New Zealand: Two More Falun Gong Practitioners Obtain United Nations Refugee Status

On May 11th, 2006, two Falun Gong practitioners, and husband and wife. Yang Ziwei and He Yanchen, arrived in New Zealand under the arrangement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The process was a result of help from the UN and the New Zealand government. On the morning of the 11th, their flight arrived at Auckland International Airport from Thailand. The practitioners were welcomed by practitioners in New Zealand. The two practitioners were very pleased to arrive in a country where they can freely practise Falun Gong after experiencing much sufferings as a result of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s persecution.

Group photo of Yang Ziwei (2nd from right), He Yanchen (3rd from right) and Falun Gong practitioners from New Zealand at Auckland International Airport

Mr. Yang Ziwei, 30, comes from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and Ms. He Yanchen, 29, from Zhengzhou, Henan Province. Both were unlawfully imprisoned and tortured previously in China for persisting in practising Falun Gong. To avoid the CCP's persecution, they were forced to stay away from home. With help from kind-hearted people, they fled to Thailand and applied for UNHCR protection.

Ms. He's father, He Sanpu, 56, was a middle-level official in the Department of Medium, Henan Provincial Government. He worked for more than twenty years in the department and was a well-known, kind person. For persisting in his belief of Truth, Compassion, Forbearance, he was illegally arrested, tortured and imprisoned in a labour camps four times. He has been imprisoned in a brainwashing session in Wanqing Mountain Village, a western suburb of Zhengzhou, for more than nine months. Ms. He's mother, Zhang Hanwen, was a medical professor at Zhengzhou University. She was persecuted many times for practising Falun Gong. Later, she escaped the control of the 610 Office and also secured UNHCR protection.