Sometimes we dissidents were not invited, but received an apology, and sometimes we were invited, but did not accept the invitation so as not to complicate the lives of our courageous diplomat friends. Or we were invited to come at an earlier hour in the hope that we would leave before the official representatives arrived, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.
有时我们这些持不同政见者收到的不是邀请而是致歉、有时我们收到了邀请，但为了不给我们勇敢的外交官朋友带来麻烦，知趣地没有去参加。有时我们被邀请提早出席，希望我们能在官方代表到来之前就提早离开，这种方法有时管用，有时也会发生意外。如果我们没来得及离开，那么或者官方代表看到我们就拂袖而去以示抗议，或者我们狼狈逃窜、或者我们都装着看不见对方，再或者¾虽然这种情况非常罕见¾我们开始相互交谈，这经常是除去我们双方法庭相遇的情况下，政府和反对派之间唯一的对话机会。