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Well-known dissident Chen Guangcheng escapes from house arrest
Reporters Without Borders / 无国界记者 / 新闻稿 / Communiqué de presse 2012.04.27
Reporters Without Borders urges the government of the country concerned to grant fugitive human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng and his family political asylum if it is true, as some say, that he has found refuge in a foreign embassy in Beijing after escaping earlier this week from the house arrest to which he had been subjected since release from prison in 2010.
“On the other hand, if Chen is still on Chinese territory, the Chinese authorities must now end his house arrest – of which the abuses probably prompted him to escape – and stop harassing him,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Chen deserves to be able to lead a normal life. It was his defence of human rights that led to his arrest. He is not a criminal.”
Reporters Without Borders also calls on the Chinese authorities to guarantee the safety of Chen’s family and not use them as bargaining chips; to provide an explanation of the mistreatment inflicted on Chen and his family, which was unacceptable; and to punish those responsible severely.
One of China’s leading dissident human rights lawyers, Chen eluded his guards in his home in Dongshigu, in Shandong province, on 22 April and is now “in a safe place” in Beijing, some of his supporters say. This may be an embassy, possibly the US embassy.
Since making his escape, Chen, who is blind, has recorded a video that has been circulated by a Boxun, an independent Chinese website based in the United States, and is available on YouTube. He addresses three demands to Prime Minister Wen Jiaobo in the video:
- He asks Wen to order an investigation into the mistreatment and beatings received by his family members, and he names local officials who had been mistreating his wife, his son, his mother and himself since late 2010.
- He asks that his family’s safety be guaranteed.
- And he calls for corruption in China to be dealt with properly, and for those responsible to be punished according to the law.
Since his escape, at least two of his assistants have reportedly been arrested – He Peirong, who is said to have helped him escape, and Guo Yushan. His home, where his wife, mother and daughter are still located, is reportedly surrounded by police. His brother and nephew are said to have been beaten and taken to a police station.
A self-taught lawyer and blind since childhood, Chen is known as the “barefoot lawyer” who campaigned against forced sterilization, late abortions and land seizures. Chinese and foreign journalists and fellow-dissidents who have tried to visit him since his release from prison in 2010 have been systematically turned away and sometimes attacked by those guarding his home.
Chen’s escape is all the more embarrassing for the Chinese government as it comes amid an internal crisis linked to the purge of the once popular politician Bo Xilai. Prime Minister Wen is meanwhile on a European tour and is due to meet next week with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who has publicly supported Chen in the past.
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