Monday, September 9, 2002

On behalf of the Falun Gong Association of the United Kingdom I am writing to respectfully request your assistance in serious matters of utmost importance for the future of the people of Ukraine. I call on you to use the executive powers bestowed on you by the virtue your ministry to stop what appears to be a two-year history of persecution of the practitioners of Falun Dafa in Ukraine.

I am asking you for your help in this urgent matter of concern to uphold their rights enshrined in the constitution of Ukraine and in the international Human Rights Covenants, and to do whatever is in your power to stop the spread of slanderous propaganda about Falun Dafa that is emanating from the Jiang regime through its Embassy in Ukraine. I am also asking you to urgently right the wrongs that have already taken place in your country in relation to the practice of Falun Dafa and those upright citizens who adhere to it.

What is Falun Dafa?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) presents a health inducing system of self-development based on ancient insights into the human mind, body and spirit that include a set of five meditative exercises.

Falun Gong is entirely peaceful, promotes principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance and teaches that to improve one's health and overall well being, one has to become a better person, consider others before oneself and live in accordance with higher moral standards. Its benefits include health, happiness and meaningful living.

Importantly, Falun Gong forbids violence of any kind, is not a religion, has no membership or worship, is absolutely non-political, is always free of charge and does not accept any contributions or donations.

Situation in the world and China today

Falun Gong is not a small movement in the international arena. Outside China it is freely practiced in more than 60 countries, where it is appreciated, recognized and awarded for its contribution to the stability of society. Falun Dafa has received over 600 awards in North America alone for its benefits and thousands of recognitions worldwide. Its founder Mr. Li Hongzhi has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In early 1999, a Chinese government survey estimated that more than 70 million people in China practiced Falun Gong, a number larger than the communist party membership. On July 20th 1999, Jiang Zemin began a violent campaign of persecution at home and abroad against more than 100 million people who practice Falun Dafa.

You may be aware of the inhumane treatment being constantly leveled at Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese authorities. To justify their brutal crackdown, the Chinese government launched an intensive defamation campaign against Falun Gong at home and abroad. During the past three years, intimidation, torture and prison sentences are commonplace for thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Hundreds of thousands are in jails, forced labor camps and mental hospitals. We know of at least 461deaths resulting from torture and ill treatment in police custody that have been verified. Sources inside Chinese government put the fatalities at thousands. Millions have been harassed, lost their jobs, homes and families.

Please take serious note of the fact that despite the brutality of persecution not a single act of retaliation has been reported.

International support

Since the persecution began in July 1999, Falun Gong has gained world-wide support from many governments and international organizations. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 15 February 2001 calling on the regime in China to respect the human rights of the practitioners. About 100 UK Members of Parliament, Members of the European Parliament and Peers, as well as the UK Foreign Secretary Rt. Hon. Jack Straw, have officially expressed support for the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concern in the USA and Amnesty International has produced several reports detailing many atrocities suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China. The US Congress passed a resolution unanimously in July 2002 criticizing the suppression.

International support and intervention have played major parts in the successful high profile campaigns for the release of many Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated and tortured in China, including Canadian Professor Zhang Kunlun, Australian artist Mrs. Zhang Cuiying and Irish postgraduate student Zhao Ming.

Matters of concern:

1. Police persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Ukraine

I write to express our extreme concern regarding the treatment of 23 Falun Dafa practitioners who were detained on 24 August 2002 while practicing their exercises in a Kiev park. They had been practicing in the same park regularly for the past two years with the permission from the director of the park and with the notification by letter of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They have been acting within the rights provided to them by article 39 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Without being informed of their rights, the practitioners were taken into custody under threat of force, where they were held and made to sign statements alleging various wrongdoings, such as "illegally holding an event without permission." As they were put into the police vehicles, witnesses say police cited pressure from Beijing as the reason, saying that China is "big and powerful compared with a developing country like Ukraine" and that Ukraine "can't afford trouble with China relations."

According to the detained practitioners, police also mentioned that Chinese officials had struck a deal with the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop Falun Gong activities in Ukraine.

Fortunately the judge dismissed the case brought against practitioners of Falun Gong by the Ukrainian police as "groundless."

This detention, that reminds us of horrors of the practices of "Red Terror" to which citizens of your own country were subjected not so long ago that are still clear in our memory, should never have occurred, and could not and would not have occurred in any democracy around the world. The facts of this case are clear: the Ukrainian police were acting under pressure from Jiang's regime, a regime that continues to wage violence against tens of millions of good people in China.

It is heart chilling to see how a dictator Jiang Zemin can control the actions of an independent state of Ukraine and that Ukrainian authorities would be unable to uphold the constitutional rights of their own citizens as they find themselves subject to orders from as far away as Beijing. Through a series of recent events, we are witnessing an attempt at a systematic expansion of Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong to Europe. Where in other countries the Chinese government has put pressure on the administration, similarly as happened in your country, it has been successfully resisted once the facts of the situation were fully understood. We hope that the Ukrainian government will stand up to the pressure from Beijing, and truly protect its citizens' right to freedom of conscience, expression, and association. No Western European country would tolerate the interference of Jiang's regime in its internal affairs nor would it abuse the rights of its own citizens under his dictation.

2. Misinformation and slander of Falun Dafa by the Department of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in the Universities, Schools and Colleges of Ukraine

I take this opportunity to bring to your considered attention the most serious matter of the unfortunate letter from the Department of district Chernigov of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine from 06.03.2002 N 02-01/335, addressed to all universities', colleges' and schools' administrations of the district, that refers to the letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine from 31.01.2002 p. N 1/9-40.

It appears that the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine unwittingly became a mouthpiece that had unadvisedly broadcast the slanderous Chinese propaganda to the Schools and Colleges of Ukraine.

We wholeheartedly believe that the only reason for this regretful incident is a lack of truthful information about Falun Gong and the reasons why Chinese government persecutes this peaceful, non-political and law-abiding spiritual movement.

We are asking you to use your influential position to correct these most tragic mistakes that can otherwise be extremely damaging for the Ukrainian democracy and reputation of Ukraine in the international community.

We would also like to ask you to seriously consider all the consequences that can result from the spreading of slanderous lies and the persecution of good people who live by the moral principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. If there is any way by virtue of a dialogue or otherwise that we can help prevent further instances of injustice from taking place in the future, please let us know.

Finally, we enclose the text of the Resolution 188 passed unanimously in July 2002 by the Congress of The United States of America that summarizes the attitude of the world's democratic community towards Falun Gong and the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Yours sincerely