Falun
Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries around the world, but
relentlessly persecuted in China. The peaceful courage of practitioners there
has shocked their oppressors and moved the people of the world. While China
continues to block all information, FGMtv brings you the stories you may not
hear anywhere else.
Hello,
and welcome to FGMtv on March 5th, 2002.
I¨m
Susan Mitchell.
Our
top story this week:
，
At a parliamentary seminar, England's
Lord Moyne delivers a major speech condemning Jiang Zemin's persecution of
Falun Gong
Some
of our other stories:
，
An examination of the statement issued by the Chinese
Embassy in Ottawa regarding Shenli Lin
，
Video coverage from the news conference held in Toronto by
Shenli Lin after his return from being tortured in a Chinese labour camp for 18
months
，
The Governor of Jakarta sends a representative to read his
congratulatory message to the first Indonesian Falun Dafa Experience Sharing
Conference, and
，
BBC monitoring reported that Falun Gong in Hong Kong are
denied access to government venues
，
Hong Kong activities during the Spring Festival
In
this week's update from China:
，
8 Sisters from different Chinese cities go to Tiananmen
Square on New Year's Day
，
Falun Gong artists create beautiful banners to celebrate the
New Year
，
Anhui Province has turned a dangerous coal mine into a
labour camp
，
Masanjia Labour Camp prisoners are forced to produce
products for export
and
finally´
，
Insights into China's problems from a visitor to a Canadian
park and how Falun Gong practitioners are bringing hope to China's people
Moving to
England, where, on February 27th, Lord Moyne delivered the following
Speech at a seminar on Falun Gong in the UK Houses of Parliament:
，
The fact that we are all gathered here today will no doubt
be carefully noted by the Chinese Communist Government, and it is right that it
should be.
，
It shows that the actions against the Falun Gong excite
condemnation in influential circles outside China and, together with
innumerable meetings and demonstrations in most of the rest of the world,
endanger the foreign contracts which the Chinese government want to foster for
the sake of China's further progress.
，
The treatment of the Falun Gong is quite evidently the
product of a split in the Chinese Communist Party. Until 1999 the Falun Gong
was actually encouraged. It is not that there was proper religious freedom in
China in the early 1990s, far from it. But Falun Gong was encouraged as an
outlet for the spiritual side of human nature. Objectively, the Party saw that
these aspirations do exist.
，
But since the Party denies the validity of the spirit, it
can have no real feeling for what it is all about, and this was shown in 1999.
Jiang Zemin saw that Falun Gong was becoming big and he decided that the policy
of encouraging it should be reversed.
，
It is size that is respected and feared by materialists.
，
In fact the earlier tactic of the Chinese Communists was the
correct one. When not persecuted, a spiritual movement presents no danger to a
secular government.
，
What can we in the West do? Quite a bit. The Chinese
Communists are by no means indifferent to world opinion. They know that the
progress of this country will be hindered and stultified if they are isolated
by world disapproval. They are seeking to strengthen their links with the world
at large: why otherwise would they have made such efforts to secure the 2008
Olympics?
，
These very Olympic Games, if Falun Gong is still being
persecuted in 2008, will be turned into a public relations disaster for the
Communists. Hundreds of thousands of foreigners will flock to China and many of
them will be Falun Gong supporters because Falun Gong is now a worldwide
movement.
，
Falun Gong banners will appear from nowhere among the
spectators and feature on the television screens of the world.
，
Some of the performers may well stage demonstrations. What
if a gold medallist practises the exercises on the podium?
In
the meantime it is important that, in every country in the world, attention is
drawn constantly to the disgraceful behaviour of the Communist authorities to
people whose practices and beliefs pose no kind of threat.
-
Mr. Lin was sent to a labour camp for one year, without trial. On the morning
of his release, his sentence was arbitrarily extended for another six months.
Perhaps he did his Falun Gong exercises while in solitary confinement. This,
under present Chinese law, constitutes an offense. The laws against Falun Gong
violate the Chinese constitution, which guarantees its citizens freedom of religious belief, freedom of the press,
of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
，
In a congratulatory message to the Conference, delivered and
read by his representative, the Governor of Jakarta said that Indonesia
respects human rights, supports freedom of belief and encourages people of
different beliefs to coexist peacefully.
，
He said that Falun Dafa´ has elevated practitioners' moral
standards, improved their health and enables people to stay away from bad
habits such as drinking, drugs and violence.
，
700 Falun Dafa practitioners travelled from throughout
Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea,
United States and Sweden to attend the conference.
，
Several shared their stories of how they had been seriously
tortured and persecuted in China, because they refused to renounce their belief
in Falun Dafa, and how they had managed to escape by overcoming many hardships.
，
About 700 Falun Gong practitioners, including
representatives from 10 foreign countries, arrived at the National Monument at
about noon. As they prepared for the parade to the Hotel Indonesia, they were
told by police to disperse.
，
An officer with the Jakarta Police information bureau,
Tabrani, confirmed that the National Police had issued a license for the Falun
Gong parade weeks ago.
，
"Yes, the permit was issued, but today the permit was
revoked," Tabrani said. At the time, he refused to elaborate, but Police
sources later confirmed that the National Police revoked the permit following
pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta.
，
The BBC reported on February 27th that Falun Gong
followers have accused the Hong Kong administration of barring them from
government venues.
，
Falun Dafa practitioners have submitted 36 applications to
the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in the past six months but none
has been accepted.
，
A formal complaint has been lodged with legislative
councillors.
，
Falun Dafa spokesman, Hoi Kwok-hung said that the reasons
given for turning down the applications were unconvincing.
，
June Tong, a spokesperson for the Leisure and Cultural
Services Department, said that the department would cooperate with requests
from legislators.
In
this week's update from China´
The number of Falun Dafa practitioners verified to have
died as a result of mistreatment under illegal custody by government officials
is 371. However, trusted government sources inside China put the actual death
count at more than 1,600.
Daily
reports of the persecution in China´
，
Each day, the Falun Dafa Information
Center in New York receives reports from China.
，
We are sad to report that cases of
extortion, looting, kidnapping, unbelievable brutality and murder are
increasing against peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong.
，
We invite you to visit our Web sites
listed on your screen, to read details of these crimes against humanity.
Moving now to
Beijing where we received a report from Eight Sisters ´
，
On January 1, 2002, Tiananmen Square was heavily guarded.
Nevertheless, Falun Dafa practitioners came in a continuous stream to validate
the beneficial practice of body, mind and spirit that is based on the universal
principles of truth, compassion and forbearance.
，
One group of practitioners was made up of eight sisters from
various places in China. They unfurled a banner and called out in the strongest
voice from their hearts, "Falun Dafa is good!"
，
In a frenzy, the vicious police punched, kicked and forcibly
pushed them into a police vehicle. They were detained separately near Tiananmen
Square and then moved to Miyun Detention Center.
，
The wind is piercing in the North of China in wintertime.
However, the guards in the detention center took away their winter clothes and
shoes, and forced the eight women to sit for a long time on the cement floor in
the courtyard outside.
，
The women encouraged each other during their subsequent
imprisonment, and using the upright thoughts and energy generated from their
spiritual practice, were able to openly walk out of the detention center one
after another. The Police were unable to keep them there by any means.
，
Around the time of the Lunar New Year, some Falun Dafa
practitioners in China made many delicate and colorful banners and posters.
，
People appreciated them so much that some took the posters
down very carefully and put them up next to the door of their own homes.
Nanhu
Forced Labor Camp, in Anhui Province has imprisoned many Falun Dafa
practitioners.
，
The camp has a small coal mine and officials are fully aware
that the working conditions there are extremely dangerous.
，
Nevertheless, each practitioner is forced to dig one ton of
coal every day.
And
over to Masanjia Labor Camp´
，
A report has been received from a
prisoner in Masanjia Labour Camp
，
As well as being tortured and beaten
regularly, Falun Dafa prisoners are forced to work on sweaters and other
products for export
，
No prisoner is ever paid for this work
，
Here is a photograph of one of the
garment labels produced
and
finally´
While
practicing the Falun Gong exercises in a Canadian park one afternoon, a
noble-looking middle-aged Chinese man approached a practitioner.
，
His first words were, "Where can I learn Falun
Gong?" Then he started to talk about his experience.
，
He said that many people only see the superficial prosperity
in China. But by looking at the substantial problems, one would realize how
terrible the situation truly is. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost
their jobs. Every year, over ten thousand people commit suicide out of despair.
Tens of millions of people retire without pensions and have no medical
insurance. No effort is made to control drugs, robbery, violence, explosions,
AIDS and moral corruption.
，
On the contrary, the main efforts are directed towards the
persecution of Falun Gong. Could a country be prosperous under such a
government?
，
The problem, he said, is in people's hearts, and it would
take 3 or 4 generations to cure it. But right now, the Jiang Zemin
administration will not allow people to speak the truth.
，
The peaceful appeal of Falun Gong practitioners on April 25,
1999 got his attention.
，
He saw hope in their courage to pursue the truth. He then
found the book Zhuan Falun and read it. He believes that it is a book that can
really save China, because it is able to change people's hearts.