JULY
20, 2000
á
One year ago this week, the
government of China declared the practice of Falun Gong to be illegal. The
campaign of ruthless suppression against Falun Gong practitioners began
with midnight arrests. Tens of thousands have been arrested and detained
since then, including several American citizens and citizens of other
nations. In Beijing alone, 35,000 arrests were made during the period from
July to October 1999, as confirmed in a speech by Vice Premier Li Langing.
In June of this year, more than 1200 practitioners were arrested in nine
provinces when they began doing Falun Gongs gentle exercises in public.á
While
being arrested, practitioners have never violently resisted or retaliated,
yet they have often been beaten, kicked, punched, or dragged by the hair,
regardless of age or physical condition. The physical abuse once inside
detention facilities escalates into torture. Battering; rape; denial of
food, sleep, and toilet use; exposure to extreme heat or cold; burning
with cigarettes and heated metal; electric shocks these are just some
of the recorded means of torture employed. One woman in Jiangxi Province
was forced by her captors to have an abortion, in order to prolong her
detention. In June, Ms. Zhao Xin, a 32-year-old lecturer in economics at
Beijing Business University, was brutally beaten by the police, to the
point where several vertebrae were crushed, and there is still no word of
her having regained consciousness since the surgery for her injury. á
At
least 24 Falun Gong practitioners have died in custody, including Zhao
Jinhua, a 42-year-old farmer who was tortured to death, and then cremated
in an attempt to hide the evidence. The fates of thousands of others are
not yet known. This suppression campaign has also included the sentencing
of at least 5000 to labor camps without trial; detention and drugging in
psychiatric hospitals; show-trials of more than 500, often without benefit
of legal representation and resulting in prison sentences of up to 18
years; loss of housing, jobs, education, and pensions; surveillance,
harassment, and ransacking of homes.á
The latter punishments often extend even to family members who do
not practice Falun Gong. á
Millions
of Falun Gong books have been burned or otherwise destroyed in public
spectacles. To cover up its violations of the human rights of Falun Gong
practitioners, China has taken extensive steps to shut down Internet
access and jam or wiretap phone calls, even outside of China. This year US
News & World Report featured an investigation finding that the Xin
An Information Service Center in Beijing Chinas secret police
attacked U.S. Department of Transportation computers via a Falun Gong Web
site in New York.á
The
state-controlled media in China has transmitted and printed a constant
stream of fabrications, distortions, and patent untruths regarding Falun
Gong. President Jiang Zemin himself handed President Bill Clinton a
package of propaganda about Falun Gong when they met last year. Without
access to a free press of the kind that we are guaranteed in America, the
Chinese people are misled and misinformed about a practice that is
peaceful, positive, and of great benefit to many, both in China and around
the world. Those Chinese practitioners who have attempted to disclose the
truth to the Western media and the world have been handed prison sentences
on the pretext of leaking state secrets. á
The
only laws these practitioners have broken are the laws passed last year
expressly for making Falun Gong illegal, laws which have even been applied
retroactively at times. Practitioners are arrested and subject to inhumane
treatment simply for exercising their constitutional rights to appeal to
the government. Yet they continue to courageously speak out, and when they
are mistreated for doing so even tortured they respond only with
kindness, in keeping with Falun Gong principles.á
Falun Gong is a practice that promotes health and moral behavior,
and prominently declares Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance to be
its guiding principles. á
Last
November the U.S. Senate and House both unanimously passed concurrent
resolutions condemning Chinas inhumane treatment of Falun Gong
practitioners. President Bill Clinton has forthrightly spoken out for the
rights of Falun Gong practitioners. Several prominent human rights
organizations such as Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty
International likewise unequivocally defend the rights of the law-abiding,
peaceful practitioners.á
Our
ongoing request to the Chinese government is that they sit down for a
peaceful dialogue with Falun Gong practitioners. We welcome third-party
diplomatic initiatives to assist in resolving this crisis . We are
encouraged that the international community has extended increasing help
and support for the concerns and human rights of Falun Gong practitioners
in China. China must be held to the same standards as all United Nations
members. We appeal to all UN member states to speak out on this important
issue of human rights, defend the rule of law, and urge the Chinese
leadership to cease the persecution of its own citizens.á
We
in America appreciate how fortunate and blessed we are to live in a nation
which upholds the precious freedoms of expression, belief, and assembly.
We admire the courage of Chinese citizens, such as the more than 18,000
who went out to a park in Guangzhou to do the banned exercises on June 18.á
They know the potential for drastic mistreatment that could result,
yet nevertheless resolutely step forward to let the world know Falun
Gong is good. On behalf of the millions of Falun Gong practitioners in
China, we ask only to have the opportunity to speak face-to-face with
government officials in China, to sit down and come to a mutual
understanding. We hope that the government leaders will see that, not only
is it in the best interest of practitioners, but also in their own
interest to mend this schism in the nation.á
We appeal to all citizens of the world to help us reach a peaceful
and just resolution that can soon put an end to this tragedy.
Category: Journeys of Cultivation
