Script:

Falun Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries around the world, but relentlessly persecuted in China. The peaceful courage of practitioners there has shocked their oppressors and moved the people of the world. While China continues to block all information, FGMtv brings you the stories you may not hear anywhere else.

Hello, and welcome to FGMtv on May 28th, 2002

I'm Susan Mitchell.

In this week's update from China...

• The number of Falun Gong practitioners verified to have died while in detention is 415. However, reliable sources inside China put the actual death count at more than 1,700. One government source advised that 40 were killed in April alone.

Our top story this week:

• China's Nanguan District Court in the city of Changchun becomes a public torture chamber instead of a noble place of justice

Some of the other stories we're following:

• New York's China Press and Sing Tao Daily newspapers are served with a libel suit by Falun Gong practitioners
• 3 practitioners from Japan are detained in China
• The Falun Dafa boat sails in the Ottawa Tulip Festival flotilla, despite pressure from the Chinese Embassy to keep it out
• Accounts of the persecution inside China from family members of those who have been tortured

and finally...

• Photographs and reports of World Falun Dafa Day celebrations continue to pour in from many different countries

Our top story: Inside China's Nanguan District Court in Changchun City

• According to eye witness accounts, on March 6th, officials held a show "trial" to sentence Dafa practitioners.
• More than 100 police cars and officers filled the courtyard and military police crowded around as if facing a dangerous enemy.
• Fewer than ten family members were allowed to attend, while the rest of the building was filled with plainclothes and uniformed police carrying electric batons.
• When answering questions, if practitioners tried to defend either their teacher or themselves, they were pulled outside, beaten -- sometimes by three or four police at a time, and shocked with electric batons. Police kicked over the chairs and the court was in disarray.
• Practitioner Mr. Yan Luu was beaten so badly that he couldn't walk, and Ms. Shuqin Zhang was almost strangled by police.
• At one point, the Judge had to call a break because too many practitioners had been beaten and none could testify.
• The so-called "witness statements" read in court were actually written by police, and since the practitioners were in such bad physical shape from the beatings, police held their hands to make them sign their names to the false statements.
• This is the state of the courts in China today.

Two New York Chinese-language newspapers sued by Falun Gong...

• On May 23, 2002, the Falun Dafa Information Center in New York advised that 72 residents of New York City, together with the non-profit organization Friends of Falun Gong, have filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court.
• They are seeking an end to the hate and slander put forth by the New York-area Chinese language newspapers, China Press and Sing Tao Daily.
• Practitioners displayed posters at the press conference they held in front of the China Press office in Midtown Manhattan, and
• Attorney Sheldon Leffler speaks about the lawsuit he filed on their behalf.
• Earlier this year a similar case was filed in Montreal against Les Presses Chinoises newspaper, bringing charges of libel, slander, negligence and incitement of hatred.
• Quebec Superior Court handed down an injunction against Les Presses Chinoises for the publication of defamatory articles and later served the newspaper with contempt of court charges after it failed to comply with the court order.

Three Falun Gong members from Japan arrested in China...

• Reporting from Beijing on May 25th, Agence France Press said that three members of the Falun Gong spiritual group from Japan had gone missing and were feared arrested in Beijing.
• The two of Japanese origin have now been released, but whereabouts of the third woman, Yoko Kaneko is still unknown.
• Her husband, Atsushi Kaneko, a 46-year-old Japanese businessman who is also a Falun Gong member, told a news conference in Tokyo "We are trying to get any information about her through the Japanese foreign ministry, but we still don't know if she is dead or alive. "I am determined to do whatever I can do for her release," he said, adding that he would keep requesting the Japanese government to press the Chinese authorities to release her as soon as possible.
• Yoko, a Chinese citizen, whose Chinese name is Luo Rong, immigrated to Japan in 1999 and is a permanent resident of Japan. The couple married in 1998.
• Yoko Horie, 31, who was expelled from China to Japan at the weekend after being detained together with Kaneko, expressed fears for her safety and alleged she herself suffered brutal treatment at the hands of the police.
• "Chinese police trod on my face," Horie told the conference, pointing to bruises on her cheek and later displaying a T-shirt spotted with her blood, which she said was stained during her arrest.
• "Since the police treated a Japanese citizen like that, I can't imagine what their treatment of her could be."

The Falun Dafa boat sails once again in Ottawa's annual Tulip Festival...

• On May 19th, eight Falun Dafa practitioners from Ottawa and Montreal sailed in the Canadian Tulip Festival's annual flotilla along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.

Once again, an attempted obstruction by the Chinese Embassy in Canada ended in failure!

Inside reports of the persecution in China...

• Family and friends of three female practitioners of Falun Dafa report that, Jinxin Yang, Guifang Lu, and Yuhua Zhang, were arrested on the morning of April 25, in Tiananmen Square for appealing for Falun Dafa.
• At the Tiananmen police branch, they were forcefully stripped by policewomen.
• Then, they were separated and each beaten and tortured for more than 5 hours.
• Policemen inserted chalk or chopsticks in between their fingers, and then squeezed their fingers until the chalk was crushed and the chopsticks were broken.
• The police also poured hot water on Jinxin Yang, and she lost consciousness twice during the torture.
• We ask: When police do such cruel and inhumane things to peaceful and law-abiding people, isn't the stability of Chinese society undermined?
• Also reported by practitioners, Mr. Longbao Wu, a farmer from Qingling Township, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province, was killed several days ago inside a detention center in Shuangcheng City.
• To protest their illegal detention, several practitioners, including Wu, had gone on a hunger strike.
• After a session where he was force-fed, Wu went into a coma and was carried back to his cell.
• He passed away later in the day.

Photographs continue to pour in from World Falun Dafa Day celebrations some from many countries we don't often hear from:

• In China, where Falun Dafa was first introduced to the public in 1992, practitioners were still able to hang beautiful banners in many public places, such as these from Hebei Province.
• And on the other side of the world where the practice is celebrated, passersby on the streets of New York were treated to a traditional lion dance, beauties in flowing Tang Dynasty costumes, and other traditional Chinese dances.
• On May 15, 2002, the government of Biskopsgarden District, Gothenburg proclaimed the first "Falun Dafa Day" in Sweden.
• Finnish practitioners held their first Falun Dafa Day in Helsinki
• In Brussels, the practitioners from Belgium displayed large banners
• and handed out small flyers!
• In Latvia, there was a solemn candlelight vigil to commemorate practitioners who had died during the persecution in China, as well as a chance for the local children to learn the Falun Gong exercises
• On May 13, dozens of Israeli Dafa practitioners started practicing Dafa beside the road leading to the University of Tel a Viv and clarified the truth. With large banners reading "The World Needs Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" and "Falun Dafa Is Good," they unveiled the celebration of World Falun Dafa Day in Israel.
• Dutch practitioners celebrated in Amsterdam
• Participants in the annual "News Journal" Walking Race, which is the most popular mass event in Singapore, enjoy watching the Falun Gong exercises as they pass by practitioners there
• The Mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina proclaims "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance Week" in his city
• Taiwan's Sun-Moon Lake witnesses a large colorful ceremony and garden party
• A movable lotus and a very young meditator in St. Paul, Minnesota!
• And an international crowd of over 2,000 gathered in front of Ontario's Legislative Building in Toronto after their parade to send a happy birthday video wish to Master Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa.

And this report arrived from China:

• At 8:00 a.m. on May 19th, (it was April 8 according to the Chinese lunar calendar), Dafa practitioners in a city of Northeastern China went to the large square in front of the City government building.
• They released 2 gigantic balloons to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Falun Dafa's introduction to the public. The two colorful balloons were two meters in diameter and had huge yellow silk banners attached, which were 1.5 meters wide and 13 meters long.
• Red characters on the yellow silk background said, "Teacher! We Practitioners Send Our Regards to You," and "Celebrating May 13 World Falun Dafa Day".
• The balloons ascended in the breeze and the banners were unfurled. More and more people gathered around and they all knew that May 13 was World Falun Dafa Day.
• Even the policemen who came there after hearing the news acknowledged this with understanding smiles."
• At about 2:00 p.m. on the same day, Dafa practitioners also placed a loudspeaker on the floor just beneath the "610 Office." [This is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems]
• For more than 20 minutes, practitioners broadcast programs telling the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. In their report, they advised that evil elements amongst the authorities were very shocked and frightened.

Thanks for watching FGMtv, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.