The Mayor of Toledo wrote the following reply to a Falun Gong practitioner’s letter:

Respectful Sir,

I carefully read your letter introducing the information about the Spanish Falun Dafa Association and the terrible situation that Falun Gong practitioners face under persecution in China.

As you may know, the city of Toledo has always been well known for its multi-cultural tradition. In history, Christianity, Judaism and Islam peacefully co-existed for many centuries. This spirit of tolerance has become a major characteristic of this city, and is also a valuable inheritance for our future generations.

I want to let you know that I have carefully read the information you sent to me. I will take every possible opportunity to raise your issue to the relevant people in Spain and abroad, and to appeal for the end of this persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Please accept my sincere wishes.

[Signed]

Recently, a French practitioner wrote to Franck Marlin, Member of Parliament for Essonne and Mayor of Etampes, complaining about the unfair treatment Falun Gong practitioners received in Paris at the end of January. The MP replied saying that he completely agreed with the practitioner and thinks “we should give human rights higher priority than economic benefits.” His complete reply is as follows:

Republic of France
Freedom, Equality and Fraternity

French Parliament.

Franck Marlin
MP of Essonne
Major of Etampes

Paris, February 11th 2004

Sir,

In your letter on Feb 3rd, you reminded me of the persecution that Falun Gong practitioners are enduring and the chain of events that Hu Jintao, the Chinese leader, brought during his visit to France.

You know my stance on this issue, and I completely agree with your feelings in regard to the other issues you raised.

Falun Gong is not regarded as a cult in France and I think because of that, the government should have authorised this peaceful parade and given a higher priority to human rights than economic benefits.

I will not forget to pass my thoughts on this to Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of Domestic Security and Local Freedom.

Thank you for the enclosed materials and your good wishes and please convey my best wishes to your family.

Sir, please accept my best wishes.

(Signed)

Franck Marlin

On the 8th of February 2004, Wolfsburger General Newspaper reported the following:

Falun Gong practitioners hold a protest against the misconduct of the Volkswagen Company

This is a silent street protest. On Saturday, Falun Gong practitioners held an information day on the streets to let people know the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Regarding the discrimination against peaceful practitioners by the Volkswagen Company, a practitioner called Wolfgang from northern Germany said, “We came to Wolfsburger, just to tell people the truth.”

Wolfgang and his friends handed out leaflets to the passers-by in the heavy wind and rain. They talked to people and also demonstrated the exercises. Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992. In the next seven years, a lot of people started to practise Falun Gong. However, it was then banned in 1999. A Falun Gong practitioner called Barbara said, “So many people practised Falun Dafa, maybe because it has a big influence [on practitioners’ health].”

Wolfgang said, “Since Falun Gong was banned, the practitioners of Falun Gong have suffered discrimination in China. This also happened in foreign businesses.” At the Volkswagen company in China, if the job applicants do not sign an agreement to indicate that they are not Falun Gong practitioners and do not support Falun Gong, their applications will be refused. There are a lot of examples of this.

In December, Falun Gong practitioners from northern Germany wrote a letter about this issue to the Volkswagen Company Manager Bernd Pischetsrieder. The responsible person for Asia and the Pacific Area said in his reply, “At the Volkswagen Company, there should not have been anyone who was made to suffer from discrimination.” They will investigate this issue. Wolfgang hopes that this can help to stop the discrimination.

The International Conference on “Genocide in the New Era”, organised by “Friends of Falun Gong Europe” and “International Advocates for Justice”, took place in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm from January 26th to January 28th 2004. This is one of the conference speeches by World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) Spokesperson Monika Weiss, entitled "Corporate Responsibility", which was given in the afternoon of Tuesday January 27th.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The persecution of Falun Gong and the tremendous scale of human rights violations going on in China and outside of China since July 1999, the painful and humiliating consequences for millions of peaceful people in China and the deaths of (to date) at least 869 practitioners of Falun Gong are a concern to many people around the world.

So in January 2003, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) was founded in Boston, USA. The Asian and the European Branch followed, with the European branch centered in Germany.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong carries out the following mission:

• To investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong;


• to bring such investigation to full closure;


• to exercise fundamental principles of humanity;


• and to restore and uphold justice in society.

The persecution needs money, of course. Where does the money come from, how can it be generated? What might be the role of big companies, especially those which are investing from abroad? How is the Chinese regime abusing people in forced labor camps? A few weeks ago, we received information that about one dozen Falun Gong practitioners working in the Volkswagen Joint Venture in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in China, have been dismissed from work because of their belief. Recently, another similar case has been confirmed.

On our request, we received a letter from Volkswagen headquarters in Germany three weeks ago, affirming that they are not discriminating against employees for their beliefs and that they will bring this issue up in their Chinese branch. We will keep on investigating this case.

The pressure on companies in China with regard to employees who are practicing Falun Gong, has become obvious. In October of last year, it was learned that the US based Mary Kay Corporation, which employed about 120,000 Chinese women, forced them to sign a standard statement, in which they had to guarantee not to practice or support Falun Gong. In this action, several of the employed women were dismissed from work because they would not sign this statement. This message was extremely disturbing.

The Mary Kay Corporation is well known because of its upright principles and values and, I am quoting the Washington Times from December 12th last year, "has been repeatedly selected by various respectable organizations as one of the best companies to work for in America. The International Women's Forum gave the company its Award of Corporations that Make a Difference". Referring to this required statement of guarantee, the Washington Times continued: "What kind of difference will Mary Kay make in China?"

Will the Chinese government coerce Mary Kay into abandoning its founding principles; will this company give up its moral standards in order to keep on with its business in China? The Chinese branch of this company changed its policy slightly and made its Chinese employees sign a statement saying that they are obeying Chinese law. Does it really make a difference? We did not get any evidence that the formerly dismissed women were reemployed.

What about the products of forced labor camps in China?

Products of labor camps represent huge profits, because the detainees usually receive no payment, working as many as 10 hours to more than 16 hours per day, often including the weekends, and sometimes even continuously overnight.

Labor camps are encouraged by government to build up companies. These companies are exempt from corporate income tax and the land inquisition levy. Advertisements are even promoting labor in areas where there are prisons and labor camps as a way to attract foreign investment. This reads like this: "Our business is a special enterprise that enjoys an amicable relationship with the local government and relevant offices, and it is a recipient of various preferential policies granted by the government. We provide a flexible, harmonious investment environment. Xinsheng Coal Mine warmly welcomes both domestic and overseas investment."

Evidence shows that companies like Beiying Mickey Toys Co. Ltd, Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd., Jin Printing Co. Ltd., and Qiqihaer Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., have worked together with different labor camps.

Meanwhile in the labor camp, 57 year old Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu worked for Lanzhou Zhenling Nongken Food Ltd. and was forced, like many others, to crack the shells of large water melon seeds with his teeth and peel the husk off by hand to get the kernels. In winter, they had to do this work outside in the freezing cold. Many of the detainees suffered split and bleeding hands. When Wan Guifu could not fulfill this task any more, labor camp officials encouraged prisoners to torture him, which resulted in his death; others where tortured to death as well for the same reason.

Lanzhou Zhenling Nongken Food Ltd. has become the largest producer of roasted seeds and nuts in China. Their main product, Zhenglin hand-picked Melon Seeds, are exported into places such as the US, Canada, Australia and others. Currently, WOIPFG is investigating and verifying more such cases.

This initial report only begins to expose the illegal prison labor in the labor camps and how they are related to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. What I have reported is just the tip of the iceberg.

Falun Gong practitioners Amy Lee and Jennifer Zeng gave testimony of their situation in Beiying Xin'an Female Labor Camp and working on 10,000 toy rabbits for Beiying Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. which turned out to be subcontracted by Nestl? These rabbits were found to be part of a promotion for Nesquick in 2001 and have been identified by these two practitioners. Jennifer Zeng reports: "The processing fees went to the labor camp. We didn't get anything. Usually we began work at 5 o'clock in the morning and worked until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning the next day. Sometimes, we had to work overtime; otherwise we could not finish the job. I was so exhausted that I could not count clearly from 1 to 9. Long hours of intensive work and severe lack of sleep made me feel for a long period of time, that the only thing I needed in my life was sleep."

World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong is recently doing research on Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc., which uses slave labor in forced labor camps. Xuchang City in Henan Province is a major production center for wig products in China. When the Henan Province No. 3 Forced Labor Camp was on the verge of bankruptcy, the labor camp abducted many Falun Gong practitioners and forced them to do slave labor making products for export. The camp survived and prospered this way. Qu Shuangcai, the former labor camp head, was known for eagerly persecuting Falun Gong. In May 2003, he was transferred to the Shibalihe Female Labor Camp in Zhenzhou City and put in charge of that labor camp. Right away he signed a contract with Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc., in Xuchang City. In addition, within several months, three female Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death.

The chairman of the board of Rebecca Hair Products, Inc., who is the general manager and distributor, resides in the US. Guard Shen Jianwei from No. 3 Labor Camp often said: "A while back, when the labor camp was short of funding and was about to be shut down, many Falun Gong practitioners became available. The government allocated 20.000 Yuan to "reform" each practitioner. The labor camp used eight million Yuan of government to funding to construct residential buildings to encourage the guards to persecute these practitioners." Right now the labor camp "buys" practitioners from other places for 800 Yuan each, as slaves to increase the volume of products. None of the illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners ever got payment for their forced labor. Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc., is a joint-capital entity owned by Sun Ah Company in the US. Its products can be directly shipped and sold in the US. Rebecca Hair products are very popular in more than 30 countries and regions including North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Where does the money go? WOIPFG is investigating this issue. Companies should be very careful and realize that currently part of the Chinese society is completely devoted to attacking Falun Gong. Investing in China is supporting this persecution. Exposing such cases will help stop investments in the wrong places, and help stop the persecution in China.

Money is a reason why small countries all over the world keep quiet, when it comes to preventing this persecution, and when it comes to political resolutions against China, e.g. in the UN. One of our common values, according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, is freedom of belief. The goal of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong is to stop the persecution of people because of their belief, to stop the persecution of Falun Gong completely and everywhere. Our goal is the release of all detained and tortured practitioners in China, and of course, the freedom to practice Falun Gong.

Upholding justice includes having the awareness of how this persecution works and not supporting it by any conduct in the commercial sector.

Thank you.

Practitioners held a peaceful protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Spain, to highlight the escalating persecution against Falun Gong in China, which has seen a recent increase in arrests and killings. They strongly appealed to bring Jiang Zemin, the main culprit responsible for the genocide against Falun Gong, to justice together with his accomplices Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Zhou Yongkang.

Falun Gong practitioners displayed banners reading ‘Falun Dafa is Good’ and ‘Stop the persecution against Falun Gong’, together with a display board reading ‘Bring Jiang, Luo, Liu & Zhou to Justice’. They distributed leaflets to passers-by about the human rights abuses against Falun Gong. The pictures exposed the torture and abuse suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China and many people were shocked. ‘I am a Catholic, but I do agree that people have the right to freedom of belief’, said one lady. Many people showed their support and wished us success.

More and more people are becoming aware of this heinous persecution against the innocent. The evil regime is running out of tricks and is failing to stop people from learning the truth about Falun Gong.

We believe that heaven’s vengeance is slow but sure. Anyone who examines his conscience and still continues to persecute Falun Gong practitioners without remorse will receive their just punishment in the future.

The International Conference on “Genocide in the New Era”, organised by “Friends of Falun Gong Europe” and “International Advocates for Justice”, took place in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm from January 26th to January 28th 2004. This is one of the conference speeches by Wolfgang Kaleck, a German lawyer who has worked on legal actions against the chief persecutors of Falun Gong practitioners.

Good afternoon everybody. Thanks to the conference organisers for giving me the chance to speak to you and to speak with my colleagues, the attorneys and barristers who are presenting cases against the Chinese Government in other countries. It's always very helpful to discuss these matters personally. No matter how advanced our methods are, nothing can replace a personal discussion. So I’m very happy to be here.

When talking about impunity and human rights violations, one has to accept that the justice system, not only the criminal courts but also the civil courts, cannot solve all problems. We have all the appropriate reactions when a problem happens in society, not only at the national level but also the international level: every body cries for justice, everybody cries for legal action and everybody cries for a lawyer. I think first of all we have to discuss frankly if there is an alternative model, or if justice is the adequate answer for this kind of problem. So I really appreciate this kind of conference where alternative models can be discussed, for example the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

I'm scheduled to speak about technical problems, juridical problems and political campaigns. I want to speak a little bit about my experiences with the Argentine case and a little bit about my experiences with the Chinese case. Even if we are aware that justice is not the only answer and cannot solve all problems, there can be no doubt that impunity for human rights violation has to be fought wherever in the world it occurs. Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Torture and War Crimes are not internal matters. They are concerns of the whole international community. This is more or less the idea behind the International Criminal Court. But when it comes to concrete problems and encounters between human right violators and their victims, politicians usually say, "Oh we don't want to intervene. We don't want to violate their national sovereignty. They know the best way to handle their own problems.” But I think we all have to recognise what happened in Argentina when 30,000 people disappeared, and what’s now happening in China - not only the human rights violations against Falun Gong but also against the Tibetan people, Uiqhurs and all the people who are forced to work and suffer torture in labour camps.

The International Criminal Court is probably the most well known part of the new international worldwide criminal justice system. You have to remember that this court hasn't even begun to work yet and when it begins to work you can expect only ten to fifteen cases in the next ten years. Also, I'm not as optimistic as others because the competence of this court is restricted in many ways. For example, all cases that happened before the 1st of July 2002 are not under the jurisdiction of the ICC. Secondly, there are many important states that didn't sign the statute. So it’s wrong to think that with the forthcoming ICC, analysing national justice systems is a thing of the past. That is wrong. That is wrong because the ICC is not competent in most cases and the ICC will not be able to judge all human rights violations in the world.

The most say ideal situation is when human rights violations are judged and prosecuted in the countries where they occur. But this is not possible in many countries for a variety of reasons. There are some exceptions like South Africa, Argentina and some other South American countries, but we see also the contrary in China where it seems totally impossible within the next few years. So the national justice system of so called “third states” has a great responsibility. But we have to bear in mind that this is not the ideal situation and it’s just a way to begin to attack impunity. I think this is quite important to remember because national justice systems, national prosecutors and national courts are not looking for these kinds of cases. They're not bored with all the robberies and murders they have to judge every day. They stick to their usual daily work because they like it. This is what they can do; this is where their system functions very well. They can see big problems ahead if something like the Argentine case or the Chinese case comes onto their table. This is why I propose to the organisers of this conference not to only talk about the juridical perspective of presenting a case like this in the "third state" justice system, but also to talk about political campaigning because one must convince the national prosecutor and the national court to take the case and really work on the case. We had this kind of experience in our Argentine case.

I'll briefly explain how in Germany we presented cases against ninety Argentine military officers in the name of thirty-nine victims. A group of German mothers asked us to present a case and so we decided to give it a go. This was in 1998 when a similar Spanish case was ongoing, so we tried to copy the Spanish case a bit. We defined ourselves as a network of human rights organisations, human rights lawyers, family members and victims to battle impunity in Argentina. Our plan was to create a small umbrella organisation, a small NGO of judicial groups and lawyers’ organisations: the Coalition Against Impunity in Argentina. Truth and justice for the German people disappeared in Argentina, but German people weren’t the only victims - it was the same for everyone. We have been working on this for five years now and it began very, very slowly. The prosecutors asked us, “Are you serious? Do you really think we stand a chance of taking this case here in Nuremburg?” We had some very long, hard discussions and used a lot of different means to convince them to take the cases.

It may seem like an uncanny coincidence, but this morning I got a telephone call saying that in Argentina yesterday they arrested the ex-chief Jorge Rafael Videla and others, because of the German arrest warrants we achieved after five years of work. So this gives you a rough idea of how long it takes. It's now 28 years since the facts were exposed in Argentina and five years since we began the case in Germany. Only now do we see the first results. And so I think we have to be very patient and very courageous in this kind of case.

We had to deal with a fragile legal framework, because in Germany before 2002 we did not have a very good criminal justice system to cope with cases of human rights violations. For a start we presented the case with the legal argument of “passive personality.” We said that the victims we represented were Germans and so the German justice system was perfectly suitable. The justice system accepted it. About 3 years ago, we tried to convince the justice system that genocide occurred in Argentina but they denied this with the argument that crimes were committed against a political group, not a national or ethnical group. And so we have arrest warrants only in cases where the victims are German.

There are many things to say about this Argentine case. I only want to focus on two or three of them. From the beginning, we went to every politician who was about to travel to Argentina and gave them material about what happened there. So we tried to convince them to mention the cases whilst in Argentina and put pressure on in Argentina. This was very important because it meant that the politicians who were in Argentina were then aware of the problem. This also meant that later on, when we had several occasions where the prosecutor's office wanted to close some of the cases, we could easily approach the German politicians we spoke to and ask them to write to the prosecutor and visit the Ministry of Justice to pressure them to continue the investigations.

Another thing is that from the beginning we never focused solely on what happened 28 years ago in Argentina. We always had in mind that these kinds of human rights violations are happening for a multitude of economical, political and historical reasons, and that within this framework of reasons, Argentina was not the only country. It was not only Argentine citizens involved in the crimes, but also Western Governments who were accomplices of the Argentine Government. So we tried to look into the files of the German Embassy from 28 years ago and we tried to look into the files of the foreign governments. We found that some very interesting communication happened in those times. We also tried to see if there was any connection between the German firms and the Argentine repression. We found a case of 15 or 16 disappeared workers in the Mercedes Benz plant near Buenos Aires. There was one Mercedes Benz manager involved, so we presented a criminal case against him. All these approaches were formed by a team of jurists and judicial people, working together towards a shared goal.

This is more or less the background of the Argentine case. I was approached by Falun Gong practitioners in 2002 when Jiang Zemin went to Germany and they asked me if I would present their case immediately. I said, “No. There is no enough time to present a symbolic case, the time is too short for preparation and I think we would spoil our chances if we stick to this symbolic way of presenting cases.” So we had three or four months of preparation before the case was presented in November of last year; it is still in the preliminary stages. The Federal Prosecutor's office is now deciding if they will accept the case or not. The case is in the name of the German Falun Dafa Association and 40 individuals, composed of victims from several countries, German people who protested on Tiananmen Square and some other interested individuals. The case is directed against Jiang Zemin and 15 other officials. We have had similar problems with this criminal case in Germany to those experienced in the civil cases launched in the United States. We have more political obstacles than we had during the case based on Argentina 27 years ago. Our Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder went to China several weeks ago with a group of businessmen to make economic deals. He didn't take the Human Rights Prosecutor of the German Government with him. He didn't mention a word about human rights problems in China during his visit.

We have several other problems. One of them is the legal problem with Genocide. I think Terri Marsh mentioned some aspects of this problem already. I shall only say that it's ok with me that this conference is called “Genocide the New Era”. I used the legal argument of Genocide in my complaint, but I also used what I perceive to be harder legal arguments: Crimes Against Humanity and Torture. It's undeniable that torture and crimes against humanity are on going in China right now but it's legally disputable as to whether what’s happening is genocide or not. Especially when it comes to political discussions, I think it's very hard to defend that genocide is going on. What is ongoing in China right now is not genocide in the same fashion as the historical genocides in Armenia or Germany during the Holocaust. We have several other big problems in the case. One is a lack of evidence, because the human rights violations are happening as we speak. Most of the victims are in China so it's very hard to obtain testimonies.

I want to end here. I think it’s important that we all remember that in the whole Falun Gong case, we are at the beginning of the work and we all must take this work seriously. It's not something in which we will necessarily have success tomorrow or this year, or even next year. If we take it seriously, it could be our work for the next few years: to collect testimonies, to speak to the victims, to speak to family members of the victims, to prepare all this in one country, to get the dismissals of all the different courts in the world and then to begin again. This is what happened to many of the victims affected by these kinds of human rights violations and this was also true for victims of the Chinese Government. But there is no reason to stop the work. There is no reason to be satisfied with the situation. I think it's only a question of time before there is a judge who will prosecute Jiang Zemin and all the others responsible for the human rights violations against Falun Gong.

In the “Chinese in Paris” programme that Radio France Internationale broadcast to China and the Metropolitan area of Paris on February 14th, an actor from the famous Chinese soap opera “Yong Zheng Dynasty” was interviewed by a reporter.

Reporter: Members of the audience who watch CCTV (China Central TV) should all be aware that “Yong Zheng Dynasty”, a history-based soap opera, is currently being repeated. This soap opera is based on a novel written by Eryue-He. Ever since this soap opera was made, it has been a big hit in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and many foreign countries. Mr. Jiang Guangyu is a young actor who played the Prince Hongshi in the soap opera. He came to Paris not long ago, and told the reporter shocking heartfelt words about a particular incident. The following is Mr. Jiang’s description. Mr. Jiang starts by telling us that he is a Falun Gong practitioner.

Practitioner: My name is Jiang Guangyu. I am an actor from China. I believe everyone will have seen “Yong Zheng Dynasty”. I acted as Hongshi, the eldest son of Emperor Yong Zheng in the soap opera. I started practising Falun Gong in 1998. Since the Chinese government started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, I have been to Zhongnanhai to make appeals to the senior government office on two occasions, hoping the Chinese government could treat Falun Gong fairly and stop the persecution. I was arrested by the police twice, and illegally detained for twenty four hours. After I was released, I felt the environment in China was so difficult that I began seeking opportunities to leave my motherland. At the present time, I have applied for political asylum in Ireland. I came to France today to attend the activities for the Year of France-China Cultural Exchange. I would like to tell you what actually happened to me. It is my sincere hope that more people, both Chinese and westerners, can hear the voice of Falun Gong so that they can know the true situation, and can help to put a stop to the persecution instigated by Jiang Zemin.

Reporter: What kind of persecution did you suffer when you were detained?

Practitioner: The first time, the police pulled me forcefully into a police car and beat me. I was then taken to a city government office located in a suburb of Beijing. More than one hundred other Falun Gong practitioners were taken there too. At that time, we were not allowed to use the toilet. We were forced to watch TV programmes that CCTV produced to slander Falun Gong. Later, everyone was interrogated and asked to give their names and addresses. We were also forced to make a guarantee that we would abandon the practice of Falun Gong.

In my second appeal to the senior government office at Zhongnanhai, they arrested me and imprisoned me in the Qinghe Detention Centre. My cell was less than eight square metres in size. There was a large bright lamp inside the cell, but no toilet, water or food. In the twenty-four hours that I was detained, I was not allowed to use the restroom, nor was I permitted to talk to the guard. I wasn’t permitted to call my friends or a lawyer. I was released twenty four hours later. Since my home is in Xinjiang Province, they ordered a Xinjiang delegate in Beijing to take me away. China’s policy in treating Falun Gong practitioners who make appeals in Beijing is to have corresponding provincial delegates from Beijing take the practitioners, and let their local police station or court carry out subsequent sentencing, imprisonment and torture. I was lucky to escape from the severe persecution because I was an actor, and many policemen knew me. A lot of these policemen had a sense of justice, and felt sympathetic towards Falun Gong. They arrested me because they had no choice. They didn’t include my name on the black list. They released me after they understood my situation.

However, many of my friends who practise Falun Gong suffered from the brutal persecution. One of them was arrested in winter. They poured cold water on him after stripping him of his clothes and binding him to iron handrails. The temperature in Beijing was minus 20 degrees Celsius at that time. Another Falun Gong practitioner was forced to crawl on the ground covered by thick snow. To make the torture even more painful, the guards poured water on the practitioner’s feet. The purpose of the torture and persecution is to make Falun Gong practitioners give up their practice, and abandon their belief.

Up to now, there have been more than two thousand Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death according to our information. Therefore, we hope that society can call on the Chinese Government to stop the cruel persecution against Falun Gong.

Everyone knows that the Chinese Government is a dictatorship. Even though Jiang has surrendered the Presidency, he still holds military power by acting as the Chairman of the Central Military Committee. I am not sure how the new generation of leaders, including Hu Jintao, will deal with Falun Gong. However, I think the persecution against Falun Gong is fully instigated by Jiang Zemin. How the new generation of leaders will handle this issue is their choice. Such a brutal persecution conducted against the general public so extensively shouldn’t have occurred from the viewpoint of a democratic country or a compassionate person. The persecution should be stopped immediately. Falun Gong practitioners have made no political appeals to the new generation of leaders. What we want is to terminate Jiang’s persecution against Falun Gong, and punish Jiang severely.

Falun Gong practitioners have filed lawsuits against Jiang Zemin in several overseas countries, including the USA, Canada and Belgium. We want to inform people about the unfairness of the persecution through various means. Moreover, Jiang Zemin is the biggest criminal in history. He persecutes the mainstream public of Chinese society. There have been so many citizens persecuted to death because of him. We are keeping our eyes peeled to see how the new generation of leaders will treat Falun Gong. We hope the government leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, can face up squarely to the ongoing persecution in China, and stop it immediately.

Mr. Ma Xinxing was a 40-year-old Dafa practitioner from Shanghai. After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, he went to Beijing many times to appeal for Falun Gong and clarify the truth, and he was arrested many times. He was once put in a mental hospital and tortured for three months. In November 2003, he was in grave danger due to the torture he received at the Qingpu Labour Camp in Shanghai. Not wanting to take the responsibility should he die, the camp released him. In December 2003, when fellow practitioners went to visit him, he was just skin and bones. Moreover, he was bedridden and could not eat or drink anything. He would throw up whatever he took in. His family members told the practitioners that he could no longer recognize people. When practitioners mentioned the experience of clarifying the truth together with him, he only had a blank look. However, when the practitioners mentioned "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," his eyes brightened, and there was a little smile on his face. Then tears welled up in his eyes. On December 14th, 2003, he passed away.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/22/68197.html

Mr. Song Shijie, 56 years old, was a retired employee from Siping City Art League in Jilin Province. He had been practising Falun Dafa for many years and he was very healthy and strong. At around 10:00 p.m. on May 12, 2003, he was arrested at his home by Tiexi Police Officers in Siping City. Two days later, Mr. Song's family was informed that he was dead. His family members were shocked to learn of this news and they planned to sue the Tiexi Police for torturing Song Shijie. The Tiexi Police did not want their crimes to be exposed, so they gave 50,000 yuan to Mr. Song's family as compensation. It is reported that Song Shijie's family members are still in the process of bringing a lawsuit against the Tiexi Police.

Phone numbers of responsible parties in Siping City

Renxing Police Station: 86-434-3222769

Beigou Police Station: 86-434-3222668

Tiexi Police Office: 86-434-3624833

Political Security Division of Tiexi Police Office: 86-434-3624885

Siping City Police Department: 86-434-3625547 86-434-3640110

Siping City Art League: 86-434-3624528

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/2/23/68229.html

Mr. Zhang Quande was the deputy party secretary of the Wolong District Committee in Nanyang City, Henan Province. After he retired, he suffered from various diseases; however, after he took up the practice of Falun Gong, he soon recovered. In July 1999, Jiang's regime started the persecution of Falun Gong. Zhang persisted in his practice of Falun Gong, and as a result, he was arrested. During detention, he was tortured and became extremely weak. His family members used their influence and got him released after he was detained for three months. However, the Chezhan Police in Nanyang City would not leave him alone. After his release, they kept coming to his home to harass him.

In January 2003, Zhang Quande was taken away by police from the Chezhan Police Station. They sent him to Fangcheng County where he was detained for one month. Afterwards, the police sent him to Shangzhuang Detention Centre in Nanyang City and held him there for 64 days. While in detention, the police tried to force him to swear at Teacher and Dafa, and to give up his belief in Falun Gong. The elderly gentleman said sternly, "I've been working in the government for dozens of years and I've never seen law enforcement personnel like you who intentionally violate the law! Which regulation states that we must swear at people? I practise Falun Gong and have a healthy body. Our Teacher teaches us not to fight back when beaten and not to curse back when being cursed. We consider others before ourselves in all matters. Is there anything wrong with this? Falun Dafa is good!" The torture made the elderly gentleman's health deteriorate rapidly. When he was released from the detention centre, his whole body was covered with scabies and he could no long move around. Even so, the police extorted 2000 yuan from him.

In May 2003, Mr. Zhang passed away.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/22/68196.html

Dafa practitioner Ms. Li Shunfeng, 57, was a resident of Baishan City, Jilin Province. Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on February 8, 2001 and was dead three days later. The Beijing police said that she "committed suicide by jumping off a building." Nevertheless, her family members couldn't find any wounds on her, not even a scratch. When her relatives asked the police why there were no injuries from the jump, the police were silent. According to an insider, Ms. Li was first sprayed with high-pressure hoses, then dragged outside where she froze to death.

Before practising, she had had a chronic illness for a long time. Specifically, she was paralyzed for seven or eight years due to postpartum arthritis. She went from place to place seeking medical help, but to no avail. By October 1998 she had been unable to eat for more than a month and it looked as though she would no longer make it. Her family didn't know what to do. At that time, she heard about Falun Gong. She was able to eat again even before she even finished reading two chapters of "Zhuan Falun" [the main text of Falun Dafa]. By studying the teachings like this, in less than a month her health condition gradually improved and her body quickly recovered. Since her paralysis she had been in debt as she had borrowed money from the government to treat her illness, and had not yet been able to repay the money. As a result, her family could not even afford winter clothes. After Ms. Li got rid of her illness, her entire family's life changed dramatically. She told everyone she came in contact with that Falun Gong saved her life and saved her whole family.

Once the persecution and defamation of Falun Dafa began, through her own experiences she told people of the tremendous changes Dafa had brought her. Nevertheless, Gong Shishun, the head of Political Security Office in the Forest Bureau, Wang Shouliang and the Dongfeng Police Station went and ransacked her home every two or three days. They even took her to the Quanlin 2nd Precinct for interrogation. The Police Station from Quanyang Town and the Forest Bureau also ransacked her home. Sometimes, the policemen from the two places even ran into each other on the way. On those days, the entire family's life was constantly disrupted.

On February 5, 2001, Ms. Li left for Beijing in order to appeal for Falun Gong. On February 7, 2001, Xu Jiaseng of the Quanyang Police Station visited Ms. Li's home and told her husband, "Your wife has gone to Beijing, and I have a message from higher-up to ask you for one thousand yuan in exchange for her." At that time her husband was busy getting money to go to Beijing. The next day Yu Zhankui from the Retirement Affairs Office went to her home and said: "Your wife jumped from a building. You go and get her cremated remains." At that moment her entire family was shocked and speechless.

Ms. Li's husband arrived in Beijing on the night of February 9. He went to the small, white four-story building which was the Beijing Liaison Office for Baishan City. According to the police, it was from that building that Ms. Li had jumped. After one day, Ms. Li's husband again went to the Coroners Laboratory Test Centre of the Beijing Public Security Bureau. The police had already sent faxes to notify all of Ms. Li's family members that they had to agree that she had committed suicide by jumping off a building and, furthermore, that they all had to have their fingerprints taken to validate their agreement. Even Ms. Li's husband was forced to agree that she committed suicide. After they put her husband through this procedure, they allowed him to go to the Beijing City Changping Mortuary to see her body. At the time, Ms. Li's body was completely naked and her clothes were frozen in a clump to her body. There were no visible injuries on the body, not even a scratch. Her husband was heartbroken upon seeing this and he couldn't stop the tears from flowing down his face. When he asked them why they didn't put some clothes on her, they said it was for the coroner's examination. He then asked, "Why are there no injuries from the jump?" The policemen had nothing to say to that. Since Ms. Li was deceased, no one could challenge the police testimony.

According to an insider, Ms. Li was sprayed with high-pressure hoses and shocked with electric batons. She was then dragged outside to freeze in the cold weather. The healthy Ms. Li was eventually frozen to death. This was how a good, kind person who was alive and well was tortured to death by the police just for speaking up to clarify the truth. Yet, the police obscurely tried to conceal the facts and deceive her relatives.

Before her husband saw her body, it cost him one thousand yuan for the coroner's examination, twenty yuan to move the body, eighty yuan to rent and use an autopsy room, twenty yuan for her makeup, thirty yuan for the cremation and ash collection and four hundred yuan for the funeral home. He spent a total of 1,550 yuan. It was only after he had gone through all these procedures that he was able to go to a mortuary to see Ms. Li's body.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/29/66078.html

Mr. Lu Xingguo was a 45-year-old Dafa practitioner who lived in Wanggang Hongyi Village, Shanghai. On October 15, 2003 he died from torture in Shanghai Qingpu District's No. 3 Forced Labour Camp.

Because Lu Xingguo was a determined Falun Gong practitioner, police detained him in the No. 3 Forced Labour Camp. On October 13, 2003 he was transferred to a Middle Team under direct camp supervision. It is located at the first floor of Middle Team One in the forced labour camp. This team was known for its cruelty against practitioners by employing criminals to carry out violence and torture. Practitioners had previously been detained in the labour camp hospital. In late May 2003, they were moved to their current location.

Lu Xingguo was in room number 109. Encouraged by policeman Xiang Jianzhong (Middle Team leader, badge no. 3130268), several criminal inmates in Room 109, such as thieves, robbers, gangsters, those having committed economic crimes and also drug addicts started to physically and verbally assault Lu, even using a small stool to torture him.

The small, circular shaped stool is placed against a wall. Under regular circumstances it is actually is a type of spool to coil up wires, in a rather small diameter. The practitioner was forced to sit on the floor with his back against the stool. His legs were extended in front of him in such a way that the legs and upper body formed a 90-degree angle. His arms were stretched to both sides of the body to form a straight line on the wall. Several people would spread the person's legs till they are almost 180 degrees apart.

This torture is extremely painful and very hard for people to bear. A person can fall unconscious from the excruciating pain. At the moment when the practitioner almost loses consciousness, the hatchet men would take a mouthful of cold water and with dirty saliva, spit in the practitioner's face to make the practitioner regain consciousness. When they tortured Lu Xingguo, people outside that room heard Lu's painful cries. The criminals had ordered him to give up Falun Gong. When he said no, the criminals subjected Mr. Lu to the Tiger Bench* torture. They cruelly tortured him, both mentally and physically. They tortured him for two continuous days until his ligaments were torn and he was unable to stand and walk.

Later, Team Leader Xiang Jianzhong came to Room 109 and tried to force Lu Xingguo to answer some "questions." Xiang also tried to threaten him. When Dafa practitioner Mr. Lu protested against the tortures, Xiang Jianzhong became very angry and defensive. He told head criminal inmate Zhang Min and others to intensify the torture. They were told to do whatever they can to force him to yield to them and to turn away from Falun Dafa practice. A new round of persecution was planned.

On October 15, 2003 in the morning, policemen first transferred a few tough criminals such as Xu Ping and Dong Wei to room 111. At 12:00 p.m. inmate Zhang Min locked all Falun Gong practitioners into their cells. They were not even allowed to go to the toilet. They dragged the badly injured Lu Xingguo, who was unable to walk, from Room 109 to Room 111. The barefoot Mr. Lu was pulled along the floor on his back. Si Daolong was the head for cell Room 111. Other criminals such as Sui Wei, Wang Daming, Gao Jingdong, Gu Hailun, Yu Yonghuai, and Song Yuqi also came to Room 111. Now there were almost ten criminals in the room.

Zhang Min shouted, "Turn up the TV volume and close all the doors and windows." Then they started to subject Mr. Lu to another round of more severe torture. To prevent Lu from making any sound, they stuffed a towel into his mouth. Nobody knew for sure what happened in there.

After some time, the door and windows were opened. People heard Sui Wei and others swear. They also could hear Lu's weakening voice refusing to yield to the torture and renounce his belief in Falun Dafa.

Realizing that Lu was willing to defend his belief with his life, the criminals were extremely furious. They immediately went on to another round of torture. They closed the doors and windows again and turned the TV to the highest volume. They proceeded with the most evil and cruel torture. In less than one hour, Falun Gong practitioner Lu Xingguo was dead from torture at the hands of the police and the criminals.

At 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon, the criminals told the police, "He is dead." Police team leader Zhu (badge no. 3130671) came to Room 111. He instructed two criminals to carry Lu Xingguo's body and walked all the way outside of Team Number One's gate.

At midnight that same day, police Team Leader Zeng (badge no. 3130586) summoned criminals Sui Wei, Xu Ping and Dong Wei to come outside. They probably made up lies and recorded faked witness statements. They tried to cover up the truth to escape justice. Indeed, the policemen in other teams began to spread a rumour, "Lu Xingguo committed suicide to celebrate his Master's birthday."

During this whole process of torturing and persecuting Lu Xingguo, the most evil and most responsible one was Xiang Jianzhong. He once said, "We had orders from above. A 5% fatality rate is acceptable. If we kill someone, there are no consequences. We are not afraid of killing."

Later, the police told Lu's family that he died of an illness. They did not allow the family to see his body. On October 17, police informed Lu Xingguo's brother to come and sign the death certificate. His brother requested to see documentation of his brother's cause of death. While trying to make up a cause, the police couldn't justify themselves. The police still had no justification, but didn't give the family an opportunity to see his body. They ordered the family to cremate the body the next day on October 18th.

On October 18th, more than 60 policemen were stationed in the crematory to guard the body. When the family arrived, the police had already put clothes on the body. Still they did not allow the family to see the body. According to an eyewitness, Lu Xingguo's face was nearly beyond recognition. There was no skin on his lip. All his teeth were gone. The skin near his ears was wrinkled. His hair stood up straight. Blood was on his neck and one could see large area of bruises from the electric shocks.

Lu Xingguo was survived by his 60-year-old mother, a disabled and bedridden father, as well as his wife and a school-age daughter.

Shanghai Dafa practitioner Lu Xingguo defended his faith in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" with his own life. He used his righteousness and conscience to awaken people's minds and let people know the truth of the persecution. We hereby appeal to people in the world to come together, to stop the cruel persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

* Tiger bench: Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse (see illustration on )

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/8/66887.html

On February 23, 2004, Les Presses Chinoises Falun Gong slander/hate case entered the last phase. The lawyers from both sides have presented final arguments before the judge. According to pronouncements from Zhou Jinxing, the head of Les Presses Chinoises, as well as from related facts it becomes obvious that Jiang's group is systematically exporting hate propaganda abroad while it is persecuting Falun Gong in Mainland China. Why is Zhou Jinxing hiding the facts?

Zhou Jinxing said during cross-examination that he had an office in Guangzhou City that didn't have any actual business dealings, and it closed in late 2001. From then on, he stated, he did not have any other business besides Les Presses Chinoises. The plaintiffs' lawyer, though, presented evidence that shows the trademark of a company called Crescent International once appeared on the Les Presses Chinoises website. Crescent is Zhou Jinxing's English name, and the company was doing immigration business in Guangzhou City. Why was Zhou Jinxing hiding the existence of this company in court?

When questioned by his attorney, Zhou Jinxing stated before the court that Les Presses Chinoises has no political backing and no connection with any Chinese consulate in Canada. Zhou even claimed the newspaper's website does not even contain a link to the consulates. The newspaper was very firm in its claim. After this particular court session, Zhou Jinxing argued that there were various numbers in the phone book of Les Presses Chinoises, including those of Chinese consulate, but he still denied any direct connection. The plaintiff's lawyer provided reliable evidence that showed Les Presses Chinoises website did have a direct web link to the Chinese consulate, but it was taken off a few months after the trial began. Why did Zhou Jinxing hide this fact?

Les Presses Chinoises continues to use the Chinese government's Falun Gong-slandering propaganda after the court had issued a "safeguard order"

When the plaintiff's lawyer asked whether Zhou Jinxing had followed any code of ethics in guiding the writing of his social commentary articles, Zhou Jinxing, who had been in the newspaper trade for 23 years answered "no." Les Presses Chinoises has never published reports by a third party on anything regarding Falun Gong, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, the US government, Canadian government or any other official agencies. Zhou Jinxing himself once wrote a commentary to attack Falun Gong, but he had never interviewed any Falun Gong practitioners.

Zhou Jinxing admitted he knew the reality of the persecution of Falun Gong since its beginning. He also learned about the ruthless torture Falun Gong practitioners at labour camps and prisons are subjected to from pamphlets Falun Gong practitioners had given him. Zhou also admitted he didn't read any Falun Gong books prior to publishing a slanderous article by He Bing in December 2001.

After the court issued two safeguard orders prohibiting Les Presses Chinoises from publishing further anti-Falun Gong articles, Les Presses Chinoises continued to publish Falun Gong-slandering articles almost verbatim from the ones the Chinese government uses and publishes.

Les Presses Chinoises is one of the few overseas Chinese media the Chinese government tolerates

According to a certain investigation, the Chinese government blocks many overseas Chinese media. The Chinese government approves of few overseas Chinese media; Les Presses Chinoises being one of them. The Falun Gong-attacking articles published in their paper in Canada can be read in major papers and websites in Mainland China several days after they are published in Les Presses Chinoises. Considering the strict censoring system of the Chinese propaganda machinery, ordinary overseas reports would not take up space in the government-controlled media so quickly if there is no special "looking after."

Zhou Jinxing said in court that he knew that the media in Mainland China routinely reprinted Falun Gong-attacking articles from Les Presses Chinoises. He also admitted that the People's Daily used his social commentary attacking Falun Gong as a reference.

According to a report dealing with the first 2003 issue Guangzhou Wah Shing, between December 1 and December 7, 2002, the Guangzhou City Office of Overseas Affairs and the city news office jointly invited people from the overseas Chinese media, including Qiao Bao in the Western U.S., Ming Bao in Western Canada, from Les Presses Chinoises, Chinese Daily in Australia, and New China in Thailand. The World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has discovered through independent investigations that, aside from Les Presses Chinoises, the other four papers also have strong political connection to the Chinese government. Qiao Bao, founded in 1990, is directly controlled by the Chinese government, and its modus operandi is to quickly and "objectively" report official Chinese news. Ming Bao is a media outlet "heavily influenced by the Chinese government." The founding of the news outlet Chinese Daily in Australia was reported by China News Net, the widely known state-run news agency that once attacked New Tang Dynasty TV, which supports Falun Gong. In late February 2001, New China published a social commentary attacking Falun Gong, which China News Service wrongly had used as "proof of an anti-Falun Gong trend abroad."

"How China's Government Is Attempting to Control the Chinese Media in America," is the name of a chapter in a publication called China Brief. It was prepared by the Jamestown Foundation. It states: Four main tactics characterise the Chinese government's effort to influence the Chinese media in America. First is the attempt to directly control newspapers, television stations and radio stations through complete or majority ownership. Second is the government's use of economic ties to influence independent media who have business relations with China. This leverage has had major effects on the contents of broadcasting and publishing, effectively removing all material deemed "unfavourable" by the Chinese government. Third is the purchase of airtime and advertising (or more) from existing independent media. Closely related to this is the Chinese government media's provision of ready-to-go programming and content. Fourth is the deployment of government personnel to work in independent media, achieving influence from within their ranks.

Lies and propaganda followed by the incitement of hatred

In terms of attacking Falun Gong, Les Presses Chinoises used exactly the same methods as Jiang's group: lies and propaganda followed by the incitement of hatred. When people began to resent the page after page of gory so-called "news and reports" that were used to defame Falun Gong, Jiang's group staged the "Tiananmen Self-immolation Incident," which the international community put into the spotlight. From then on, hate propaganda has been spread on a large scale. Let us look at the Chinese Department of Education as an example: on February 1, 2001, the Party Committee of the Department of Education and the Youth League Central Party Committee headed by Chen Zhili, had issued a notice (Education-party [2001], No. 1), ordering all school organisations in China to hold activities to attack Falun Gong. After the order was issued, the education system first promoted the "one-million signatures" campaign. People in authority forced students to sign their names to oppose Falun Gong as "anti-cult;" they then reported this activity through the media and promoted it throughout society. Later, the signatures were taken before the United Nations and were used as "proof" of "the people's will" to suppress Falun Gong.

On February 6, 2001, within one day, under direct influence and orders from Wang Maolin, head of the central "610 Office" and also from Zhou Qiang, secretary of central Youth League Party Committee, eight million young people in 100 cities and nearly 1000 districts throughout the nation participated in anti-Falun Gong activities. The report claimed that more than 500,000 propaganda pictures were posted, over 10 million flyers were passed out, more than 200 gatherings were held, and more than eight million young people including children took part in these activities. The official report stated, "Young people in Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jilin, Jiangsu, Shandong, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Fujian, Neimenggu and other areas walked into the streets and into different districts to take part in these large-scale anti-Falun Gong activities...by posting bulletins in public places, distributing flyers, broadcasting videos and audiocassettes..."

Now let's take a look at what Les Presses Chinoises did. While repeatedly violating the Safeguard Order issued by the court, Les Presses Chinoises collected signatures in the Chinese community. They used people's kind nature to incite hatred. Zhou Jinxing said in court he had "collected 5,000 signatures supporting Les Presses Chinoises."

Mrs. Lucy Zhou, a Dafa practitioner, testified in court that Les Presses Chinoises took an appeal letter to a meeting of elderly Chinese people in Ottawa, Canada and publicly asked for signatures. When Mrs. Zhou clarified the facts and told the people at the meeting that Falun Dafa is good, a Chinese person quietly said to her, "I am aware of the things you are saying, but don't say them here, because people from Chinese consulate are here."

Tuesday February 17, 2004

Has China been transformed? That is the suggestion of French President Jacques Chirac, who is trying to persuade the European Union to lift its embargo on arms sales to China. Europe, like the United States, imposed the arms ban in 1989, soon after the Chinese regime brought its tanks and army into Beijing to end the weeks of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

Urged on by the French defence industry, Chirac contends that China today is different from 10 or 15 years ago. That argument seems to dovetail with visitors' impressions of a glitzy China and with the currently fashionable clichés about how China is being integrated into the international community.

The problem is that in fundamental ways relating to human rights and political repression, China today is not much different than it was a decade ago. Yes, China has been brought into the international community, if we define that phrase exclusively in terms of economics. But ordinarily the international community is not defined solely by membership in the World Trade Organisation.

To illustrate this point, let's take an example: China's unwillingness to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.

China has never allowed the ICRC (which is an excellent example of the international community) to visit its prisons. One stumbling block has been that the Red Cross insists on the right to interview prisoners privately and with its own interpreters.

Over a decade ago, on the eve of President Bill Clinton's first meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said at a news conference that China was prepared to let the ICRC into Chinese jails. This was treated as a great breakthrough, and it eased the climate for Clinton's meeting.

But nothing happened. At first there were suggestions that China might give the Red Cross access to its prisons only after the Clinton administration dropped its attempt to impose human rights conditions on China's trade benefits. Clinton did that, but China didn't act on the ICRC. The Clinton administration raised the issue of prison access again and again in Clinton's second term, without success. The current Bush administration has tried too, but today, 10 years after China first hinted it was about to open up its prisons to inspection by the international community, it still hasn't done so.

This is not some abstract or bureaucratic issue. The significance of ICRC access to prisons was explained by one International Red Cross official in this way: "At a minimum, our visits give the prisoner the solace of an hour's conversation with a reasonable human being in his own language. In the most extreme cases, a visit can prevent the prisoner from disappearance and death."

Those eloquent words happen to have been spoken with a particular case in mind -- the U.S. detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last year, the ICRC said publicly that the U.S. policies at Guantanamo were unacceptable, and its criticisms, many of them legitimate, were widely reported in Europe.

But please note that at least the United States permitted the ICRC to visit Guantanamo. That's more than China has done for its entire prison system. And yet the Europeans who are so forthright in condemning American policies at Guantanamo seem to be silent about a Chinese regime whose jails are still considered entirely off-limits to the ICRC. That is a classic double standard.

Over the past 10 years, China has managed to defuse international human rights complaints by channelling them into endless disputes over meetings, visits, human rights "dialogues," requests by various organisations for offices in Beijing -- anything that doesn't substantively require China to alter its policies.

Yes, China has changed in some ways in the past decade. The Chinese people now have the freedom to wear what they want. Ordinary citizens can generally say what they want in private or in some public settings -- so long as they remain completely unorganised and unchallenging to the regime.

But when it comes to tolerance of any political opposition, or to human rights standards as generally defined by the international community, China is essentially the same as it was a decade ago. The regime has never expressed the slightest remorse for using weaponry against its own people.

Chirac is right about one thing -- something has changed over the past decade. But it's not China. Rather, the rest of the world has become far more tolerant of the same Chinese political repression that it condemned in the early 1990s. A lifting of the EU arms embargo would be one more big step in this tawdry policy of accepting repression.

James Mann is a senior writer-in-residence at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a former China correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46671-2004Feb16.html

Falun Gong practitioners from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire gathered in Boston's Chinatown on February 21. They held banners saying "Bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Zhou Yongkang to Justice" and exposed these official's crimes of persecuting Falun Gong. The practitioners brought the public up to date on lawsuits against Jiang around the world. With moving songs, they expressed their wish for all kind people to see the truth.

Jiang, Luo, Liu and Zhou Are Chief Perpetrators Responsible for the Persecution of Falun Gong

Ms. Anna Chen, Representative of Falun Dafa Information Centre in New England, made the following statement at the gathering, "Jiang Zemin, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, former Secretary General of Chinese Community Party and former Chairman, plotted and ordered the suppression of Falun Gong. Out of his own jealousy and greedy desires for power, the former Chinese leader personally ordered the establishment of the '610 Office' on June 10th, 1999. The '610 Office' was set up with the purpose of leading and inflicting systematic persecution on Falun Gong practitioners nationwide. This office has been playing a critical role in the cruel persecution it launched in July, 1999."

Luo Gan is the main leader of "610 Office." He personally ordered all levels of government, from the central to the local, from the Communist Party to Administrative Entities, from public security, courts, forced labour camps, national security, propaganda to policemen, to have unlimited power of persecution, including cruel torture, sexual abuse and even murder. He directed all political and legal commissions, state-owned facilities and businesses and neighbourhood committees to establish facilities to brainwash steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang's secret orders were to "Kill Falun Gong practitioners without any consequence", "Cremate murdered Falun Gong practitioners without identification", "Defame their reputations, Bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically."

Liu Jing was personally involved in staging the self-immolation at Tiananmen Square to evoke public hatred towards Falun Gong. Following Falun Gong practitioners' tapping into TV network in Changchun on March 5, 2002, Liu Jing made several trips to Changchun to direct a campaign of intensified persecution, resulting in 8 deaths. More than five thousand Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and fifteen thrown into prison to serve extended terms. In a crackdown planning meeting held in the Nanhu Hotel of Changchun in February, 2002, Liu Jing transmitted a secret order that shooting is allowed during arrest, which resulted in the shooting of Falun Gong practitioner Liu Chengjun, who was eventually tortured to death on December 26, 2003.

Zhou Yongkang, as Secretary of Party Committee of Sichuan Province, implemented tortures of Falun Gong practitioners in jails. Zhou ordered a "guilt by association" policy throughout Sichuan Province. "If parents practice Falun Gong, children will be fired. If children practice Falun Gong, parents will be fired. Retired Falun Gong practitioners' pensions will be stopped." From July, 1999 to December, 2003, seventy-nine Falun Gong practitioners in Sichuan were tortured to death. Among them, twenty-five were in Chongqing. As soon as he came on board as Minister of Public Security Department, Zhou held a planning meeting with leaders of bureau level on December 9, 2003. During the meeting, he continued his policy and stressed that "severe crackdown on Falun Gong should continue to be the main duty of Public Security."

New Death Cases

According to a Minghui report, twenty-four deaths of Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed this February. They are located in Jilin Province, Heilongjiang Province, Shandong Province, Gansu Province, Sichuan Province, Hebei Province, Liaoning Province, Guizhou Province, Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai.

Falun Gong Practitioners Demand Punishment of Chief Criminals

Falun Gong practitioners held banners saying "Bring Jiang, Luo, Liu and Zhou to Justice" at their gathering in Boston. Dr. Wei Pengfei of MIT said, "Falun Gong practitioners have never been involved in politics like party, power or political system issues. However, everyone is responsible for his actions. Nobody can escape from legal responsibility by hiding under the excuse of party, power, political system or even orders from upper levels. The lawsuits that Falun Gong practitioners have brought are against those who launched and participated in the persecution."

Dr. Wei also said, "By saying 'Welcome Wen Jiabao to the U.S.' and 'Bring Jiang to Justice', Falun Gong practitioners have made it clear: We love our motherland. All are welcome to learn the facts of the persecution. The activities we have are against the criminals, not against any nation or government."

Lawsuits against Persecution Criminals around the World

Lawsuits against persecution criminals including Jiang, Luo and Zhou have been filed in the U.S., Belgium, Spain, Germany, Korea and Taiwan.

On July 17, 2001, Zhao Zhifei was sued in the U.S. He was convicted on December 21 of the same year.

On February 7, 2002, Liu Qi and Xia Deren were sued in the U.S. They were convicted in June, 2003.

On February 3, 2004, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Joel Chipkar damages for libel against a Chinese Deputy Consul, Pan Xinchun.

In January, 2004, the names of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and forty-four other high officials have been placed on a watch list with Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program (CAHWCP). The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed that a file has been opened with the War Crimes Unit. In the event that a perpetrator of atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners lands in Canada, a prompt investigation will be conducted.

Though it is just the beginning, it is said that justice will win eventually despite the evil violence. This is an eternal truth.

"Coming for You"

Falun Gong practitioners in New England stood in the drizzle and sang a song, "Coming for You."

"Coming from far away,
Again and again, I came for you,
I came for loving you.
Precious Chinese people, please listen to my heart-felt voice,
Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa Hao!
See the truth behind those lies.

Facing violence and danger,
Again and again, I came for you,
I came for loving you.
Precious Chinese people, did you know that the whole world is saying,
"Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa Hao!"
Do not miss this precious chance.

Do not miss this precious chance, this precious chance!"

On February 25, 2004, the U.S. Department of State released its 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The 150-page section on China's human rights says that the Chinese government's human rights record remained poor, as it continued to commit numerous and serious abuses. According to the report, the (Chinese) Government continued its persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and thousands of practitioners remained incarcerated in prisons, extrajudicial re-education-through-labour camps, and psychiatric facilities. Several hundred Falun Gong adherents reportedly have died in detention due to torture, abuse, and neglect since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999.

The U.S. Department of State points out in its human rights report that the People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which, as directed by the Constitution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP or Party) is the paramount source of power. Party members hold almost all top government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with the 24-member political bureau (Politburo) of the CCP and its 9-member standing committee. Leaders make a top priority of maintaining stability and social order and were committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. Citizens lacked both the freedom peacefully to express opposition to the Party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of government.

The report states that although legal reforms continued, there was backsliding on key human rights issues during the year 2003, including arrests of individuals discussing sensitive subjects on the Internet, health activists, labour protesters, defence lawyers, journalists, house church members, and others seeking to take advantage of the space created by reforms.

The report says that the Chinese government's human rights abuses included instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process.

According to the report, the judiciary in China was not independent, and the lack of due process remained a serious problem. Government pressure made it difficult for Chinese lawyers to represent criminal defendants. A number of attorneys were detained for representing their clients actively. During the year, Beijing defence lawyer Zhang Jianzhong and Shanghai housing advocate Zheng Enchong both were sentenced to multi-year prison terms in connection with their defence of controversial clients. The authorities routinely violated legal protections in the cases of political dissidents and religious figures. They generally attached higher priority to suppressing political opposition and maintaining public order than to enforcing legal norms or protecting individual rights.

The report says that the Government continued to wage a severe political, propaganda, and police campaign against the Falun Gong movement. Since the Government banned the Falun Gong in 1999, mere belief in the discipline, without any outward manifestation of its tenets, has been sufficient grounds for practitioners to receive punishments ranging from loss of employment to imprisonment, and in many cases, to suffer torture and death. In many cases, Falun Gong practitioners were subject to close scrutiny by local security personnel, and their personal mobility was tightly restricted, particularly at times when the Government believed public protests were likely. The report says, several hundred Falun Gong adherents reportedly have died in detention due to torture, abuse, and neglect since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999. For example, Falun Gong groups alleged that more than 50 persons died in custody in June through August, many from torture in detention camps.

According to the report, police often used excessive force when detaining peaceful Falun Gong protesters, including some who were elderly or who were accompanied by small children. During the year, there were further allegations of abuse of Falun Gong practitioners by the police and other security personnel. Since 1999, at least several hundred Falun Gong adherents reportedly have died while in police custody. In December, Liu Chengjun, sentenced to 19 years in prison in March 2002 for involvement in illegal Falun Gong television broadcasts, was reportedly beaten to death by police in Jilin City Prison. In February 2002, Chengdu University Associate Professor Zhang Chuansheng died in prison after being arrested for his involvement with Falun Gong. Prison authorities claimed he died of a heart attack, but witnesses who saw his body claimed he had been severely beaten.

Falun Gong practitioners continued their efforts to overcome government attempts to restrict their right to free assembly, particularly in Beijing, says the report. The Government initiated a comprehensive effort to round up practitioners not already in custody and sanctioned the use of high-pressure tactics and mandatory anti-Falun Gong study sessions to force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong. Even practitioners who had not protested or made other public demonstrations of belief reportedly were forced to attend anti-Falun Gong classes or were sent directly to re-education-through-labour camps, where in some cases, beatings and torture reportedly were used to force them to recant.

Authorities also detained foreign Falun Gong practitioners. For example, in January, two Australian citizens were deported for engaging in Falun Gong activities in Sichuan Province. In November 2001, more than 30 foreigners and citizens resident abroad were detained in Beijing as they demonstrated in support of the Falun Gong. They were expelled from the country; some credibly reported being mistreated while in custody.

The report says, the [Chinese] Constitution states that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are fundamental rights to be enjoyed by all citizens; however, the Government tightly restricted these rights in practice. The Government's public orders, guidelines, and statutes greatly restricted the freedom of broadcast journalists and newspapers to report the news and led to a high degree of self-censorship. The Government continued an intense propaganda campaign against the Falun Gong.

The Government maintained tight restrictions on freedom of speech and of the press, says the report. During the year, the Government blocked many websites, increased regulations on Internet cafes, and pressured Internet companies to pledge to censor objectionable content. The Government continued to threaten, arrest, and imprison persons exercising free speech.

According to this report, China's Internet control system employed more than 30,000 persons and was allegedly the largest in the world. According to a 2002 Harvard University report, the Government blocked at least 19,000 sites during a 6-month period and may have blocked as many as 50,000. At times, the Government blocked the sites of some major foreign news organizations, health organizations, educational institutions, Taiwanese and Tibetan businesses and organizations, religious and spiritual organizations, democracy activists, and sites discussing the June 4 Tiananmen massacre. The number of blocked sites appeared to increase around major political events and sensitive dates. The authorities reportedly began to employ more sophisticated technology enabling the selective blocking of specific content rather than entire websites in some cases. Such technology was also used to block e-mails containing sensitive content. Internet usage reportedly was monitored at all terminals in public libraries.

The "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" is produced annually by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour and submitted to Congress in compliance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

The complete report on China, which includes Hong Kong and Macau and an addendum on Tibet, can be found online at: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27768.htm

The Lantern Show at the 2004 Taiwan Lantern Festival began on February 5, 2004 in Banqiao City, Taipei County. As the Taipei County government estimated, nearly four million people from across Taiwan visited the lantern festival during the eleven days. Practitioners once again held activities during the lantern show to let more people learn about Falun Dafa.

Balloons with words "Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" can be seen everywhere	Performing the exercises at the entrance to the lantern show

It had been raining for days, but the rain quietly stopped at noon of February 5, the very day of the Lantern Festival. A large number of people poured into the site. At every entrance, people could see banners imprinted with words, "Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," and Falun Gong practitioners who were introducing Falun Gong to people passing by and demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. Those who wanted to learn about Falun Gong would walk up to practitioners to ask for details and requested an introductory leaflet for reference. There were also many visitors from the Mainland and the practitioner’s activities allowed them to see how well received Falun Gong is overseas.

Among products being selected from the Lantern Making Contest, there was a blue scarf embroidered with words "Falun Dafa, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." It was displayed at a conspicuous place at the first row of the exhibition section. Everybody passing by was attracted and spontaneously read the words, "Falun Dafa, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance."

Balloons imprinted with words "Falun Dafa is good, the world needs 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance'" were well received and could be seen everywhere at the site. Many people came to request them, and practitioners would always say, "Please remember Falun Dafa is good!" Some people would respond "Falun Dafa is good," "Falun Dafa is really good."

Four to five students listened to our explanation about the persecution imposed upon Falun Gong practitioners in the Mainland, and then one of them said, "I know, I have watched a Falun Gong documentary on TV." When the practitioner gave him a truth-clarifying VCD, the student said, "Please give me some more, I want to share with other classmates." Another time, a van loaded with nine people stopped in front of our practice site. Practitioners walked up to give them some leaflets and explain to them the persecution of Falun Gong. After they understood what we were trying to explain to them, they also wanted us to give them more truth-clarifying VCDs, so they could help distribute them to other people.

One person expressed that he had watched a Falun Dafa program on TV, but he still couldn't understand why Jiang's group persecutes Falun Gong so severely. Practitioners explained to him, "Because there were many people practicing Falun Gong, in a few years, more than 100 million people in the Mainland China practiced it. Jiang's group was afraid to lose power and out of their jealousy, they launched the persecution. Falun Gong books explicitly tell Falun Dafa practitioners to take the xinxing [mind or heart nature, moral character] cultivation as fundamental, take lightly fame and profit, absolutely do not get involved in politics, let alone participate in any political dispute and activities." After the practitioners' explanation, he understood, and asked earnestly, "Can you help me find a practice site near my home? I want to learn to practice it!"

The lantern show concluded in a lively atmosphere. Falun Gong practitioners' activities received warm response from the public, at least one hundred thousand people accepted Falun Gong leaflets and truth-clarifying materials.

The splendour of a morning at first light,
Sweet sounds of bird song greeting the new dawn…

Standing on a mountain summit looking out upon farthest horizons,
Sun glistening across the expanse of a turquoise ocean…

Stillness after a thunderous storm,
Gentle rain ending a long summers drought…

The splendour of a precious butterfly winged in flight,
Fragrant blossoms filling the air with the coming of Spring…

These words attempt to convey something of the beauty, the inspiration and wonder that so many worldwide have discovered after embracing the practise of Falun Dafa. However, such analogies fall far short of expressing the Great Buddha Law, the magnificent and all-encompassing Law of the cosmos.

The Nasca Lines consist of trapezoids and spirals, giant animal and humanoid figures, and ruler-straight lines that stretch for miles. These lines and ground drawings, called "geoglyphs,” are attributed to the Nasca race that populated this land between 200 B.C. and 600 A.D. They were created by removing the top layer of dark rock from the desert floor, revealing contrasting white-yellow sand. Interestingly, the drawings are best viewed and appreciated from the air.

Average rainfall in this desert is half an inch per year. Widely recognised as the driest place on earth, the Atacama’s Nasca Lines have been preserved for thousands of years.

When commercial airlines started flights over the Peruvian desert in the 1920s, pilots and passengers spoke of seeing “landing strips” crisscrossing the ground below. Stories of these mysterious lines soon spread. Many experts have since then attempted to unravel the puzzle of the desert drawings.

Dr. Paul Kosok came to the Nasca desert in the 1930s to study ancient irrigation channels. Initially, the Nasca Lines were thought to be remnants of these channels. Often travelling by foot, Dr. Kosok soon discovered large-scale drawings of animals and other objects. Over time, he theorised that the drawings represented a large astronomical chart.

In the mid-1940s, a German girl named Maria Reiche worked to further develop Dr. Kosock’s astronomical theory. Her background in mathematics and astronomy enabled her to map and study the desert shapes. She noted that many lines aligned with important solstices, and discovered further correlations to the solar cycle. She found large drawings of a monkey, whale, spider and several birds. While painstakingly clearing, measuring and reproducing the lines on paper, she discovered a standard of measurement used by the ancient artists. In 1977, she published a book, “Mystery On The Desert,” summarising her research of the Nasca Lines. She continued her research until her death in 1998.

Other experts had different theories. Toribio Nejia, a renowned Peruvian archaeologist, proposed the lines were sacred pathways, or “ceques,” and the clearings used for ritual gatherings. Author Erich von Daniken made one of the more fanciful speculations in his book "Chariots of the Gods ?" He speculated that the lines were laid out for alien spacecraft to land on the desert.

Although many theories abound to the purpose of these strange markings, there remains no consensus as to their meaning.

As these different researchers brought more attention to the Nasca Lines, the normally lonely desert was suddenly under threat. As she did years earlier when the lines were threatened by a government scheme to irrigate the arid pampa, Maria Reiche was able to spearhead an effort to preserve these unique markings by restricting crowds driving through the fragile terrain. In 1994, the Lines of Nasca were designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

To this day, the Lines of Nasca remain a mysterious remnant from an ancient civilisation.