June 16, 2000
á
Excerptá
Professional
news
APA
Committee Calls for Investigation Of Chinese Psychiatric Abuses
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The media
and human rights groups have reported on recent psychiatric abuses of
Falun Gong practitioners in China by the government. An APA committee
wants the World Psychiatric Association to investigate the matter.
APA's Committee on the Abuse of
Psychiatry and Psychiatrists passed a resolution last month at APA's
annual meeting in Chicago recommending that the World Psychiatric
Association (WPA) investigate the alleged wrongful detention of Falun Gong
practitioners in psychiatric hospitals.á
The resolution will be reviewed by
the Council on Professional Values and Human Dignity at the fall component
meetings, according to committee member Abraham Halpern, M.D.á
The resolution is the latest step
by APA members to draw attention to alleged psychiatric abuses of some
Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is
described by practitioners as a meditative discipline that benefits the
mind, body, and spirit. Falun Gong's appeal has spread to numerous
countries including the United States. Practitioners assert that it is not
a religion or an organization.á
The Chinese government, however,
declared last July that Falun Gong is a religious cult and outlawed the
practice. Since then, an estimated 35,000 Falun Gong practitioners were
arrested, and 5,000 were sent to labor camps without trials, according to
Erping Zhang, a Falun Gong spokesperson who testified in March before the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.á
A 1999-2000 report on human rights
violations compiled by Falun Gong practitioners documents more than 200
arrests, detentions in mental hospitals, and forced injections of harmful
drugs.á
Halpern commented to Psychiatric
News that the Chinese government wants to discredit Falun Gong
practitioners by labeling them as mentally ill and dangerous. He said that
reporters for the New York Times in China have interviewed practitioners
detained in psychiatric hospitals who confirmed the abuse of psychiatry.á
Halpern also wrote WPA Secretary
General Juan Mezzich, M.D., in February asking the WPA to investigate
allegations of forced detentions of Falun Gong practitioners in
psychiatric hospitals. Mezzich told Halpern last month that he had
forwarded the letter to WPA's executive committee for action.á
Halpern also wrote to Allan
Tasman, M.D., who was then APA president, and Jeffrey Geller, M.D., who
was then chair of APA's Council on International Affairs, suggesting they
raise concerns about alleged mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners at
the second annual Sino-American meeting in Beijing in April.á
APA members and Falun Gong
practitioners Sunny Lu, M.D., and Viviana Galli, M.D., also wrote to
Tasman and Mezzich in February asking them to express concerns about their
Chinese colleagues' actions.á
Galli and Lu attended the
Sino-American meeting in Beijing and participated in an informal
discussion with Chinese psychiatrists about alleged abuses of Falun Gong
practitioners, as did Tasman, Geller, APA Trustee Herbert Peyser, M.D.,
and Jose de La Gandara, M.D., chair of APA's Committee on the Abuse of
Psychiatry and Psychiatrists.á
áInformation on the practice of Falun Gong and reports of alleged human rights violations are on the Web at <www.minghui.ca/eng.html>
á
(
http://www.psych.org/pnews/00-06-16/chinese.htmlá)
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