*** Falun Gong Response Available Immediately Following Results ***
GENEVA, April 18-More than 600 people filled Place des Nations outside the UN in witness to the deteriorating situation in China. Today the UN Human Rights Commission is to vote on China's motion to block debate over its human rights violations.
People from more than 20 nations participated in the demonstration. They held signs saying "Respect Human Rights" and "Stop the Killing," along with photographs of people being abused, and of those dead from torture in China.
Falun Gong practitioners participated. The three-hour event was quiet and orderly, with most participants wearing white flowers or holding wreaths out of respect and remembrance for those killed. The vote at the UN was expected this afternoon.
| Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang will be available for immediate comment following the vote. Mr. Zhang will be inside the UN when results are known and can be reached by mobile phone at (0033) 620-475-586. |
At the same time as the demonstration, a press conference was held nearby. Two Falun Gong practitioners provided details of mistreatment by Chinese government officials during the now 21-month crackdown on the meditation practice.
Ms. Xu Aihua, 65, described in vivid detail the torture she was subjected to during 20 days' detention in May 2000. Even though formally charged with nothing, she was electrocuted twice, and in a coma for a day and a half following the second instance.
She was also force-fed and had a tube inserted into her lungs, which was stirred around while inside her body by the doctor administering the torture. Currently staying in the US, she faces immediate arrest as a result of telling her story publicly if and when she returns to China. Speaking of her fellow practitioners left behind in China, she said, "Please help save them."
Ms. Jiang Ying from Germany told the story of a personal friend whose wife had only a moment to identify the bruised and battered body of her husband before a hasty cremation in November 2000. Zou Songtao was detained, beaten, and died in Shandong #1 Labor Camp, known as "Hell on Earth." Only 28, Zou Songtao left behind a widow and eight-month old baby daughter.
The death was reported as a suicide by "jumping from a first floor balcony," an incredible assertion given the state of the body. All causes of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in custody are officially listed as "natural causes" or "suicide."
"Killing is killing," says Falun Gong representative Matthew Kutolowski. "It is wrong... and there can be no justification for it. It cannot be disguised as something else."