LONDON [EFGIC] – We are encouraged by last Wednesday’s U.S. court ruling which found two high-ranking Chinese officials liable for crimes of torture, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. This ruling adds to the momentum of 47 lawsuits filed in 29 countries and six continents against Chinese officials who have actively persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. These lawsuits have become the largest international collaborative legal effort since the Nuremberg Nazi trials.

On the 11th and 12th of December 2004, Falun Gong practitioners from England went to Leicester city centre to hold an anti-torture exhibition and introduce people to the practice of Falun Gong. A practitioner demonstrated the small cage torture; passers by were concerned when they found out that this is happening in China right now.

On the 11th of December, practitioners from Munich and nearby cities gathered at the Chinese Consulate in Munich to appeal against the Chinese communist regime’s violation of human rights. They appealed to bring an end to the persecution of Falun Gong and demanded that former communist leader Jiang Zemin be brought to justice.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Jun from Liaoning Province was savagely tortured by the authorities for persisting in his belief. He was held at the Dalian City Forced Labour Camp. Police They handcuffed him to a heating pipe and shocked him with electric batons. They tried to force him to give up Falun Gong practice, to curse Dafa and write a "Guarantee Statement," but Zhang Jun refused. After he was released he was constantly harrased by police and died in October 2004.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Tian Zhongxin was 71 years old and an Elementary School teacher in Liaoning Province. Through his practise of Falun Dafa he was cured of hepatitis. When he went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa in 1999, he was arrested, forced to do slave labour, beaten with electric shock batons and his hand scorched with a red-hot iron stove hook. Due to the pressure his hepatitis recurred and he passed away on November 18, 2004 as an indirect result of the persecution.

Fifty six year-old Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Dong Suyun from Nong-an County, Jilin Province died on January 23, 2004, as a result of torture she received in a labour camp . Practitioner Mr. Mu Xingbo from Changchun City, Jilin Province was on a police "wanted" list because he had been producing printed matter explaining the truth about Falun Gong. He was forced to move many times to avoid arrest. Tragically, his physical condition had been severely damaged during his long periods of forced homelessness and starvation and he passed away on October 12, 2004.

On the morning of July 20, 2004, prison guards locked three Falun Dafa practitioners into a "Brainwashing Cell" in Jinzhong Prison in order to comply with an order issued by the Judiciary Bureau to "force solid practitioners to give up within 100 days." Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Liu Jieyun, 51, was stripped and guards took turns beating him with a police baton, handcuffs, and wooden sticks. An inmate poured boiling water all over Mr. Liu's body. He died after having being brutally beaten for more than one hour.

54 year old Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Shang Junxiu, was arrested when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was held in a detention centre, where her health rapidly deteriorated. She was not released until the police extorted 6,000 yuan from her family. Early in 2002, her former employer conspired with the 610 Office to abduct her and take her a Brainwashing Centre. Following her release she was constantly harassed by police and she died on September 1, 2004.

Jilin City Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Shiwei, 48, was arrested at home along with her husband. The police beat the couple and forced them to write so-called Guarantee Statements. Ms. Liu Shiwei was later sentenced to one year of forced labour and was sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, where she suffered from various tortures. Once, her hands were tied tightly behind her back for a long time until they turned purple for lack of blood circulation. Ms. Liu was released in September. In November 2004, less than two months later, she passed away.

Countless Chinese parents have suffered this indescribable heartache as a result of the Chinese Dictator Jiang Zemin and his faction's persecution of Falun Gong. The persecution of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance was carried out and is still going on in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China. According to a report dated at December 10th, 2004, in the past five years at least 1,157 Falun Gong practitioners have died from torture. Their average age is 46 and many of them left behind young children and elderly parents. This persecution has and still is inflicting a tremendous disaster upon the people of China.

During the persecution of Falun Gong, China's Ministry of Justice has being Jiang Zemin's accomplice, but recently, it has called on prisons to put an end to all maltreatment of inmates. This directive may have been issued because of the power struggle that has arisen. With Jiang now out of office and the voices of condemnation inside and outside of China becoming louder and louder, there was a need to establish another smokescreen to hide the truth.

I am 60 years old. In May of 1998 I was very sick, causing me to become extremely weak and to lose a lot of weight. A former classmate told me about the benefits of Falun Gong one day and I went to the local practise site that same night. Those first two nights, I could not complete the standing exercises or the sitting meditation. On the third day, a miracle occurred. For the first time in months, I felt clear-minded and comfortable in my body.

Upon starting a 15-day brainwashing session, I returned home on the afternoon of the first day. During the second month of the brainwashing session, I returned home after six days. One time I was arrested by the local police and was taken to the police department, yet I was able to go home after just six hours. I truly felt this was due to Falun Dafa.

After a one year wait, on December 8th 2004, Judge Wilkin of United States District Court Northern District of California affirmed a magistrate's ruling that Beijing Communist Party Secretary Liu Qi is liable for the torture and crimes against humanity of the police under his administration during the persecution of Falun Gong.

On the afternoon of December 12th, 2004, Chungcheng Park in Dahsi Town, Taoyuan County was vibrant with a constant stream of vendors and tourists. Falun Gong practitioners held a series of activities, including exercise demonstrations, distributing leaflets, and talking to people about Falun Gong and the persecution taking place in China.