FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contact: GailáRachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-337-5877, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507, or Feng Yuan 646-523-5676. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, website: http://www.faluninfo.net

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• U.S. STATE DEPT: WOMEN SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN LABOR CAMP VICTIMS
• CHINESE DIPLOMATS INTERFERING WITH FALUN GONG OVERSEAS
• EXPRESSING SOLIDARITY ACROSS U.S. & CANADA WITH WALKS & SIT-INS

US STATE DEPT. CALLS REPORTS OF TORTURE IN LABOR CAMP "CHILLING"

July 9 (FDI) State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said in a July 5 press release that the United States is "deeply disturbed" by reports that Chinese authorities have intensified their harsh repression of Falun Gong practitioners, and called the deaths of more than a dozen of these practitioners in a Chinese labor camp June 20 "particularly troublesome." Boucher said: "We call on China to respect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to allow all persons to practice their religious faiths freely, and to end the cycle of repression on the Falun Gong. In particular, we call on China to release from the so-called "re-education through labor camps" practitioners of Falun Gong and others held for exercising their fundamental human rights. The Chinese Government has claimed a mass suicide among Falun Gong practitioners in some of the camps. Others insist the deaths were caused by torture and mistreatment. The point is that these people should never have been incarcerated in such camps in the first place. We also call on China, on an urgent basis, to allow unrestricted visits to these camps by the International Red Cross and other impartial international bodies to look into the treatment prisoners receive."

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TAKES A STAND FOR FREEDOMS IN CHINA

July 7, 2001 (South China Morning Post) The European Parliament has joined the chorus of voices protesting against Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. At a plenary session on Thursday, the Parliament said it would be inappropriate to stage the world's greatest sports event in Beijing because China "openly violates human, civil and political rights"...

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CHINESE DIPLOMATS ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE FALUN GONG ABROAD

Hong Kong, July 9, 2001 (AP) Chinese diplomats are seeking to discredit the [group] and undermine its image in the United States, Australia and other countries by pressing public officials not to have dealings with the group or allow its participation in local activities... Beijing's attempts to use diplomatic pressure to silence Falun Gong have enraged members and government officials in the United States. Stan Bogosian, the former mayor of Saratoga said that a few days after he signed a proclamation late last year declaring a week in honor of Falun Gong, two officials from the Chinese consulate urged him to rescind it. When he refused, Bogosian said, the Chinese asked him to remain neutral on the issue and asked about his stance on Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Angered, Bogosian called a news conference to denounce the Chinese government for "highly irregular" actions. "The Chinese government should not be interfering in the political process," Bogosian said... At least a dozen other mayors from cities in California, Illinois, Washington, Maryland and Michigan have reported pressure from Chinese officials who often pointedly mention the importance of U.S.-Chinese trade. "The whole thing sounded like a propaganda pitch to me," said Tod Satterthwaite, mayor of Urbana, Ill., who ignored the Chinese demands. Others have yielded. In 1999, mayors in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Baltimore -- all important shipping centers -- revoked proclamations honoring Falun Gong. Falun Gong adherents in Australia say Chinese officials have sent [slanderous] letters to civic leaders. ... The Australian government said the Chinese Embassy had denied sending the letters.

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WALKING, BIKING, DRIVING, SITTING ALL TO SEND URGENT S.O.S. MESSAGE

International Campaign to Rescue Falun Gong practitioners Persecuted in China

• Walk to DC: Falun Gong practitioners from all across the United States have set off on a symbolic journey to Washington, D.C. Practitioners in China often cannot risk taking trains or buses when attempting to travel to Beijing and must travel long distances on foot or bicycle to have a brief chance to appeal to their government in Tiananmen Square. The journey in the U.S. is part of the "SOS! Urgent Call to Rescue Falun Gong Practitioners Being Persecuted in China" campaign. One group has already traveled hundreds of miles from Boston on foot and has now joined a team from the New York region. The walkers range from high school students to gray-haired elderly women, and include those who have had first-hand experience of being detained in Chinese labor camps for their faith. Others have begun their walk from Birmingham, one group is biking from Orlando, and other groups have begun driving vans for the cross-country trip from California. The Boston group reports that it can now average 22 miles a day despite the heat, thunderstorms, and blisters. The Florida group will travel about 60 miles a day by bicycle, covering a total of almost 1,000 miles in order to arrive for a gathering in the nation's capital on July 19^th and 20^th. The events in D.C. will mark the two-year anniversary of the persecution against Falun Gong in China. For more information, visit www.walktodc.org and www.fofg.org.

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WOMAN TELLS OF BRAINWASHING IN MASANJIA LABOR "REEDUCATION" CAMP

NEWS FROM CHINA: "I never anticipated that I would spend time in a labor camp...", reports a woman abused in China for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Her name was withheld to protect her identity. "Since the first day I arrived, I have been deprived of adequate sleep due to long hours of brainwashing activities. The brainwashing activities were prolonged up to 11pm, 12am, 2am, or 3am. Physical abuse is the primary part of the brainwashing activities. ... I suffered this way for 40 days. Since all these tortures failed to brainwash me, ... they intensified the tortures against me in the following week by performing all kinds of physical abuse day and night. One guard would use needles to stab me, or beat my hands with willow branches if I couldn't hold the position the way he wanted. My hands became swollen like bear paws. He tied my hands behind my back, wrapped my head with an overcoat, stomped on my head and feet, and stuffed my mouth with something to prevent me from crying out loud. He also repeatedly hit my head against the wall. My head was injured so badly that blood and sweat stained the wall. I felt that my skull was fractured, then my body trembled. I felt dizzy and collapsed. Due to the repeated beatings from the wooden sticks, my right eye was almost blind. There was a fracture about the size of a thumbnail on the back of my head. My body became stiff because it was swollen black and blue all over. I could hardly move my limbs. They still would not allow me to sleep but kept physically abusing me, even though I had all these bruises.... Once when I fainted at midnight, the guard threw me into a garbage can in the bathroom and then splashed cold water all over my body to wake me up. My wet clothes were dried with my own body heat as I shivered in the hallway in the cold December weather..." (More reports from China at www.faluninfo.net)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER Contacts: GailáRachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-337-5877, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507, or Feng Yuan 646-523-5676. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, website: http://www.faluninfo.net

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