Authors lobby for Chinese dissident's release

Leading writers including Margaret Atwood, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan have called for the release of a well-known Chinese dissident. Liu Xiaobo has been in detention since December, shortly before the publication of Charter 08, a document calling for reforms including improved human rights and direct elections in China. Around 300 dissidents and intellectuals initially signed the text, and supporters say that 7,000 more have added their names since, despite censors repeatedly removing references to the charter from websites. But Liu is the only signatory to have been detained for an extended period and police appear to believe that he took a lead in drafting the document. Others say they have been questioned repeatedly regarding the manifesto and Liu's role in its preparation. The author previously spent several years in prison for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. "Liu Xiaobo's arrest and continued detention for being one of the original signatories of Charter 08, which calls for greater freedom of expression and democracy, demonstrates the extent of the ongoing restrictions imposed upon the people of China. We call for his immediate release," said Caroline McCormick, Executive Director of International PEN. Other writers who have signed International PEN's include novelists Don DeLillo, Ha Jin, Umberto Eco and JM Coetzee; and playwrights Tom Stoppard and Michael Frayn. Liu, a former president and current board member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, is detained at an undisclosed location outside Beijing under conditions known as residential surveillance. They allow him to kept for up to six months. The 53-year-old was allowed a New Year's Day lunch with his wife and two policemen, but has not otherwise been permitted to meet his lawyer or family. "He was unshaven, and to me he looked a little thinner," Liu's wife, Liu Xia, told Reuters last week. "We could only really discuss family matters during lunch."