The Icelandic government issued an unusual order prohibiting Falun Gong practitioners from entering Iceland from June 10 to June 16. This has put the island nation in a very awkward position in the international community. Why June 10 to June 16? This is when Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin will visit Iceland. Is this merely a coincidence? How could the Icelandic government identify Falun Gong practitioners?
Falun Gong is based on the principle of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. It's a peaceful cultivation practice, which is offered to people free of charge. All Falun Gong's activities are open to the general public and are beneficial to people in any society. It was introduced to the general public in 1992 and, currently, there are millions of people practicing in over 50 countries.
Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999 out of his jealousy and paranoid suspicion. Since the end of 2001, millions of innocent people have been sent to jails, labor camps, and mental hospitals. Over one thousand good people have been tortured to death in the past three years, and the situation continues. This has caused tremendous suffering and pain to over 100 million people in China and has damaged China's international reputation as well.
Iceland is known as a peaceful, democratic country. However, before the Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin's visit to Iceland, Iceland's ministry of justice ordered that Chinese or Taiwanese passport holders should not be issued visas. Icelandic police have been ordered to prohibit Falun Gong practitioners from entering Iceland, regardless of their reason for travel.
On June 10th of 2002, three Canadian citizens, at least six U.S. citizens and about 30 Taiwanese citizens were detained at Reykjavik Airport because they admitted they were Falun Gong practitioners when questioned by airport police. Two US citizens along with a legal US resident got deported on the next available airplane to the U.S. even though they just planned to stay in Iceland for one day.
On June 11th of 2002, 7 people drove from Detroit, Michigan to Baltimore/Washington International airport to fly to Iceland, only to be refused boarding passes by Icelandair due to an order received from Iceland's Ministry of Justice. Among the group were 3 US citizens, 2 Canadian citizens, and 2 US legal residents holding Chinese passports. The airline refused to give specific reasons why these ticket holders could not board the aircraft, but only informed them verbally that they were on a list provided by Iceland's Ministry of Justice. They were denied the freedom to travel simple because they were identified as Falun Gong practitioners. This identification was done by someone else without the practitioners' knowledge or consent.
On the same evening, 5 ticket holders were denied boarding by Icelandair in Boston, 2 of whom were US citizens; 4 ticket holders were denied boarding by the same airline in Minneapolis.
In sharp contrast to their government's strange policy, the Icelandic people are totally supporting Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners received overwhelming hospitality from the Icelandic people. Icelandic media openly question the government's policy of handling Falun Gong practitioners. Why then does the Iceland government still want to adopt policies against their people's will? Obviously they are under strong pressure, but if the pressure is not from their people, then from whom is it coming?
Once again, we are here to urge the Chinese government to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. We are here to urge the Chinese government not to put pressure on other democratic countries regarding their policies on Falun Gong. We also urge all democratic countries to support the Icelandic government and Falun Gong practitioners and to help end the pressure from the dictatorship.
Not only has Jiang Zemin brought disasters to China and millions of good Chinese citizens, but he is also damaging the reputation of Iceland and making trouble in other democratic countries in the West. Jiang Zemin should end his persecution, not try to spread his dictatorship to the rest of the world. The persecution initiated by Jiang should be put to an end and the democratic countries should not suffer from his dictatorship.
Category: Perspective
