Tibet’s most famous woman blogger, Woeser, detained by police

Tibet’s most famous woman blogger, Woeser, detained by police

From Times Online August 25, 2008
By Jane Macartney in Beijing

Tibet’s most famous woman writer and blogger has been questioned by police for eight hours, accused of taking photographs on the street, after she returned home briefly to the capital, Lhasa.

The detention of Woeser, who like many Tibetans goes by a single name, underscores the nervousness of the authorities in the Himalayan city, where Tibetans restive under Beijing rule rioted in the streets in March, killing 22 people and setting fire to hundreds of offices and businesses.

Eight police arrived at the home of Woeser’s mother on Thursday and presented her with a summons to accompany them for questioning. Her husband, the author Wang Lixiong, said: “They had used the wrong name on the document so I insisted that they correct the name before they could take her away. I reminded them that they had to bring her home within the stipulated 12 hours.”

She was held for questioning by several officers who said that they were acting on a tip-off from a member of the public, who had seen her taking photographs of army and police positions in Lhasa from inside a taxi.

Mr Wang, who spoke on behalf of his wife because he was worried for her safety, told The Times: “She told them that it was not illegal to take photographs in a public place and she had not visited any secret areas or military installations. They had no legal basis for holding her.” The police searched her mother’s home and removed several documents as well as Mr Wang’s computer.

They hacked his password, checked all documents on the laptop and required Woeser to erase every photograph that showed a policeman or army officer on the streets of Lhasa or in Tibetan areas they had visited.

Mr Wang said: “I can’t say whether their intention was to intimidate. But if they can do this to an influential writer who has done nothing more than take photographs, then one can only imagine the kind of threat that ordinary people in Tibet must feel every day.”

The couple decided to return home to Beijing as soon as they could get flights, but first organised a reunion party with Woeser’s many family and friends in the city. However, many did not attend, apparently afraid of possible consequences after her encounter with the police. The couple flew back to Beijing on Saturday, less than 48 hours after her summons and six days into a planned month-long visit to Lhasa.

Woeser has become one of the best-known Tibetan personalities, first as a poet whose works were approved by the Government and then as a dissident author after her first book of prose was banned in 2003. She has since not been allowed to publish in China, but the restrictions have failed to deter her.

She was forced to place the blog that she began in 2005 on a server outside China after it was repeatedly hacked and closed. Her current blog — woeser.middle-way.net — is the most popular site for many Tibetans and has recorded three million hits since she launched it on an overseas server early last year. The Tibetan capital remains under lockdown. The city is patrolled by police and paramilitary forces, many deployed around the Jokhang Temple, the holiest shrine in Tibetan Buddhism in the heart of the Old City. On the pilgrim route that circles the temple, at least four teams of paramilitary police are on guard around the clock.

Each comprises five men carrying automatic rifles who patrol a section of the route. Buddhist faithful twirling prayer wheels, telling rosaries and performing prostrations wend their way among the armed men. Some of the teams, dressed in camouflage, have recently been replaced by patrols carrying what appear to be teargas launchers in tubes on their backs. Paramilitary officers stand at bus stops, while police borad buses at each stop to check for anyone suspicious. Armed police in camouflage, some helmeted, others carrying riot shields and electric batons, are deployed at road junctions. They stand in groups, facing out to scan the street.

Once night falls, lorries filled with paramilitaries drive through the streets at barely more than a walking pace. These patrols and the police presence are limited almost entirely to the Old City. In the newer areas of Lhasa, where most ethnic Han Chinese live, there is little sign of increased security.


西藏最有名的女作家唯色，被警方盤問八小時

From Times Online August 25, 2008
Tibet’s most famous woman blogger, Woeser, detained by police
Jane Macartney in Beijing
译者：台湾悬钩子


西藏最有名的女作家與博客作者，被警方盤問八小時，她被指控在街上拍照，就在她短暫地回到西藏首都拉薩的家裏之後。

唯色被警察拘留，強調了這個喜馬拉雅山區的城市當局緊張的程度，三月時在北京統治下，不安的藏人在街上暴動，致死二十二個人，並且焚燒許多商店與辦公室。

星期四，八名警察來到唯色的母親家，並且給了她一張傳令，要求她隨他們接受審訊。她的先生，作家王力雄，說：「文件上的名字寫錯了，所以我堅持讓他們更正以後，才能把她帶走。我也提醒他們，必須在規定的十二小時內將她帶回家。」

她被好幾個警察盤問，他們說收到一位群眾的舉報，線民說看到她在計程車內拍攝拉薩軍隊與警察的位置。

因為擔憂她的安全，而代表妻子說話的王先生，告訴本報記者：「她告訴他們，在公眾場合拍攝照片並非違法，而且她也沒有進入任何保密地區，或軍事區域。他們沒有羈留她的法律基礎。」警察搜索了她母親家，並且拿走了好幾份文件，還包括王先生的電腦。

他們破解了他的密碼，檢查了手提電腦上所有的文件，並且要求唯色刪除所有顯示一個警察或軍人站在拉薩街頭的照片，或在他們所曾經到過的藏區的類似照片。

王先生說：「我不知道他們的用意是否在於威攝。但如果他們可以對一個不過是拍攝照片的有名作家做出這種事，你就可以想像普通的藏人每天所面臨的威脅是什麼。」

他們於是決定愈早回北京愈好。然而在臨行之前，他們還是為唯色在拉薩的親戚們舉辦了一個聚會，然而，一些人沒有來參加，顯然是在她被警方盤問後，害怕與她接觸會有不良的後果。他們在星期六飛回北京，就在她被警方盤問不到四十八小時，與本來計畫在拉薩停留一個月的前六天以後。

唯色已經變成最有名的藏人，起先是因為她的作品受到政府的批評，然後她的第一本散文集在2003年禁止發行以後，成為一個異議作家。自從那時候起，她的作品被禁止在中國出版，然而這些限制未能阻止她。

她被迫要把她在2005年開始寫作的博客，放在中國以外的伺服主機上，因為她的博客不斷地被關閉或被黑客劫持。她目前的博客－－woeser.middle-way.net－－受到許多藏人的歡迎，而且從去年初她開始在海外的主機上寫作以來，已經吸引了三百多萬的點擊次數。

目前西藏首都拉薩仍處於封鎖之中。此市有警方與武警的巡查，許多人被派到大昭寺，也是舊市區最神聖的藏傳佛教寺院。在寺院外的轉經道上，至少有四支武警隊日夜輪班監視此區。

每一支隊伍都由五個男人組成，他們帶著自動步槍，負責巡邏著轉經道的一段。信徒們轉著祈禱輪，捻著唸珠，並且磕著長頭，經過武警的身邊。其中有些身穿迷彩服裝的隊伍，最近已經被看起來好像背負著催淚瓦斯筒的巡查隊取代。武警就站在巴士站，而警察在巴士停靠的每一站檢查是否有可疑人物。在每一個路口都有穿著迷彩裝的武裝警察，有些人戴著鋼盔，其他人則帶著鎮暴盾牌與電擊警棍。他們靠在一起，臉孔朝裡或朝外，掃視街道。

而只要天色一暗，乘載著武警的卡車就會以非常慢、接近行走的速度，行經街道。這些巡邏隊與警方的監視，幾乎只在舊市區出現。在拉薩的新市區，大部份漢人所居住的地方，沒有任何安全警力增加的跡象。

【http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4607454.ece http://rosaceae.ti-da.net/e2317372.html】