07/22/2002 Lin Miao-Jung staff reporter Taiwanese newspaper Taipei Times

Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Shih-meng and ruling DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] politicians called on China to respect human rights and religious freedom on the third anniversary of China's ban on the Falun Gong movement yesterday.

"China should give up such senseless cruelties and stop discrediting the group as a [Jiang's slandering terms omitted]" Chen said. Chen said China's accusations are slanderous because most Falun Gong [practitioners] he knows are good people. Chen made the remarks at a memorial ceremony in Taipei's Ta-an Forest Park for deceased and oppressed Falun Gong [practitioners].

Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners and followers gathered in Taipei last night to light candles and watch artistic performances to observe the third anniversary of the ban of the group in China.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin officially announced the ban of Falun Gong and all information about the group on 20 July, 1999.

The group's worldwide branches held memorial activities simultaneously yesterday.

DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] Taipei City Mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan also participated in the ceremonies. "We can't keep silent while Beijing oppresses Falun Gong, because the concept of human rights and freedom should be applied to every corner of the world," Lee said.

Lee was banned from returning to Taiwan in the late 1980s while he was studying for his PhD in the US because he was on the governing KMT's [Kuomintang] black list. He returned secretly in 1991 but was arrested and jailed for nine months after being in hiding for months.

He said yesterday that Taiwan had moved from darkness to brightness in terms of human rights. "In the past, we were a country which imported the concept of human rights, and from now on, we should export this concept to other countries," he said.

In addition, Vice-President Annette Lu, in a video tape played in the ceremony, said that "religious freedom and human rights cannot be oppressed", adding that, "China cannot walk into the international community if it continues to oppress such groups."

Premier Yu Shyi-kun showed his support with a statement saying that religious freedom is a universal value, which should be a part of daily life.

Chang Ching-hsi, [contact person] of the group's Taiwan branch, said that since 1999, the latest record showed that 438 [practitioners] in China have been tortured to death, thousands of [practitioners] have been forced to go to psychiatric hospitals and take mind-altering drugs, and hundreds of thousands of [practitioners] have been deprived of job opportunities and had their property confiscated by Chinese authorities.

"Every day, torture and persecution takes place all around China. We call for efforts to save those who simply seek to abide by the moral principles of truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," Chang said.

"Falun Gong is a practice that benefits human health. It has absolutely no political purpose, contrary to China's allegations."

The group's practitioners also recited poems, danced, sang and staged plays to protest China's oppression as well as [sent their thoughts] for their fellow practitioners in China on the other side of the strait.

China outlawed Falun Gong in 1999 after an estimated 10,000 followers demonstrated peacefully outside the communist government's leadership compound in Beijing.