body, Mind, Soul, Society. An autobiographical account (Pages 79-80. Design layout production Thomas P. Fenton, January 2021)

[2] Fernando, Basil: Editorial: “Institutional Reforms as an Integral Part of a Comprehensive Approach to Transitional Justice”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol. 8, 2014, 187–193, doi:10.1093/ijtj/iju010

Simon Nielsen 6/16/21 Simon Nielsen 6/16/21

Private cloud - No Trespassing

“I believe the land belongs to everybody, of whom many are dead, a few are living, and the vast majority is yet to be born.”

“I believe the land belongs to everybody, of whom many are dead, a few are living, and the vast majority is yet to be born.”

By The Empty Square

An indigenous woman in Yokan, Canada, posed the question: “How can you own a piece of the land? It’s like owning a cloud!”*

What is ownership?

In his book, Byernes jord (literally: The Land of Cities) (2019), the Danish writer, Peter Schultz Jørgensen, discusses the problems and potentials of private ownership.

The book begins with the following account of the island of Barbuda in the Caribbean Sea:

Since 1834, when the British gave up slavery, the inhabitants of Barbuda had common ownership of the land. No single person was allowed to own a piece of land and no piece of land was ever to be sold.

However, the prime-minister, Gaston Browne, was no fan of that paragraph. When the island was hit by a hurricane in 2017 that destroyed everything, the 1800 inhabitants were evacuated, and in the meantime, Browne abolished the law.

People came back and were offered to buy their own place for $1. They met the proposal with great resistance, knowing very well that their children would never be able to afford a piece of land. “This island is our paradise, but to the government it is nothing but a money machine”.

Should ownership in the future mean caring for, repairing, nurturing, and continually regenerating?

”I believe the land belongs to everybody, of whom many are dead, a few are living, and the vast majority is yet to be born”. Said a tribal man from Africa.

If we shared his belief, what would the consequences be for our settlements and cities?

* Peter Schultz Jørgensen: Byernes jord (2019). In Danish only; our translation.

Simon Nielsen 6/3/21 Simon Nielsen 6/3/21

The Art In Everything: An Interview With Khalid Albaih

We met Sudanese political cartoonist Khalid Albaih for a conversation on media, freedom of speech, and the importance of art; not the institutionalized, capitalized ‘art world’, but art as a human connection, as a base for society, and as a tool for revolutionizing old systems.

By The Empty Square

*Khalid Albaih. Photo: The Empty Square*

Khalid Albaih is a Sudanese political cartoonist, civil rights activist, and freelance journalist who grew up as member of the Sudanese diaspora in Doha, Qatar. He has published his social and political caricatures and articles mainly in Arab and international online media, and his graphic art has also been publicly exhibited internationally. In 2019, he was awarded the Freedom Artists Residency by Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) in New York City.

From 2017 to 2021, Albaih has been living as an artist-in-residence with his family in Copenhagen, Denmark, under the ICORN programme. We had the privilege of meeting him for a conversation on media, freedom of speech, and the importance of art; not the institutionalized, capitalized ‘art world’, but art as a human connection, as a base for society, and as a tool for revolutionizing old systems.

The conversation has been made in collaboration with Danish PEN/PEN International.