(Clearwisdom.net) As the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Commission is about to convene in Geneva, San Francisco Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners and members of "Friends of Charles Lee" rallied in front of Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on March 11. They urged the U.S. Government to condemn China for its persecution of Falun Gong during the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission and requested the Chinese Government to immediately release U.S. citizen Charles Lee, who has been illegally detained in China for more than a year.

Release Charles Lee now Dr. Sherry Zhang giving a speech during the press conference Attorney James Don addressing media

During the rally, Dr. Sherry Zhang, Charles Lee's friend and a researcher at Berkeley National Laboratory, said: "Investigations by international human rights organizations have shown that since Jiang and his followers started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in forced labor camps, prisons and mental hospitals, where they have been subjected to beatings, shocks with electric batons, and injections of dangerous drugs. More than 900 practitioners have been persecuted to death. The human rights of Falun Gong practitioners have been severely violated in China."

When talking about the plight of U.S. citizen Charles Lee, who was illegally arrested and then detained, Sherry Zhang said: While detained in prison, Charles has been beaten, continuously handcuffed for 130 hours, force fed and subjected to brainwashing. Recently, officials from the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai said that Charles had been forced to work gluing shoe soles between last December and this past February. Charles told U.S. officials that the glue smelled terrible and seemed to be toxic. Prolonged exposure to this kind of glue had made him feel very sick. "

Sherry Zhang said that the U.S. has been a model of safeguarding human rights. During the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission, the Bush administration should condemn the Chinese Government's persecution of Falun Gong and request that China immediately release U.S. citizen Charles Lee.

U.S. attorney Dr. James Don also gave a speech at the press conference. He said that he supports human rights, though he is not a Falun Gong practitioner. He therefore is willing to be Charles' voluntary lawyer. He believes that it is improper for the Chinese Government to arrest dissidents, and that he would investigate the alleged abuses of Charles through the International Red Cross. He believes that the U.S. Government should pressure the Chinese Government to release Charles Lee.

Mr. Hui Lu works at the Water Bureau of San Francisco as an Engineer. He said: "According to a report from the International Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong on November 7, 2003, many labor camps have forced detained Falun Gong practitioners to make products with slave labor. For example, 57-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu, who was detained in Lan Zhou First Detention Center was forced to use his mouth and hands to peel a type of melon seeds. Because he didn't finish his assignment, he was beaten to death by inmates who were ordered to do so by detention center leader Lu Jun.

Regarding the recently passed resolution H. Res. 530 which requests the Bush Administration to sponsor and aggressively pursue a resolution condemning China for its Human Rights abuses during the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Commission, a practitioner said the resolution points out that China's human rights record not only didn't improve. but actually got worse during the last year, even though the Bush Administration and the Chinese authorities had signed an agreement to improve human rights. The congress thus requested the Bush Administration to sponsor a resolution condemning China and requesting it to actually improve its human rights record. There are 81 charges against the Chinese Government in the resolution, including its refusal to allow the freedom of speech, belief and assembly, which are widely recognized by the international community, and its continual persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

"During this annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission," the practitioner said, "we are calling on the Bush Administration to condemn China for its human rights abuses and requesting that China end the persecution of Falun Gong."

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Category: Rallies & Protests