November 13, 2004 Saturday

VANCOUVER - Human rights activists and Falun Gong practitioners called on the federal government Friday to prosecute former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin for alleged crimes against humanity.

Activists announced Friday they had asked federal Attorney General Irwin Cotler to prosecute Jiang himself, after seeking permission for a private prosecution earlier this year.

"There are more than 1,100 documented cases of people who have been murdered while incarcerated or tortured," Victoria lawyer Clive Ansley said of the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

"It is all part of the program ordered by Jiang Zemin," Ansley told a Vancouver press conference.

Winnipeg lawyer and Canadian Rights and Democracy director David Matas said Canada can prosecute crimes against humanity that occur outside the country when a Canadian citizen is involved.

And Matas, who has represented Falun Gong practitioners and human rights advocates in dealings with the federal government, said Kunlun Zhang, a Canadian professor, was victimized by Chinese officials during a visit to that country to care for his aging mother-in-law.

"He was arrested, arbitrarily detained and tortured, because he was a member of Falun Gong," Matas said. "This gives the Canadian government the power to do something about it in the Canadian legal system."

Jiang outlawed the Falun Gong in 1999. Practitioners meditate and perform exercises said to be beneficial to the health.

Falun Gong practitioners in 22 different countries have filed civil suits against Jiang for alleged illegal detention, torture and murder, amongst other human rights abuses.

As the chair of the Communist Party, Zemin ordered the creation of a special department in 1999 to prosecute members of the Falun Gong.

Falun Gong practitioners and human rights advocates such as Amnesty International say the Chinese government has embarked on a campaign of human rights abuses against the Falun Gong.

Kunlun Zhang said he was arrested and sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp when he visited his mother in June 2000.

"They put a high voltage electric baton under my mouth and said they would put it in my mouth when they opened it," said Zhang, a professor at Montreal's McGill University.

Zhang said he was sentenced to three years in the camp, but was released after about nine months after intervention from the Canadian government, including then prime minister Jean Chretien.

Chinese embassy officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

A spokesman for Cotler said the attorney-general is supportive of Canada doing whatever is possible to protect human rights, but said it was not possible for either the department or the RCMP to comment on ongoing investigations.

"The minister is on the record as saying Canada will not be a safe haven for individuals involved in crimes against humanity or war crimes," spokeswoman Denise Rudnicki said.

Cotler wrote Falun Dafa Association of Canada president Shawn Xun Li in September thanking her for expressing her concerns to department officials.

He acknowledged correspondence received and a meeting of department officials with Falun Gong representatives, but did not commit Canada to either prosecuting Zemin or allowing a private prosecution.

Matas said the Canadian government has an obligation to prosecute, "or at the very least to allow Kunlun Zhang to prosecute his own torture."