From: robbieb@gn.apc.org
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: CHEN YU POEMS - URGENT APPEAL!
Date: 7 Sep 92 14:31:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:gn:1414700003:000:4507
Nf-From: gn.UUCP!robbieb    Sep  7 15:31:00 1992



    TIN China News         7th September, 1992

   -------------------------------------------------

       APPEAL FOR CHEN YU POEMS - URGENT!

Lawyers acting for Liu Yijun, a Chinese poet facing deportation by the
British authorities in Hong Kong on Thursday, are appealing for someone
to provide a copy of her poems.

Just one of her poems, which were circulated amongst student protestors
in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 demonstrations, could save the 29
year old writer from being deported to China on Thursday.

Chinese students and pro-democracy activists who escaped from China after
1989 may have kept a copy of her poems, and  universities with
collections of pro-democracy material from China are being asked to
search through their archives.

Ms Liu had all her copies of her poems stolen during her escape from
China to Hong Kong last year. Now officials in Hong Kong and the UK are
discounting her story that, under the name Chen Yu, she wrote
pro-democratic poems during the 1989 protests.

"We need the evidence to put before the judge on Thursday to show that
their claim is a good one," said the women's lawyer, Mrs Pamela Baker. in
London this morning. "It might make all the difference", she added,
shortly before boarding a plane to Hong Kong.

Especially important is a copy of a pamphlet containing Chen Yu's poems,
distributed amongst by students in the Square. The pamphlet included a
photograph of the writer and would show that she was involved in the
pro-democracy movement.

Mrs Baker appealed for anyone who has copies of the poems to contact her
urgently at the offices of Knight and Ho in Hong Kong (Room 906, Ritz
Building, 625 Nathan Rd, Kowloon, Hong Kong; fax: (852) 770 1331).

 - Background -

The poet, together with Lin Lin, a 25 year old computer programmer who
had helped hide her in China, has been held in Hong Kong's Victoria
Prison for the last nine months.

The two women face deportation to China on Thursday unless a Hong Kong
judge can be convinced at an emergency hearing that there is new evidence
to support her case.

According to one source in Hong Kong, a UNHCR official who interviewed Ms
Chen in Hong Kong said that she could not be a poet because she could not
compose a classical poem in front of him.

A Hong Kong Government official said today in London that the women "had
not been able to prove that they were genuine political refugees". A
British Government spokesman said on Friday that the women did not face a
serious risk of persecution in China and that the Hong Kong authorities
"had considered the case properly".

Ms Liu was carrying her poems and other documents supporting her case
when she arrived on a smuggler's boat in Hong Kong last December, but the
smuggler - known in Chinese as a snakehead - kept all her belongings in
an attempt to extort money from her. Although the snakehead was arrested,
the women's belongings have still not been recovered.

Arrests of dissidents have continued in China this year, with 20 members
of one underground pro-democracy group being arrested up to August,
according to sources in Hong Kong quoted by the South China Morning Post
on August 15th. Six of those arrested were former students or teachers
from Lanzhou University who had formed a group called the Socialist
Democratic party of China.

Another 30 people are believed to have been detained because they were
members of the banned Free Labour Union of China, set up secretly in
December 1991 to help workers campaign for their rights.

Amnesty International said last week that they two women risked
persecution if returned. "We believe the two women, if returned to China,
would be at grave risk of imprisonment and of possible torture", said a
spokesperson.

Yesterday the Sunday Times released details for the first time of two
other dissidents who are still in prison in China after their pleas for
asylum were rejected and they were deported by the Hong Kong Government.
One, Xu Yiruo, a student leader from Qingdao University, was not allowed
to see Amnesty or UN officials before the Hong Kong authorities deported
him in April 1991.

Another student activist, Yao Kaiwen, has been held Shanghai's No 1
Prison ever since he was handed over to the Chinese police by Hong Kong
officials, according to the newspaper. Human rights groups do not know
what has happened to approximately 200 other Chinese who escaped to Hong
Kong after 1989 but had their claims for political asylum rejected, said
the newspaper.

-  end -