CHINA CRISIS NEWS
BULLETIN #51áááá
7/20/2000
Monitoring
News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
SPECIAL EDITION
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
- MEDIA ALERT:
- TIANANMEN UPDATE:
OVER 1,000 DETAINED IN WEEK LEADING UP TO ANNIVERSARY
- CHINA ADMITS
YEAR-LONG CAMPAIGN HAS FAILED TO WIPE OUT FALUN GONG; PLEDGES TO CRACK
DOWN WITH A "FIRM HAND"
- TWO MORE FALUN GONG MEMBERS DIE IN CHINA CUSTODY
PRESS CONFERENCE THURSDAY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Falun Gong practitioners will hold a press briefing and premiere a new video "Falun Gong: The Real Story (Part 2)," with Falun Gong spokespersons, Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman of the Board of Freedom House, Rabbi David Saperstein, Chairman of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and T.Kumar of Amnesty International.AND A VIGIL SET AT THE D.C. EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
On the same day, several hundred Falun Gong practitioners will gather in front of the Chinese Embassy to deliver a letter calling for a peaceful dialogue to end the brutal persecution. Candlelight vigil ceremonies will be held to commemorate those who were tortured to death for refusing to renounce their spiritual beliefs.| SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES Group practice, appeal and peaceful vigil in front of Chinese Embassy. When: July 20, 10:30am to 10:00pm Where: 2300 Connecticut Ave. NW Washington, DC Press briefing and video screening. When: July 20, 4:00pm to 5:00pm Where: Washington Hilton - Conservatory Room, 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW. Washington D.C. For more information, please contact: Email at: USInfo@FalunDafa.org |
TIANANMEN: OVER 1,000 DETAINED IN WEEK LEADING UP TO ANNIVERSARY
BEIJING (AP) July 19 - Scores of Falun Gong followers raised banners in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday in a burst of protest that provoked a frenzied police response and proved the sect remains a force in China a year after being outlawed. Police swarmed over groups of followers - middle-aged women and children among them - wresting away banners and knocking protesters to the ground. A uniformed officer locked his arms around a woman's neck, pulling her away. Others were dragged along the ground by their arms or clothes. All told, police detained more than 100 group members in a 10-minute explosion of seemingly coordinated protests across the vast plaza in central Beijing. Police immediately cleared the square, slightly earlier than scheduled for a midmorning visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. That the protests happened, and in such numbers, showed the popular spiritual movement's resilience despite a year of persecution and a police force on alert for demonstrations this week - the anniversary of the crackdown against the group Followers have streamed into Beijing this month for protests, and police have picked up at least 200 practitioners from Tiananmen Square every day for the past week, said a Communist Party official involved insecurity work. Chinese leaders have ordered police in Beijing and other cities to watch airports and railroad and bus stations to prevent followers from reaching the capital, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Names of practitioners have been distributed to local police stations, the official said. He added that followers who have renounced their ties have been put under surveillance, while those who refused have been detained in police stations. "Still some have slipped through our net," the official said. The government has called Falun Gong an unprecedented threat to communist rule.CHINA STEPS UP WAR OF WORDS IN STRIDENT PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN, ADMITS CRACKDOWN HAS FAILED TO "WIPE OUT" FALUN GONG
BEIJING (AP) July 18 -- Anticipating protests by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, China renewed attacks on the group Monday, calling the sect's founder "a running dog" of foreign powers who was inciting followers to resist the government. A commentary in the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper carried some of the harshest invective in recent months in a year-old smear campaign against Falun Gong.BEIJING (AP) July 19 -- China's leaders are settling in for a prolonged struggle against the banned Falun Gong sect, acknowledging in an official editorial that a year of arrests, harassment and political campaigns have failed to wipe out the group. Hours after the statement, as the anniversary of a government crackdown on the Falun Gong arrived Thursday, police dispersed scores of protesters and detained more than 90 of them in Tiananmen Square. Thursday's display showed that one of China's biggest political campaigns in years may have thinned the resilient group's ranks but has failed to wipe the movement The group's resilience was grudgingly acknowledged in an editorial to be published Thursday in the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily. Excerpts were carried Wednesday on the official Xinhua News Agency "The fight against Falun Gong will be a 'long-lasting, complicated and acute struggle,' it said, and pledged to crack down on members with a 'firm hand.'
TWO MORE FALUN GONG MEMBERS DIE IN CHINA CUSTODY
BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) - Two members of the Falun Gong spiritual group died in police custody this month, bringing to 24 the number of deaths from abuse since China outlawed the group last year, a Hong Kong human rights group said on Wednesday The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said it had confirmed with relatives or fellow adherents the July 7 beating death of 44-year-old Li Zaiji and the July 12 death by apparent suffocation of 68-year-old Wang Peisheng Police told relatives of Li, who came from the northeastern province of Jilin, he had perished because of dysentery in a labour camp, but his body was covered with bruises, the centre said Shandong resident Wang's death certificate said only "sudden death," but fellow Falun Gong members in the eastern province surmised he suffocated in a densely packed cell in stifling heat, it said.For more detailed information on the crackdown, visit www.faluninfo.net.
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
