《纽约时报》：把诺贝尔和平奖给予刘晓波先生

把诺贝尔和平奖给予刘晓波先生
作者：哈维尔，尼姆科娃，马里

想起来有些令人难以置信，在30多年前，我们242位关注人权的捷克斯洛伐克公民走到了一起，签署了一个叫作《七七宪章》的宣言。这个文件呼吁捷克共产党尊重人权，并明确表明我们不想再生活在国家镇压的恐惧中。
这群走到一起用一个声音说话的公民身份复杂， 包括前共产党人，天主教徒，新教徒，工人，自由派知识分子，艺术家和作家。促使我们团结起来的是一个共同的不满----我们被要求几乎每日都要表示对体制的服从，店主被迫张贴宣传招牌，上面写着：“全世界工人阶级，联合起来！”中小学生，大学生和工人被迫参与5月1日的游行。办公室工作人员不得不每天上班之前谴责美帝国主义， 公民必须“在选举中投票”中，唯一的选择是执政党。
共产主义政党，过去和现在一样，往往喜欢分而治之。 《七七宪章》公布后，政府尽了最大努力来打压我们。我们中的许多被拘留，而我们当中的四个最终坐了好几年牢。当局还经常使用小技俩来整我们（包括停止驾驶执照和没收打字机），他们加强了监控，我们的家和办公室被搜查，通过基于谎言基础上的媒体攻击来恶意诋毁我们和我们的运动，但是这种攻击只会加强我们相互之间的凝聚力。 《七七宪章》提醒了许多默默承受痛苦的同胞们---他们并不孤独。随着时间的推移，许多包含在《七七宪章》中的观念都在捷克斯洛伐克引领潮流，类似的民主改革浪潮于1989年席卷东欧。
我们从未想到的是，我们的这个简短宣言会在30年以后的中国得到回响。在2008年12月，由社会活动人士，律师，知识分子，学者，退休的政府官员，工人和农民等组成的303名中国公民发表了一个名为《零八宪章》的宣言，倡导宪政，尊重人权和其他民主改革，《零八宪章》的发表是为了纪念世界人权宣言60周年。虽然政府官员们尽了最大努力，以使《零八宪章》消失在中国人的电脑屏幕中，但是通过互联网，《零八宪章》还是传递到了全国范围内的受众，签署者最终达到10000多。

如同1970年代的捷克斯洛伐克一样，中国政府的反应是迅速而残酷的。数十人—也许是数百人被要求协助调查，被认为是联络人士的少数人则被拘禁，很多签署人的职业升迁被暂停， 研究资助被取缔， 出国旅行被拒绝。报刊和出版社被勒令把那些签署者列入黑名单。最严重的是，著名作家和持不同政见者刘晓波先生，作为《零八宪章》的一个主要起草人，被警方拘捕。刘晓波曾因为对天安门和平抗议活动的支持而在狱中度过了5年。在被关押一年多的期间，当局只允许他的妻子和律师有过有限的接触，刘晓波被以煽动颠覆罪名审判， 2009年12月，他被判处11年徒刑。
尽管刘晓波被监禁，但是他的思想无法被束缚。《零八宪章》阐述了未来中国的另一种愿景，挑战了官方关于改革的任何决定都是国家垄断的底线。《零八宪章》鼓励年轻的中国人在政治上更加积极，坚定地提出了法治和多党民主的宪政体制。《零八宪章》成为一系列关于如何到达这个愿景的对话和文章的起点。如同在上世纪70年代捷克斯洛伐克一样，最重要的是，《零八宪章》形成了一种不同群体之间以前不存在的某种连接。一个签署者写道，“在这之前，我们不得不生活在一个单独和孤立的状态，我们并不善于把自己的亲身经历向周围的人表达。” 刘晓波和《零八宪章》正在使得这种情况向更好的方向发生变化。

当然，《零八宪章》所处的政治环境和20世纪70年代捷克斯洛伐克的非常不同。通过其对经济增长的追求，中国似乎已拥抱一些从传统的共产主义中删除的特征，特别是对年轻，都市，受过教育的白领人群来说，中国似乎是一个后共产主义国家。然而，中国共产党仍然有无法跨越的界限。刘晓波参与创造的《零八宪章》， 跨过了其中最突出的底线：不要挑战共产党对政治权力的垄断，不能把中国存在的问题 - 包括普遍的腐败，社会动荡，以及猖獗的环境恶化归因到政治改革方面缺乏进展。
就是因为以非常公开的方式阐述中国问题和政治改革的相关性，刘晓波被判刑11年。由于担心他的牢房可能成为一个政治号召力的基点，当局采取了一个特别恶意的行动，迫使他在一个远离他的夫人和北京的朋友的东北辽宁省服刑。
刘晓波可能被孤立，但是他并没有被忘记。下个月，诺贝尔和平奖委员会将宣布2010年奖获得者，我们呼吁诺贝尔委员会光耀刘晓波先生20年的坚定的和平的倡导变革的努力，使他成为获得这个伟大奖项的中国人。这样做，诺贝尔委员会将对刘晓波和中国政府发出一个信号， 那就是中国境内外许多人都坚定的和他以及他坚定不移的为13亿中国人自由和人权的理想站在一起。

哈维尔是捷克前总统，尼姆科娃是捷克人权倡导领袖之一，哈马里是布拉格的主教。所有这三个是77宪章签署者和1989年在捷克斯洛伐克的天鹅绒革命的领导人。
来源于纽约时报，维权网翻译http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/opinion/21iht-edhavel.html?_r=3&ref=nobel_prizes

A Nobel Prize for a Chinese Dissident

PRAGUE — It is hard to believe that it was more than 30 years ago that we, a group of 242 private citizens concerned about human rights in Czechoslovakia, came together to sign a manifesto called Charter 77. That document called on the Communist Party to respect human rights, and said clearly that we no longer wanted to live in fear of state repression.

Our disparate group included ex-Communists, Catholics, Protestants, workers, liberal intellectuals, artists and writers who came together to speak with one voice. We were united by our dissatisfaction with a regime that demanded acts of obedience on an almost daily basis: Shopkeepers were pressured to put up propaganda signs that read “Workers of the world, unite!” Schoolchildren, students and workers were compelled to march in May Day parades. Office workers had to denounce American imperialism at the start of the workday. Citizens had to “vote” in elections in which the only choice was the ruling party.

Communist parties, then as now, prefer to divide and conquer. After Charter 77 was released, the government did its best to try and break us up. We were detained, and four of us eventually went to jail for several years. The authorities also got back at us in petty ways (including the suspension of driver’s licenses and confiscation of typewriters). Surveillance was stepped up, our homes and offices were searched, and a barrage of press attacks based on malicious lies sought to discredit us and our movement. This onslaught only strengthened our bonds. Charter 77 also reminded many of our fellow citizens who were silently suffering that they were not alone. In time, many of the ideas set forth in Charter 77 prevailed in Czechoslovakia. A wave of similar democratic reforms swept Eastern Europe in 1989.

We never would have guessed that our short manifesto would find an echo in China some 30 years later. In December 2008, a group of 303 Chinese activists, lawyers, intellectuals, academics, retired government officials, workers and peasants put forward their own manifesto titled Charter 08, calling for constitutional government, respect for human rights and other democratic reforms. It was published to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Despite the best efforts of government officials to keep it off of Chinese computer screens, Charter 08 reached a nationwide audience via the Internet, and new signatories eventually reached more than 10,000.

As in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, the response of the Chinese government was swift and brutal. Dozens if not hundreds of signatories were called in for questioning. A handful of perceived ringleaders were detained. Professional promotions were held up, research grants denied and applications to travel abroad rejected. Newspapers and publishing houses were ordered to blacklist anyone who had signed Charter 08. Most seriously, the prominent writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo, a key drafter of Charter 08, was arrested. Liu had already spent five years in prison for his support of peaceful Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Held for more than a year with limited access to his wife or his lawyer, Liu was put on trial for subversion. In December 2009, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Despite Liu’s imprisonment, his ideas cannot be shackled. Charter 08 has articulated an alternative vision of China, challenging the official line that any decisions on reforms are the exclusive province of the state. It has encouraged younger Chinese to become politically active, and boldly made the case for the rule of law and constitutional multiparty democracy. And it has served as a jumping-off point for a series of conversations and essays on how to get there.

Perhaps most important, as in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, Charter 08 has forged connections among different groups that did not exist before. Before Charter 08, “we had to live in a certain kind of separate and solitary state,” one signatory wrote. “We were not good at expressing our own personal experiences to those around us.”

Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 are changing that, for the better.

Of course, Charter 08 addresses a political milieu very different from 1970s Czechoslovakia. In its quest for economic growth, China has seemed to embrace some features far removed from traditional Communism. Especially for young, urban, educated white-collar workers, China can seem like a post-Communist country. And yet, China’s Communist Party still has lines that cannot be crossed. In spearheading the creation of Charter 08, Liu Xiaobo crossed the starkest line of all: Do not challenge the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power, and do not suggest that China’s problems — including widespread corruption, labor unrest, and rampant environmental degradation — might be connected to the lack of progress on political reform.

For making that very connection in an all too public way, Liu got more than a decade in prison. In an especially spiteful move, the authorities, perhaps fearful that his prison cell would become a political rallying point, have forced him to serve his sentence in the northeastern province of Liaoning, far from his wife Liu Xia and friends in Beijing.

Liu may be isolated, but he is not forgotten. Next month, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee will announce the recipient of the 2010 prize. We ask the Nobel Committee to honor Liu Xiaobo’s more than two decades of unflinching and peaceful advocacy for reform, and to make him the first Chinese recipient of that prestigious award. In doing so, the Nobel Committee would signal both to Liu and to the Chinese government that many inside China and around the world stand in solidarity with him, and his unwavering vision of freedom and human rights for the 1. 3 billion people of China.