Vice President of the European Parliament Writes to Ambassador of China Regarding the Illegal Arrest of Falun Practitioner Cao Dong
Cao Dong
(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Cao Dong from Beijing was arrested by State Security agents on May 21, 2006 immediately after meeting with Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament. Mr. McMillan-Scott had come to Beijing to investigate the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. Mr. Cao Dong testified that Falun Dafa practitioners were being cruelly tortured. By the end of September 2006, CCP officials secretly took Mr. Cao Dong to Gansu Province and detained him in the Gansu Province State Security Division Detention Center located in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.
Because the CCP intensified the mistreatment of Cao Dong, Mr. McMillan-Scott wrote to the Chinese EU Ambassador, Guan Chengyuan, and urged him to immediately release Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Cao Dong as well as human rights lawyer Mr. Gao Zhisheng.
On December 18, 2006, Mr. Edward McMillian-Scott wrote a letter again to Mr. Guan Chenyuan regarding the illegal arrest of Falun practitioner Cao Dong. The letter was copied to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Parliament. Mr. Edward McMillian-Scott said in the letter: "all those involved in the persecution of human rights defenders and other categories in China are now identified for future trials under the International Criminal Court." Below is the text of the letter.
European Parliament
Edward McMillan-Scott
Vice President
Mr Guan Chengyuan
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China
Avenue de Tervuren 443-445
1150 Brussels
Belgium
Brussels, 18 December 2006
Hand-delivered to the Chinese Embassy, Brussels
Ambassador,
I have received your letter of 24 November 2006, which was occasioned by my appeal on behalf of two individuals, one of whom, a former prisoner, I met while in Beijing on 21 May 2006 - Cao Dong - and the other a distinguished human rights attorney - Gao Zhisheng - with whom I spoke at some length upon my return to Europe in June 2006. Both of these men were subsequently arrested and Gao Zhisheng has recently been secretly tried and imprisoned.
I also received on 28 November 2006 a deputation of officials from your embassy led by Mr. Yu Xuzhong. The deputation confirmed that Mr. Cao Dong had been re-arrested for 'propagating Falun Gong' on 21 May immediately after meeting with me.
Consequently, his 'crime' was meeting the Vice-President of the European Parliament and that institution's rapporteur for democracy and human rights and not for any other crime, for which in any event he had served four years in one of your jails.
As to the other case referred to, namely that of Gao Zhisheng, please note my reference to this case in the European Parliament on December 14:
Edward McMillan-Scott (PPE-DE). - Mr. President, I received this information too late to add it to the resolution. Mr. Gao Zhisheng, a distinguished human rights attorney in Beijing who was arrested in August, has been tried secretly this week and imprisoned. I am sure the House would wish to express its regret that news, part of a continued crackdown on human rights activists in China.
Subsequently, a number of colleagues congratulated me on my intervention. My inference from the so-called secret trial is that the officials involved have taken note of my repeated wording that all those involved in the persecution of human rights defenders and other categories in China are now being identified for future trials under the International Criminal Court.
In light of the fact that these actions have been taken as a result of contacts with me, I am accordingly copying this letter to the President of the European Commission and to the President of the European Parliament.
Edward McMillan-Scott (signature)