BEIJING — Two elderly women were sentenced to a year of labor re-education after they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics against their 2001 eviction from their homes, according to the son of one of the would-be protesters.
Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, went to Chinese police five times between Aug. 5 and 18 to seek approval to protest.
Officials at the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau did not approve or deny their applications during the first three visits. On the fourth visit, they were told that they would receive a year’s punishment, until July 29, 2009, for “disturbing the public order.”
They will not have to go to a re-education camp — at least for now — the order stated. But their movement will be restricted and they are likely to face other requirements. If they violate any provisions of the order or other regulations, however, they could be sent to a labor camp.
Wu and Wang tried to return the next day to inquire again about their protest application, but they were told that their right to apply had been stripped because of the re-education labor sentence.
“When I first heard about the possibility of being allowed to protest, I was very happy. My issue could be resolved. But it turned out all to be cheating … I feel stuck in my heart,” Wu said.
Li Xuehui said his mother, Wu, and her friend are outraged.
Usually this type of punishment is reserved for “prostitutions and thieves,” Li said. “What the two old ladies did is nowhere near that.” He pointed out that Wang is disabled — she’s blind in one eye and can barely see out of the other.
“We are a communist society, with the people the leaders and owners, but basic citizens’ rights cannot even be realized today. How sad it is. The way things are is the opposite of the ‘people-oriented’ ideology of the country when it was founded,” he said.
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