VOA: Hu Jintao Visits Warsaw, Bo Xilai Charged with Crimes

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VOA reported on June the 10th that Chinese President Hu Jintao started a 3-day visit to Poland as the first stop on his trip to 4 European and Asian nations. This is the first time that a Chinese President has visited Poland since the nations established diplomatic relations 55 years ago. On the same day of Hu Jintao's arrival in Poland's capital city of Warsaw, his Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, who accompanied the President, was again charged with crimes against humanity and torture for having persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

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Welcoming Party Steals Falun Gong and Tibetan's Banners

On the day of Hu's arrival, the Chinese embassy organized a Chinese welcoming group to welcome the President in a manner which caused great concern to Polish society.

On Tuesday afternoon, the welcoming group of more than 30 Mainland Chinese gathered at the Warsaw President Plaza. According to witnesses, after arriving at the plaza with "Welcome Hu Jintao" red banners hoisted in their hands, the group shoved its way to the front of Falun Gong practitioners and members of Polish Friends of Tibet who had been at the plaza waiting for the Chinese President for a long time.

A Polish attorney(1) who was at the site told a VOA reporter: "At that moment, I felt that I was in China." He said the group first pushed and shoved them, and tried to use their red banners to block Tibetan banners and Falun Gong practitioners' "Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice" and "Falun Dafa is Good" banners. Later, some Chinese from the group started to snatch the Tibetan banners. There were physical struggles between both sides, however, there were no injuries reported. Banners held by Falun Gong practitioners were also stolen by a Mainland Chinese. The attorney said: "They were very aggressive. A man who drove a bus for the welcoming group came off the bus and tried to attack the Falun Gong practitioners. He was stopped by Polish police."

Falun Gong practitioners said they practice principles of non-violence, and no one tried to seize back the banners. However, they have reported the incident to local police requested police to investigate the Chinese who stole the banners and take proper actions accordingly.

Bo Xilai Charged with Crimes against Humanity and Torture

A Polish Falun Gong practitioner(1) who is an English teacher told VOA that he and several other Falun Gong practitioners had submitted a lawsuit to the Polish Procuratorate on the morning of Hu's delegation's arrival. The lawsuit charges Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai with crimes against humanity and torture.

The lawsuit alleges that Bo spent huge amount of taxpayers' money to build new prisons in which to detain and persecute Falun Gong practitioners when Bo was Mayor of Dalian City and Governor of Liaoning Province. Citing Chinese official media reports, the lawsuit said that Bo Xilai invested 1 billion yuan (~120 million US dollars) to upgrade provincial prisons. At Masanjia of Yuhong District of Shanyan City alone, he spent more than a half billion yuan to build the first prison town of China. The prison town occupies about 2000 mu (a unit of area, ~133 hectares) and the construction was finished by 2003.

The Polish Falun Gong practitioner went to China to appeal for Falun Gong in 2002. He was arrested by police at Tiananmen Square, beaten, cursed and then deported. He said that the lawsuit against Bo Xilai was not just a symbolic move. He said: "We are serious--our goal is to bring him to justice." An attorney(1) pointed out that whatever the result of the lawsuit will be, the significance of the lawsuit lies in letting "those human rights perpetrators feel unsafe to go anywhere around the world."


1. The original provided names in Chinese (phonetic) while we can't verify the names in Polish or English at this time.

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