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2009
Liu Xiaobo, China
A renowned literary critic, writer, and political activist based in Beijing, Liu Xiaobo served as president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2003 to 2007, held a seat on its Board until 2009, and now serves as Honorary Chairman. On December 8, 2008, Liu was arrested at his home and held virtually incommunicado for over six months under “residential surveillance” at an undisclosed location in Beijing. On June 23, 2009, he was charged with “inciting subversion of state power” and taken to Beijing Detention Center No. 1. Liu was tried by the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court in a three-hour hearing on December 23, 2009, and on December 25, he was convicted of the charges, based on 224 Chinese characters in the Charter 08 manifesto calling for political reform and six articles he had written. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights—the heaviest sentence ever handed down on subversion charges. His appeal was rejected on February 11, 2010.
2008
Yang Tongyan, China
A dissident writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, Yang was detained without a warrant in Nanjing on December 23, 2005, and held incommunicado. His family was not notified of his arrest or whereabouts until January 27, 2006, when they received formal notification dated January 20 from the Public Security Bureau of Zhenjiang City, east of Nanjing. Yang was convicted of subversion of state power for posting antigovernment articles on the Internet, organizing a branch of the (outlawed) China Democracy Party, participating in China’s Velvet Action Movement and being elected as a member of its “Interim Government of Democratic China,” and accepting illegal funds from overseas to transfer to jailed political dissidents and their families. On May 16, 2006, after a three-hour trial that was closed to the public, he was sentenced by the Zhenjiang Intermediate Court in eastern China’s Jiangsu province to 12 years’ imprisonment and four years’ deprivation of political rights.
2007
Normando Hernández González, Cuba
A writer, independent journalist and director of the Camagüey College of Independent Journalists, Hernández was arrested on March 18, 2003, in his hometown of Camagüey, Cuba, along with 74 other journalists considered to be dissidents by the Cuban government. He was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment under Article 91 of the Cuban Criminal Code for reporting on the conditions of state-run services in Cuba and for criticizing the government’s management of issues such as tourism, agriculture, fishing, and cultural affairs. Hernández’ health has deteriorated dramatically since his imprisonment due to harsh treatment and prison conditions, and he now suffers from several diseases of the digestive system, including lesions in his stomach and tumors in his gallbladder.
2006
Mohammed Benchicou, Algeria
A writer and former director of Le Matin, a private daily newspaper that maintained an independent, critical editorial line toward the Algerian government. In August 2003, Benchicou was apprehended by the police at Algiers airport on his return from France and charged with currency control violations in a move widely understood to be an attempt to silence Le Matin in the run-up to the 2004 Algerian presidential election. In June 2004, Benchicou was sentenced to a two-year prison term and received a fine of 20m dinars (approx. US$280,000), resulting in the closure of Le Matin. Benchicou has approximately 50 other cases pending against him and is reportedly taken to court once or twice a week for press charges dating back to 2002.
Rakhim Esenov, Turkmenistan
A novelist, historian and freelance correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Esenov was charged in 2004 with "inciting social, national and religious hatred using the mass media," which he has indicated refers to statements made by characters in his novel The Crowned Wanderer. The novel is set in the 16th Mogul Empire and centers around Bayram Khan, a poet, philosopher and army general who is said to have saved Turkmenistan from fragmentation. In 1997, Turkmen president Saparmurad Niyazov banned and denounced the novel as "historically inaccurate" for correctly portraying Khan as a Shia rather than a Sunni Muslim- an offense that carries a four-year prison sentence under the Turkmen Criminal Code. Following a two month imprisonment, Esenov was released after submitting a written guarantee to remain in Turkmenistan, although he remains under close investigation and the charges against him have not been dropped. In spite of his dire need for medical attention unavailable in Turkmenistan, he remains confined to the capital of Ashgabat, and is unable to travel to Moscow where he can receive the treatment he needs.
2005
Deyda Hydara, Gambia
A newspaper publisher and press freedom champion who was gunned down in December 2004 for challenging increasingly restrictive press laws in the Gambia. The shooting occurred two days after the Gambian National Assembly passed a new round of repressive media legislation that imposed mandatory prison terms for any published work judged to be “seditious” or “libelous” and included prison terms of at least six months for first time infractions and three years for repeat offenders. The bill also increased the scope of what might be deemed libelous. Hydara and other independent journalists had publicly opposed the law and Hydara had published an editorial denouncing it the day before he was killed.
Ali Al-Domaini, Saudi Arabia
A leading Saudi literary figure whose works include three collections of poetry and a novel. On March 15, 2004, he and eleven other leading Saudi intellectuals were arrested for criticizing the newly-established National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) and for planning to set up their own human rights organization. Eight of the detainees were subsequently released, but Al-Domaini and two other leading intellectuals remained in prison and were charged, reportedly after refusing to sign a document renouncing their political activism. Al-Domaini is accused by the authorities of threatening national unity, doubting the independence of the Saudi judiciary, organizing meetings and justifying violence, among other charges.
2004
Nasser Zarafshan, Iran
Author, translator, and attorney sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and 70 lashes for his criticism of the official investigation carried out into the murders of five Iranian intellectuals and writers in 1998 in what came to be known in Iran as the 'serial murders.' Zarafshan has reportedly appealed to the Supreme Court and is currently awaiting a decision. He is also reportedly undergoing medical examinations to ascertain whether he is healthy enough to face the flogging sentence.
Lê Chi Quang, Vietnam
A lawyer and computer teacher whose essay Beware of Imperialist China was distributed on the Internet. He was arrested at an Internet café in Hanoi and sentenced to four years in prison and three years of house arrest after a half-day closed trial on charges of disseminating propaganda against the state. He suffers from serious kidney dysfunction, and there is concern that he has not been allowed to receive an appropriate diagnosis of his condition and effective medical treatment. He and another prisoner reportedly share a squalid six-square-meter cell.
2003
Zouhair Yahyaoui, Tunisia
Founded Internet magazine TUNeZINE.com shortly after graduating from college to disseminate information on the struggle for democracy in Tunisia and publish opposition material. Shortly after TUNeZINE invited readers to vote on whether Tunisia was "a republic, a kingdom, a zoo, or a prison," Yahyaoui was arrested and subsequently tried and sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison for "propagation of false news," "non-authorized usage of an Internet connection" and "theft from an employer." On appeal, his sentence was reduced to 24 months. Yahyaoui has gone on several hunger strikes since his imprisonment to protest the appalling prison conditions and ill treatment he has suffered.
Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, Cuba
An independent journalist imprisoned since 1997 in connection with his independent news reporting, he was transferred in July from a labor camp to maximum security Ariza Prison. Arévalo Padrón remains in jail despite being eligible for parole since October 2000. Authorities maintain that he has not been sufficiently "politically re-educated." He has vowed to continue his journalistic work even behind bars by reporting news of prison conditions.
2002
Aung Myint, Myanmar (Burma)
Journalist, poet, and head of the information department of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung Myint was first arrest in 1997 for his activities with the NLD. After spending two years in prison, he became the head of the NLD's information department in Rangoon. On September 14, 2000 Aung and his assistant Kyaw Sein Oo were arrested by members of Unit 14 of the Military Intelligence Service for distributing information regarding repression of the NLD to international press agencies and to Western diplomats based in Rangoon. Aung was charged with violating the State Protection and Emergency Provision Acts and sentenced by a military court on December 20, 2000 to 21 years' imprisonment. Four other NLD members were tried by the military court and sentenced the same day to heavy prison terms. Aung Myint is currently serving his sentence in Insein prison.
Tohti Tunyaz, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China
Ethnic Uighur historian and writer, Tohti Tunyaz was first arrested on February 6, 1998, a few weeks into a trip to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region for research purposes. His only proven "crime" appears to be that of obtaining and copying part of a 50-year-old document for his research with the help of an official librarian, which the authorities claimed was "theft of classified information." Tohti was charged on November 10, 1998 with "inciting national disunity" and "stealing state secrets for foreign persons" (later amended by the Supreme Court to "illegally acquiring state secrets"). He was convicted by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court on March 10, 1999, and following an appeal, was sentenced by China's Supreme Court on February 15, 2000 to 11 years in prison with an additional two years' deprivation of political rights for "stealing state secrets" and "inciting national disunity." Tohti Tunyaz is currently serving his sentence in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Prison No. 3 in the provincial capital of Urumqi.
2001
Shahla Lahiji, Iran
The first woman to run a publishing house in Iran, Shahla Lahiji is one of 19 Iranian writers and intellectuals prosecuted in Tehran for participating in an academic and cultural conference in Berlin in April 2000. After returning to Iran, she was arrested and tried behind closed doors by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in October, convicted, and sentenced to three years and six months in prison for acting against national security by attending the conference, plus an additional six months for propaganda against the Islamic system for commenting on the dangers confronting writers in Iran. On February 27, 2002 Shahla Lahiji's sentence was reduced to six months' imprisonment, calculated as time served (two months' imprisonment) plus a 500,000 rial fine. She continues to reside and work in Tehran.
Mamadali Mahmudov, Uzbekistan
Renowned novelist and opposition activist Mamadali Mahmudov disappeared into the hands of agents of the Committee for National Security in Uzbekistan on February 19, 1999. After he "reappeared" in prison, he was charged with threatening the president and the constitutional order, allegedly in connection with a series of explosions in Tashkent. He was tried along with five other men solely on the basis that they had copies of the banned newspaper Erk in their possession; all six were reportedly tortured and forced to sign self-incriminating statements, and some were coerced to declare their guilt on a government-sponsored national television program. In August 1999, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Well-documented reports of torture have contributed to urgent fears for Mahmudov's health and safety in prison.
2000
Flora Brovina, Kosovo
Dr. Brovina is an ethnic Albanian poet and pediatrician. As founder and president of the League of Albanian Women in Kosovo, she was a key organizer of peaceful demonstrations protesting human rights abuses by Serbian authorities, and after the outbreak of the war, she chose to remain in Pristina to run a shelter for women and children. On April 22, 1999, Dr. Brovina was abducted from her house and held incommunicado for two weeks by masked paramilitaries acting for the Serbian government. As NATO ground forces entered Kosovo, she was among hundreds of detainees transferred to a prison in Serbia, and on December 9 a Serbian court in Nis convicted her of "terrorist acts" against the Yugoslav state during the NATO air campaign in Kosovo and sentenced her to 12 years in prison. She was released on November 2, 2000.
Xue Deyun, China
Poet and editor Xue Deyun, who writes under the pen name Ma Zhe, was arrested on January 26,1998, along with three other poets for creating and attempting to launch China Cultural Renaissance , a journal promoting literary freedom. While the three other poets were released later in 1998, Xue was convicted of "engaging in subversive activities," "disturbing the social order," and inciting to "overthrow the socialist system by rumor-mongering [or] slander." PEN believes that Xue received this harsh sentence because of his influence as a writer and leader in the Guizhou cultural revival, a movement calling for increased literary freedom in China. Xue Deyun was released on July 25, 2001 after Guizhou's High Court reduced his sentence on appeal. He is anHonorary Member of PEN American Center, as well as the Canadian, Ghanaian, and Norwegian PEN Centers.
1999
Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, Syria
Faraj Birqdar remained one of the longest-detained writers in the world. His work on behalf of free expression and non-violent political action led to his 1987 arrest on suspicion of membership in the Party for Communist Action. In 1993, he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment after being held without charge or trial for over six years. He suffers from various health problems resulting from the brutal torture he has endured. An honorary member of American, English, Netherlands, and Slovak PEN Centers, Birqdar won the Hellman/Hammett Free Expression Award in 1998. He was released on November 16, 2000 under a presidential amnesty.
Esber Yagmurdereli, Turkey
Blind playwright, poet, short story author, screenwriter, and lawyer, Esber Yagmurdereli has been in and out of prison since 1978. After 13 years, he was released in 1991 only to suffer ongoing persecution and frequent arrests for speaking out against the Turkish government's human rights abuses. An honorary member of Swedish, Slovak, Canadian, Czech, and San Miguel PEN Centers and now PEN American Center, Yagmurdereli has been incarcerated near Ankara since 1998. In addition to his distinguished literary and legal careers, he has also edited several magazines and political journals, including Yeni Eylem . He was released on January 18, 2001 after a review of his sentence under an amnesty announced in December 2000.
1998
Ogaga Ifowodo, Nigeria
Poet Ogaga Ifowodo was arrested around November 6, 1997 on his way home from the Commonwealth Summit in Edinburgh, where he and other activists appealed for stronger sanctions against General Abacha's government. From his arrest until April 1998, he was held in solitary confinement in a Nigerian prison, without access to his family, lawyers, or doctors. His arrest was not officially acknowledged, nor were any charges brought against him. After studying law in Benin and Lagos, Ifowodo wrote Annual Reports on Human Rights in Nigeria for the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) in 1992, 1993 and 1994; he also edited the publication Human Rights in Retreat , which chronicled the human rights violations by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. He coordinates the CLO International Campaign for Democracy in Nigeria and contributes regularly to the periodical Liberty . The recipient of the 1996 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Award for Poetry, Ifowodo is author of two collections of poetry: Maroko's Blood and Red Rain ; his poems have been published in The Guardian ,Times Review ,Okike ,ANA Review ,Stand Magazine as well as in the anthology Voices From the Fringe (1989). Ifowodo is an honorary fellow at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany, and an Honorary Member of PEN American Center and West German PEN.
Liu Jingsheng, China
Liu Jingsheng is serving a 15-year sentence in a Chinese prison for "counter-revolutionary propaganda" and leading a "counter-revolutionary group." Accused of distributing and producing the journal Freedom Forum , as well as pro-democracy leaflets and statements on China's human rights situation, Liu was arrested in 1992 and held until his trial two years later when he was sentenced to prison until May 2007. This was not the first time Liu was arrested for writing about freedom. He was first arrested and detained in 1979 together with Wei Jingsheng, with whom he co-edited and distributed the magazine Tansuo (Explorations) in the late 1970s. Jiu is an Honorary Member of PEN American Center and Netherlands PEN. He is married and has a daughter.
1997
Godwin Agbroko, Nigeria
Godwin is editor of The Week , one of Nigeria's most respected newspapers. A father of five, he was arressted and held briefly twice in 1995. On December 17, 1996, three members of Nigeria's State Security Service apprehended Agbroko at his office, then drove him away in a white Peugeot. His colleagues were unable to determine where Agbroko was being held, or whether he had been charged with any crime. They believe, however, that his arrest was linked to his outspoken criticism of Nigeria's military. All calls to police and security headquarters were met with flat denials that Agbroko was being detained. Finally, his colleagues learned that he was being held at the Military Intelligence Detention Center in Lagos, though there was no word on whether any charges had been filed against him. His wife managed to see him once, but he was subsequently denied visits from his family and lawyers. Within weeks after receiving the Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, Agbroko was released from prison.
Ayse Nur Zarakolu, Turkey
Founder of Turkey's Freedom to Publish Committee, Zarakolu is a political essayist and the director of Belge Publishing House, and the only woman publishing director in Turkey. Through repressive legislation, the government of her country silences any public discussion of taboo subjects such as minority rights or Turkey's military history. Zarakolu, whose stated aim is to "strike down all the taboos," publishes books on exactly these topics. She was sentenced in 1995 to two years in prison for having published a book on the 1915 genocide of Turkish Armenians by the Turkish army, which the government of Turkey denies to this day. While she has not yet been imprisoned for that charge, she faces prosecution on charges relating to other controversial Belge books, most notably Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey , a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. She has already been fined more that $5,000. Zarakolu spent last fall behind bars for publishing a book on the Kurdish civil war. Ayse Nur Zarakolu died in hospital in Istanbul on January 28, 2002. She had been suffering from cancer.
1996
Ma Thida, Myanmar
In 1993, Ma Thida was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in Burma for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organizations, and distributing unlawful literature." The charges were based on her tireless work to promote democratic change. A campaign assistant to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate whose landslide victory in the 1990 elections was disregarded by the military government, Ma Thida has written many articles and stories about the damage done in her country by successive repressive regimes. She is also a qualified physician and the founder of a clinic for women. A prolific writer of fiction, she is author of The Sunflower and In the Shade of an Indian Almond Tree among other titles, most of which are banned in Burma. She is being held in solitary confinement at Rangoon's Insein Jail, where she contracted tuberculosis. She was released on February 12, 1999 "on humanitarian grounds."
Anonymous, Africa
The family of 1996's second recipient requested that he remain anonymous for his own safety. A writer and television producer from a country in Africa, he had been held without charge or trial for 14 months at the time the award was bestowed. His friends and colleagues believed that he had been arrested to prevent him from producing a television documentary series he was planning about democratic change on the African continent with a special segment about his home country. PEN had received reports it believed to be reliable indicating that he was subjected to severe beatings in the early days of his detention. He is married with two sons. His family used the award money to hire a local lawyer to challenge his detention, and he was released within three months of having received the award. He must, however, remain anonymous as he remains under constant police surveillance.
1995
San San Nwe, Myanmar
San San Nwe was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in Burma for "spreading information injurious to the state" and "giving one-sided views" to foreign reporters. The reason underlying her imprisonment is her active support for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate whose party won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections but who is held under house arrest by the military government. San San Nwe is the author of Prison of Darkness , a novel, and many other works of fiction and nonfiction. She is due for release in 2004. Her daughter Myat Mo Mo Tun, who was imprisoned with her, was released in March 2000. San San Nwe was released on July 18, 2001.
Indamiro Restano Díaz, Cuba
Restano is a published poet and former vice president of the Association of Independent Journalists of Cuba. At the time the award was bestowed, he was serving a ten-year sentence for "rebellion" and preparing publications "aimed at inciting civil disobedience." The charges stemmed from his activities as founder and president of the Movement for Harmony, an opposition group that called for the release of all political prisoners and an end to Cuba's one-party system. Due for release in December 2001, he was being held in Combinado del Este prison in Havana. A few weeks after the announcement of the award, Restano was released. He came to the PEN office the following September and accepted the award, stressing that PEN's efforts had been instrumental in securing his release.
1994
Edip Polat, Turkey
Polat is a Kurdish writer and biologist and comes from southeastern Turkey. The author of five books about Kurdish concerns, he has been jailed three times in the past for advocating Kurdish causes and, in 1994, was serving an 18-month sentence on charges of producing "separatist propaganda" in his book We Made Each Dawn a Newroz (Newroz being the Kurdish New Year). That book, a work of nonfiction based on his experiences in a Turkish military prison between 1982 and 1985, chronicles the grim treatment meted out to inmates by their jailers. In January 1995, Polat was released from prison but is now on trial for charges related to his fifth book, The Kurds and Kurdistan in the Language of Science . He was released on remission on August 3, 1998 under regulations that allow conditional release of Penal Code prisoners after serving 40% of their sentences.
Doan Viet Hoat, Vietnam
Doan, from South Vietnam, received his Ph.D. in education from Florida State University and, on his return to Saigon, became vice-president of Van Hanh University, a Buddhist institution. After Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, he was detained in a reeducation camp for 12 years. Upon his release, he founded Freedom Forum, the discussion group and newspaper of the same name which advocated free speech and the release of all political prisoners. Doan was arrested in 1990 for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government, and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in March 1993. The sentence later was changed to 15 years' imprisonment and five years' house arrest. He was released at the beginning of September 1998 as part of a large-scale prisoner amnesty to mark the country's September 2 Independence Day.
1993
Zoran Mutic, Bosnia
Mutic is a Bosnian Muslim of mixed race, and the translator into Serbian of several English-language books, including Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children : he was a prominent defender of Rushdie after the issuing of the death sentence against him in 1989. Mutic's works have been banned in Serbia and have frequently protested the rise of Serbian nationalism. He fled Sarajevo in 1992 just before the city came under siege and now lives in Ljubljana, where he is working on an exhibition about the war in Bosnia and editing a book of testimonies by Bosnian refugees.
Svetlana Slapsak, Serbia
Slapsak, a Serb from Belgrade, is the author of the hugely popular novel Leon and Leonine . In the late 1960s she was once beaten by the police because of her work with the outspoken student magazine Frontisterion . In the 1980s she defended many opposition activists who were harassed or imprisoned by the authorities and served as president of the Committee for the Liberty of Expression. Slapsak has written articles criticizing Serbian nationalism and decrying injustices perpetrated by Serbians. In one series of articles, she protested a law that punished Albanians in Kosovo for raping Serbian women more severely than Serbians who raped Albanians. In September 1991, she fled to Slovenia, where she has organized the women's anti-war group Silence Kills: Let Us Speak Up for Peace. Since receiving the award, she has been able to facilitate her application for Slovenian citizenship and has secured a visiting professorship for the 1994 Fall/Spring term at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Nizar Nayouf, Syria
Nayouf is a writer, sociologist, and human rights activist who is serving a 10-year prison sentence with hard labor. Arrested in January 1991, on charges of "disseminating false information" in his work as information officer for the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms, he is alleged to have been tortured severely while in pretrial detention. Reportedly, he could not walk unaided at his trial the following year. Nayouf has written for the weekly Al-Huriyya and the literary magazine Al Thaqafa al Ma'arifa ; he was released from prison on May 6, 2001.
1992
Thiagarajah Selvanithy ("Selvi"), Sri Lanka
Selvi was a Tamil poet from Jaffna in Sri Lanka. A third-year student in Theater and Drama Arts in the University of Jaffna, Selvi was arrested by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) on August 30, 1991. She was the founder of a feminist journal called Tholi and was a gifted young poet who in her work deplored the carnage brought about by the conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese. Selvi also produced two plays, one about dowry payments and the other about rape. The day before her abduction she was about to star in a play about the role of women in the Palestinian intifada . She was a prominent member of "Poorani Illam," a women's center in Jaffna, which gives support to women traumatized by bombing raids and bereavement. Selvi was born into a peasant family in Semamadu, a village about 80 miles south of Jaffna. In 1997, LTTE sources acknowledged that she was executed.
Jean Mario Paul, Haiti
Journalist and Radio correspondent, Paul is a native of Petit Gôave, 20 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, Paul was well-known for his stories broadcast on Radio Antilles exposing local official corruption. He also wrote as a political analyst for two newspapers- Petit Gôave Info and May Nan May , a Catholic journal. In the wake of the coup which ousted President Aristide, his home and that of his mother's were burnt down. On November 9, 1991, Paul was arrested while covering a demonstration in Grand Gôave and was charged with setting fire to a court house and police station and with possession of firearms. Paul denied the charges and no credible evidence of his guilt was ever produced. Paul was, however, brutally tortured while in police detention and was briefly hospitalized as a result. Two weeks after PEN announced the award at its annual benefit, on April 29, 1992, Paul was released and all charges against him released. In August 1992, Paul traveled to New York where PEN hosted a press conference on his behalf at which he accepted his award.
1991
Abraham Serfaty, Morocco
Editor of the former literary magazine Souffles , Abraham Serfaty was serving a life sentence from 1974 until his release from prison in September 1991. He was sentenced solely on account of his political and literary activities. Serfaty now lives in Paris and attributes his release in no small part to the campaign mounted on his behalf by his wife, Christine Jouvin, and by PEN.
Francisco Valencia, El Salvador
Editor of El Diario Latino , Valencia has continued to publish the paper, hailed by The New York Times as that country's "only independent newspaper," despite threats to the staff and a firebomb attack on his office in February 1991 in which most of the paper's equipment was destroyed. The award helped to finance the paper's return to full operations. The perpetrators of the firebomb attack, however, have not been apprehended.
1990
Jack Mapanje, Malawi
Malawi's only internationally known poet whose collection Of Chameleons and Gods has been published by Heineman but banned in his own country. Mapanje was detained without charge or trial for over three years until his release in May 1990. Now he and his wife and three children live in York, England.
Bei Dao, China
One of China's most famous poets, Bei Dao initiated an appeal for the release of Chinese political prisoners in the months leading up to the June 3, 1989 clampdown on the students' Tiananmen Democracy Movement. Like many of China's prominent writers, Bei Dao is now forced to live in exile, but he used the award to set up the magazine Today , which is disseminated among the Chinese intellectual community outside China.
1989
Nguyen Chi Thien, Vietnam
Nguyen's collection of poetry, Flowers From Hell , has been published in the West. Nguyen spent most of his adult life behind bars but was released from prison in November 1988. He now lives in a town near Hanoi and his state of health is said to be slowly improving.
Martha Kumsa, Ethiopia
Writer and journalist Kumsa was released from prison after several years of detention without charge or trial a few months after she received the award. She is now reunited with her three children and lives in Canada. When PEN granted her the award, her name had to be kept anonymous; now, fortunately, she is out of all danger.
1988
Maina wa Kinyatti, Kenya
Writer and historian Maina wa Kinyatti was released on October 17, 1988, after serving six and one half years in prison. He now lives in New York. This is fortunate since, had he stayed in Kenya, he would almost certainly have been rearrested, given the current repressive atmosphere there just now.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia
Toer was placed under city arrest and though he is Indonesia's most famous novelist, he is still banned in his own country. William Morrow, however, has published his novels The Fugitive and This Earth of Mankind , the first part of Toer's famous quartet of novels. His house arrest was lifted in 1999.
1987
Matsemela Manaka, South Africa
The playwright Matsemela Manaka used the award to fund a playwright workshop for young authors in Soweto. He later wrote to PEN saying: "Our playwrights' workshop was very successful and we hope to publish the playscript immediately after the production for public performances . . . The Freedom to Write Award has made wonders for me. I have received letters from all sorts of hidden corners congratulating me."
Nizametdin Akhmetov, Soviet Union
The poet Nizametdin Akhmetov was released on June 4, 1987, after 20 years' imprisonment in labor camps and psychiatric hospitals. He lived in Hamburg, West Germany, until a few months ago when he returned to the Soviet Union and was re-arrested. Thanks to the efforts of PEN, and especially those of Russian PEN, he was quickly released again. On receiving the award, Akhmetov wrote ". . . I reckon that I was released by the Soviet authorities and permitted to travel to the West because of the pressure exerted by the international community and not least by efforts of PEN Clubs of various countries . . . I came to Germany to relax in a free country, to rest after 20 years' long imprisonment, to improve my health, to thank everybody who was taking care of my affairs, and subsequently to return to my motherland to continue with my cause. . . I am extremely grateful to American PEN for its efforts for my liberation, and I'm especially grateful for receiving from you the Freedom to Write award." |
