August 19, 2002
Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
New York, NY 10017
Dear Secretary Annan:
We'd like to applaud the great achievements of the United Nations in the areas of world peace and human rights under your leadership. The Noble Peace Prize you received last year confirms that world peace and human rights are a valued priority to both you personally and through your leadership in the most prestigious organization in the world. Your tireless efforts to save others from harm will be a legacy of your vision and leadership to the people of the world
Today, we urgently must bring a situation to your attention that while on the surface appears to affect two people in a small country, the implications of it are widespread and foreshadow an ominous future if left unchallenged and uncorrected. The situation that we speak of is the recent news of two Falun Gong practitioners living in Cambodia, having their UN refugee status violated, and being deported to a Chinese detention center for practicing their personal spiritual belief abroad.
On August 2, 2002, Mr. Li Guojun, 46, and his wife Zhang Xinyi, 39, were arrested at their Phnom Penh apartment by the Cambodian police and deported August 9, 2002, to a Mainland Chinese detention center in Hunan Province. It was reported that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees sought the couple's immediate release, but Cambodian authorities denied having the couple in their custody. The couples' friends have not heard from them and are very concerned for their safety.
The arrest occurred less than a year after the couple had been granted "persons of concern" status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This is clearly a violation of the 1951 Global Convention on Refugees, which both China and Cambodia ratified.
The couple arrived in Phnom Penh from China in1998, taught Chinese in a school and was known to practice the Falun Gong exercises and meditation several times a week privately at their home with a small group of friends.
Last June, Zhang Xinyi received a package in the mail from Taiwan containing Falun Gong books. Later, on July 3, 2002 the couple was summoned by the Cambodian Department of Foreigners who informed them that "Cambodia and China enjoy friendly relations" and that the couple's presence in the country was damaging those relations. Near the end of July, Zhang Xinyi went to the Chinese embassy to have her passport renewed but instead it was confiscated by Chinese authorities who refused to issue her a new one. By the end of July, Zhang and her husband were dismissed from the Chinese school where they had been teaching.
This incident is a clear example of how the Jiang Zemin Regime has extended its persecution of Falun Gong outside China's borders and uses pressure and direct interference to manipulate other governments into persecuting Falun Gong in exchange for favorable relations with China.
With six more deaths of Falun Gong practitioners held in Chinese detention centers and labor camps, at the hands of the authorities, we have grave concerns for the safety of Zhang Xinyi and her husband Li Guojun.
We call upon the United Nations to intercede on behalf of Zhang Xinyi and her husband Li Guojun, to insure their safe return to a country that will accept their status as "persons of concern." If we do not correct this grave injustice, what hope will there be to halt the Jiang Zemin's Regime's escalation of this misbegotten campaign of persecution. What country will become the next victim of China's pressure to persecute Falun Gong? Whose lives will be the next to be unnecessarily sacrificed for their personal belief?
We look forward to hearing from you on this issue soon.
Sincerely
New York Falun Dafa Association
Category: Perspective
