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Falun Gong is freely practiced in at least 57 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 the FGMtv Weekly News Review on August 13th, 2002
I'm Susan Mitchell,
and I'm David Tompkins.
á
The number of Falun Gong practitioners in China verified to have died as a result of mistreatment by Jiang Zemin's regime is 450. However, sources in China put the actual number in the thousands.
A member of the British House of Lords urges the Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to drop all charges against 16 Falun Gong practitioners.
And some of our other stories:
- Over one thousand female Falun Dafa practitioners are still being held in Masanjia forced labour camp
- Cambodia violates the UN Geneva Convention by deporting 2 Falun Gong Chinese holding UN refugee certificates back to China
- Visitors to Singapore's largest consumer fair are introduced to Falun Dafa
- Jiang's regime manufactures more propaganda in the wake of US Concurrent Resolution 188
- New Zealand government turns down a Chinese embassy request to cancel a Falun Dafa art exhibit
First, our top story:
- In Hong Kong sixteen Falun Gong practitioners including four Swiss citizens are being persecuted for alleged obstruction. They were peacefully protesting about the right of Chinese citizens to practice Falun Gong without persecution at home and abroad, and without being tortured and murdered at home, in pursuance of president Jiang Zemin's policy of torture and murder. The prosecution is a disgraceful and rather pathetic attempt of the Chinese authorities to make life difficult for the Falun Gong in Hong Kong without actually banning it, and to warn foreigners that they should not practice it.
- The Hong Kong magistrates have a choice, and nobody can pretend it is an easy one. If they acquit the practitioners they will be acting justly but incurring the danger that their careers may be affected by the displeasure of the Beijing government.
- If they convict, they will perhaps help their careers in the short term, but given the manifest unfairness of the charges and of the whole campaign against Falun Gong they will do their reputation no good when the policy of the government is reversed, as at some time it will be.
- They could perhaps make private representation to the effect that the "one country, two systems" approach to Hong Kong question is to the advantage of Beijing in many ways, and that a "not guilty" verdict in this comparatively small affair would help to show it is genuine.
- A guilty verdict, however, would show that there is really only one system, not two, and that system is a barefaced tyranny.
Over one thousand female Falun Dafa Practitioners are still detained in the Second Women's Facility in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp
- At present, the second women's facility of the Forced Masanjia Labor Camp is still detaining over one thousand female Falun Dafa practitioners.
- Under the Jiang regime's acts of state terrorism, more and more practitioners have been kidnapped.
- Therefore, a large four-story building built in November 2001 has already been filled to capacity. Right now, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp would rather detain four people by merging two beds in one room than release these illegally detained practitioners who steadfastly insist in their spiritual belief.
- A number of very determined practitioners were locked in solitary confinement "small cells" on the east side of the first story of the building.
- Among practitioners who were detained in these cells, some were persecuted until they suffered from mental collapse. Doctors in the Second Women's facility injected them daily with narcotics, an abuse of medicine that has been condemned by the international group, "Physicians for Human Rights."
Practitioners who persisted in practicing exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts were also sent into these cells.
Cambodia violates the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
- On August 12, the Falun Dafa Information Center (the FDI) in New York advised that sources in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, report that under pressure from the Chinese Embassy there, a Chinese couple who practise Falun Gong and who held official United Nations Refugee Certificates, have been deported back to China. Mr. Guojun Li and his wife, Xinyi Zhang are being held in a detention center in their home city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Their condition is unknown.
- FDI spokesperson Erping Zhang said, "This is a blatant and direct violation of their official status as UN refugees. We call on the UN to take immediate action to protect those to whom it has granted refugee status. At this very moment, this couple could be facing severe torture of worse, simply because of their beliefs. This is precisely the situation the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established to prevent. Immediate action is necessary."
Moving now to Singapore...
- From July 31 to August 4, 2002, Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the country's biggest consumer fair. It was estimated that about 300,000 people would attend.
- A booth was rented to sell Dafa books and to hand out truth-clarifying literature and materials.
- Thousands of visitors and many Singaporeans and Chinese people took advantage of the opportunity to resolve their questions about the practice of Falun Dafa.
More propaganda in China:
- In spite of the fact that the members of the United States House of Representatives unanimously passed Concurrent Resolution 188, drafted by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and co-sponsored by 100 members of Congress, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Mr. Kong Quan, commented that this "anti China" resolution was supported by "an extremely small number of Congressional members."
- Through this dissemination of misleading information, Jiang's regime has deceived its citizens while at the same time tapping into the emotion of Chinese nationalism.
- The so-called 'Western anti-China force" is a ploy created by the Jiang regime. By
regularly appealing to people's nationalism and the blind sentiments to their country, he hopes no
one will pay attention to the
cruel persecution, the killing of good citizens, and to the large scale plundering and corruption.
Scottish practitioners win first prize in the annual Cavalcade parade in Edinburgh...
- Falun Dafa fan dancers were rewarded with a front page photograph in Scotland's biggest daily newspaper, The Scotsman after they won first prize in the annual Cavalcade parade on August 4th. The famous annual Art Festival Parade drew crowds of almost 200,000.
Persecution statistics...
- During July of this year 23 more deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in
China as a result of mistreatment were reported, as well as a
practitioner's family member who died after the police hung him upside down for several days. - The victims were from 24 cities and towns in ten provinces, including Hubei, Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, Gansu, Hunan, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Guizhou. Four deaths were even reported in one day!
- Risking arrest and even their lives, Chinese practitioners have managed to break through the blockade of information concerning these deaths in order to pass it on to practitioners in the west.
- Fourteen men and nine women made up the total of 23 who were persecuted to death. Their ages ranged from 30 to 60.
- Among them were peasants, laborers, officials, highly educated young men, and a Taoist monk. They were good, kind people in the eyes of their neighbors, colleagues, and relatives.
- They were killed by Jiang's regime simply for believing in Falun Gong and clarifying the truth to people.
More press conferences and peaceful appeals in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world to support those on trial in Hong Kong:
in Sydney and in Melbourne, Australia,
Gothenburg, Sweden
Moscow, Russia
and Tokyo
Chinese Embassy in New Zealand once again tries to interfere in activities there:
- According to an August 9th report in the New Zealand Herald, Chinese Embassy complaints to the Speaker's Office about a Falun Gong art exhibition have fallen on deaf ears.
- The embassy objected to a one-day exhibition of paintings in Parliament by an artist who belongs to the spiritual movement, which is banned in China.
- The exhibition, sponsored by Green MP Keith Locke, included information about Falun Gong, and was displayed on the ground floor of the Beehive August 8th.
- Speaker Jonathan Hunt said the second secretary at the Chinese Embassy had expressed disapproval. But Mr Hunt said he had given the go-ahead as New Zealand was a democratic country and different points of view were entitled to be aired.
And now to Japan...
- The Niigata Daily reported on July 22 that Falun Gong practitioners were beginning a 130 km walk to call for support in rescuing Yuko Kaneko, the wife of a Japanese citizen, who was arrested in Tiananmen Square earlier this year.
- Ms. Kaneko is a 37 year old Chinese citizen and Falun Gong practitioner who went to Beijing to protest the persecution of the Falun Gong Movement by the Jiang regime.
- The report said that the rescue walk would visit the Niigata City government and the Niitu City government on the first day, and that that the walkers would also visit Nagaoka City, Sanzyou City, and other cities, districts, and villages.
- They planned to reach out to a total of ten different government departments and end their walk on July 28.
Natural disasters continue to plague China...
- Voice of America reported on July 30 that unusually severe flooding in the province of Xinjiang, in Northwest China, has affected fifteen counties.
- The Xinjiang region is usually dry, and rainstorms are rare. The region
mainly depends on the melting of ice, snow and glaciers for water;
therefore there are few facilities to prevent flooding. Currently the water levels of twenty rivers in the region have passed their flood-warning levels, and seven are at their highest in recorded history. - Many areas in China have suffered unusual floods this summer. About 800 people have died. The affected population in the disaster area has reached 100 million, and the flooding has caused direct economic loss of at least 200 million dollars.
and finally...
Touching the hearts of passersby in front of the Chinese embassy in London, England.
Since July 20 of this year, UK practitioners have displayed a poster with the following pictures and words:
Sit by my side
Closing your eyes
Together in silence
We call for
The end of torturing
The end of killing
The end of the persecution
Compassion grows in our hearts
Together in silence
Our wishes can make a difference
After reading this poster and other materials of truth-clarification, many people passing by have signed our petition form to support our peaceful appeals and stood or sat silently. There have been many touching stories.
for instance...
Last Sunday, the weather changed all the time between being sunny and raining heavily. A Caucasian man, over 50, well dressed, stopped in front of the poster. While the practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts in a heavy rain, he sat down next to us. Although he had an umbrella in his hand, his clothes were soaked quickly. Since the heavy rain came down all of a sudden, the water could not drain away quickly and almost reached the level of the pavement. He carried on and still did not stand up. After a while, his trousers became completely soaked, so he stood up. He then stood together with practitioners in silence. He spent about an hour with the practitioners there. Before he shook hands with practitioners to say good-bye, he told them that he is a Quaker and is very sympathetic to Falun Gong practitioners and against the persecution.
On the same day, a middle-aged woman and a young man also joined the practitioners' peaceful
appeal. Instead of sitting down, they knelt down and prayed.
Thanks for watching FGMtv, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.
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