Thursday, November 23, 2000

Chinese deaf to Gong plea

Call to free Canuck from jail ignored

Her father detained in a Chinese labour camp and her mother no longer reachable, Lingdi Zhang said she must suffer through the uncertainty in Ottawa or return to China and be arrested.

Like her father, Prof. Kulun Zhang, Lingdi practises Falun Gong, a mental and physical discipline similar to Tai Chi. In 1999, the Chinese government cracked down on the practice, fearing its high number of devotees might become a threat to the Communist Party.

Kulun Zhang was one of thousands arrested under the ban.

Yesterday, Lingdi's desperate pleas for help to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China were ignored, with staff refusing to even accept Zhang's letter while she and about 30 others protested outside.

"I sincerely wish that you urge the Chinese government to immediately release my father Zhang Kulun, who was illegally detained in Jinan of China and was sentenced to three years to labour camp without trial," the letter begins.

Kulun Zhang, a Canadian citizen and professor of art, returned to China in 1996 with his wife to care for his ailing, 90-year-old mother-in-law. In 1999, the 60-year-old man was arrested three times for practising or being associated with Falun Gong.

The last time, on Nov. 15, 1999, he was sentenced to three years in a labour camp, Lingdi says.

Lingdi keeps abreast of the situation via her mother in China. For the last two days, she has tried continuously to reach her mother by phone but no one answers. Lingdi doesn't know where to turn. She fears her father will die before his three-year sentence is over.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of the situation and has reached a ministry in China to determine the exact charges and whether any human rights violations where committed, as the family alleges.

But the Chinese government is usually slow to respond in such matters, said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron. They have to go through various channels to provide the answers requested, he explained.

http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaNews/OS.OS-11-23-0042.html