[Note, this is a delayed report.]
On October 21, 2006, Gao Zhisheng’s daughter Geng Ge (nicknamed Gege) picked up the phone once again to call the outside world for help and tearfully spoke of what has been going on at her home lately. In order to prevent the Chinese Communist regime from further aggravating this 13-year-old girl, human rights and democratic activists in China asked us not to report any more news about Gege.
However, after two weeks of silence, the situation had not improved at all for Mrs. Gao or her children. It deteriorated instead. We feel there’s no alternative other than publicizing the telephone conversation to the world in order to relay Gege’s urgent call for help from human rights and democratic activists in China. [Note: Gege is Geng Ge’s nickname. She uses her mother’s maiden name.]
Gege’s Cry for Help
Since August 15, 2006, Gao Zhisheng’s daughter Geng Ge has been under the Chinese regime’s tight watch.
On October 20, Gege could not bear the house arrest any longer. She escaped to a classmate’s home. This was the second time she escaped from home since August 26. However, the police snatched her from her classmate’s home on the same day and subjected her to even tighter watch.
After two escapes, two months of constant verbal insults from the police living in her home and her repeated calls for help from the international society, this 13-year-old girl is on the verge of a breakdown. She burst into tears and sobbed in front of her class, touching the hearts of many of her classmates.
Since her father Gao Zhisheng was illegally arrested on August 15, 2006, four police officers would take her to school every day. During class, the police would watch her from the classroom’s window. Even during the lunch break, there would be two police officers taking turns watching her closely in order to prevent her from using any of her classmate’s mobile phones to contact anyone.
For the past two-and-a-half months, those classmates who stayed away from her are now repulsed by the treatment Gege is subjected to. Although the Chinese regime told the children at school that her father is a political prisoner who is opposed to the Chinese Communist Party and threatened them to alienate Gege, these children are now siding with Gege.
On October 21, Gege finally sought further help and called Hu Jia, a renowned human rights and democratic activist in China. Hu Jia recorded the brief telephone conversation that lasted only for 50 seconds.
Download the telephone recording in MP3 format (Chinese) http://pkg.dajiyuan.com/ pkg/2006-11-04/1.mp3
Hu Jia: Hello.
Geng Ge: Uncle Hu, some kids in my class helped me to be able to call you. They are acting as my decoy; they took the police (one policeman and three policewomen) to tour the campus. They said they would purposely avoid the place I am hiding. Uncle Hu, I am really trying to go to the U.S. Embassy, but I know it’s impossible for me to make it there. Uncle Hu, those policewomen called me a slut. (Gege broke into tears.)
Hu Jia: Those despicable people!
Geng Ge: The police told everyone they saw that they were “kindhearted people that protect the Chinese people.” They told my classmates not to believe my dad. (Gege continued to sob) Uncle Hu! Uncle Hu! They constantly harass and insult me! I don’t want to go back to school on Monday.”
Hu Jia: I know how you feel. Gege, how did you get away from the police? Are you at school right now?
Geng Ge: Yes. Some of my classmates are helping me. About six of them helped me escape.
Hu Jia: Let me ask you something. Hello? Hello? [The phone was disconnected]
Two weeks later, when Hu Jia received another call from Gege, he heard other children’s voices clearly. The children said, “Hurry! Or the police are going to take the phone again.”
From the children nervously prompting Gege to make the phone call, Hu Jia derived that the police must have confiscated the mobile phones from the kids that had offered Gege their telephones.
Hu Jia said, “Gege is only 13 years old. Presently she has no privacy.”
Mrs. Gao Repeatedly Wanted to Kill Herself
Hu Jia is getting less and less phone calls from Gege. Based on the limited information revealed from Gege, her mother cannot bear the extremely high level of stress and abuse, as well as the house arrest with police having been camping at her home since August 15. She has told the police and her family repeatedly that she might take her own life.
According to Hu Jia, the police have even built a shack downstairs with furniture and a television. Every day, everyone in the Gao Zhisheng household is monitored under intense surveillance. In mid-October, Mrs. Gao told the police that she cannot tolerate it any longer and the only way out is to kill herself.
The Beijing police ordered Mrs. Gao’s mother to leave Beijing and return to Xinjiang Province. The activists in China who heard the news are extremely concerned for Mrs. Gao. If her mother is forced to return to Xinjiang Province, who knows what will become of Mrs. Gao under her current stress level?
Hu Jia’s Urgent Call for Help
Hu Jia has been under the watch of the Chinese Communist regime for 110 days. Despite his personal plight, he is calling for the world’s immediate help: He asks all the people of good conscience to pay attention to Mr. Gao Zhisheng and his family’s plight. He asks all the foreign officials stationed in Beijing to visit Mrs. Gao and her children at their home. He asks the outside world to help relay the appeal for help from this little girl. He asks Mr. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to visit an apartment right next to Beijing’s Olympic Center when he tours Beijing to inspect the Olympic Games facilities. He asks that Mr. Rogge visit Apartment 7, 11 Xiaoguanbeili and see for himself the miserable treatment that Mrs. Gao and her 13-year-old daughter and three-year-old son have been subjected to.
Hu Jia said, “I would like to ask Mr. Rogge to inspect the reality of the country hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. In order to host the Olympic Games and to sustain its rule and legitimacy, the Chinese Communist regime is subjecting countless women and children to inhuman and brutal suppression! The Olympic Games are a symbol of freedom, equality, openness and peace, and it’s going to be held in Beijing which is the antithesis of these values!”
