(Clearwisdom.net)
Part 1: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/5/2/60268.html
Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/5/6/60396.html
Part 3: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/5/11/60652.html
The MacRitchie incident, where 15 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested
The MacRitchie Reservoir is a popular attraction in Singapore. This site was frequently used by Singapore Falun Gong practitioners to do group exercises on weekends and holidays for several years. No permit had been required or requested for these activities.
At approximately 6:00 pm on December 31, 2000, about 60 Falun Gong practitioners, including children, came to the practice site as they normally do. They quietly gathered in groups and sat in small circles on the ground to hold a candlelight vigil to memorialize 107 fellow practitioners tortured to death in China by Chinese police. At that time, the family members of a few of these Chinese Falun Gong practitioners were being imprisoned in China due to their practice of Falun Gong. A few practitioners held a board that displayed the photos and names of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death. The practitioners do the exercises every Sunday afternoon there. It is far from residential areas and thus very quiet, and practitioners were not blocking any roads or sidewalks. The timing was also carefully considered to ensure that it did not impede tourists or other visitors.
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The practitioners read the name of 107 tortured to death. Many practitioners were tearful while listening to the names of the innocent victims.
Shortly after they started, police officers arrived. They asked the practitioners to leave the site immediately. In the meantime, officers wanted to take away the above-mentioned display boards, and the practitioners refused to give them up. Practitioners repeatedly explained to the police officers that those boards contain only the pictures and names of victims, not a banner or anything else. Imagine what would happen if a family was honoring their loved ones who were illegally tortured to death, and suddenly a third party came and tried to take away their memorial.
  The photo was taken on the evening of December 31, 2000. The boards show the pictures and names of 107 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured to death. Police forcibly confiscated them and used them as evidence to charge the Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese words on the left side of the board say, "Candlelight Vigil" and on the right-side "Commemorating Fellow Practitioners" |
Meanwhile, three police buses and many police cars arrived. After a few hours of conversation, the police arrested fifteen Falun Gong practitioners. All fifteen were charged. Seven practitioners were sentenced to one month in prison and eight were fined up to $1,000.
  This is the police bus that was used to arrest 15 Falun Gong practitioners |
The media advisory issued by the police department didn't mention why Falun Gong practitioners went there, what they were doing and whether or not it caused a disturbance to the public and the environment, nor why practitioners refused to surrender the boards to the police. Local media reported the news based on the police statement only. As a result, the public in Singapore was not allowed to understand the real situation.
Police seldom interfere with so many "assemblies without a permit" happening daily in Singapore. (According to Singapore law, gatherings of five or more people require a permit.) Why was the police targeting this very quiet, peaceful memorial activity that didn't create any disturbance to the public or the environment?
MacRitchie incident was used by the CCP to persecute Chinese Falun Gong practitioners
The trial of the 15 Falun Gong practitioners over the MacRitchie incident was reported repeatedly by China's official media outlets to deceive the public and "educate" jailed practitioners in China, giving the impression that Singapore was also cracking down on Falun Gong.
Zeng Zheng is currently living in Australia. She was jailed in Beijing's Xin'an Labor Camp (now called Beijing Women's Labor Camp). When the MacRitchie incident occurred, the prison guards organized all of the jailed Falun Gong practitioners to "study" the news report published in the official newspaper. The guards told them that Singapore was cracking down on Falun Gong practitioners and Falun Gong is banned all over the world. This news report had a detrimental effect on the practitioners, as they didn't know the true story behind the incident.
A copy of a news report published by China's official Xinhua News Agency as posted on the Embassy's web site in Singapore is given below.
 This is an article posted on the Chinese Embassy's website in Singapore |
Source: http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=137&pop=1&page=0
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