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 April 2^nd, 2002

I’m Susan Mitchell.

A young Canadian woman and two American brothers detained in Beijing for handing out fliers exposing the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong

· 25-year-old Jason Pomerleau, a graduate of Tufts University in the U.S. and his girlfriend 22-year-old Christine Loftus, a student at Brock University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, were seized by Chinese police at approximately 3:30PM Thursday, March 28^th outside a marketplace in Beijing, according to an eyewitness who also photographed the scene. Her photo posted on a Chinese-language Internet chat room shows the young couple being dragged to a Police vehicle in Beijing.

· Jason held a year-long teaching position at China University of Geosciences in Beijing beginning in August 1999. He is currently employed at a medical center in Boston.

· Jason’s younger brother, Daniel, returned from China on Friday, March 29^th after being detained and reportedly beaten in Chinese police custody. He had been arrested on the streets of Beijing on Monday while handing out flyers exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to people on the street.

· In a statement released by local Falun Gong practitioners in Boston, Jason explained his trip to China: “It has now been almost two years since my return from China. I really miss my fellow practitioners there. Because of the persecution, they were forced to leave their schools, jobs, and homes, and because our email messages are blocked, I have lost contact with them. They have been enduring unimaginable pressure, brainwashing classes, imprisonment and torture. I hope my going to China lessens the pressure on my fellow practitioners by further exposing the persecution, and I hope it also inspires them by letting them know that the whole world is watching.”

· Jason and Christine were deported and arrived back at their homes late Saturday night. FGMtv was at Toronto International Airport to meet her, along with several other English and Chinese reporters and many of her friends.

With tears rolling down her face as she spoke to reporters at the airport, Christine said, "The Dafa practitioners' situation is extremely urgent. I would like to do anything to help them."

In this week's update from China…

· The number of Falun Dafa practitioners verified to have died while in detention is 387. However, trusted government sources inside China put the actual death count at more than 1,700.

Moving now to Europe:

Parades and Exercise Exhibitions in Athens during March 25^th National Day celebrations in Greece

· Greek television broadcast a fifteen minute program about Falun Dafa on March 24^th, providing citizens there a quick overview of the practice.

· When local practitioners were joined by others from Taiwan and Sweden the next day and one hundred paraded through the pedestrian streets of downtown Athens, they were greeted with great enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn the exercises.

· Even the Chief of Police asked practitioners to stay and do the exercises until he could get there to watch them!

"Philosophy of Falun Gong" Panel Discussion at the UN in Geneva

· On March 25 at the 58th Session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, Interfaith International, an Non Governmental Organization, sponsored a special 2-hour panel discussion on the "Philosophy of Falun Gong".

· Les Graves, the Secretary-General of Interfaith International invited three Falun Gong practitioners to explain the philosophical aspects of Falun Dafa.

· Dr. Shiyu Zhou, professor of Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania delivered an introduction and historical context of the practice within Chinese culture.

· Alexis Genin, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Paris, France talked about his scepticism of spiritual practices in general, but how, after practicing Falun Gong for a month, he found that he could objectively and scientifically validate the positive effects that it was having on his life.

· The final speaker was Dr. Lili Feng, professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Feng presented her current research findings. One of her most striking discoveries is that the cells of Falun Gong practitioners can live up to fives times longer than normal human cells.

Detained Hong Kong practitioner is released

· On March 28^th, the Associated Press reported that Authorities in mainland China have released a Hong Kong practitioner of the Falun Gong meditation group who was detained for more than a month.

· Ms. Pak-fung Lui, 31, said that she returned with her 1-year-old daughter to Hong Kong last week after spending 12 days under detention in a hotel and three weeks under house arrest at her parents' home in Liuzhou, in southwestern China's Guangxi region. "I'm very happy to be with my family in Hong Kong," Ms. Lui told The Associated Press.

Details received of 3 more deaths in custody

· The Falun Dafa Information Center in New York reported this week that details of three more deaths in custody have been received. These add to the growing list of those killed for their beliefs in China’s ongoing persecution of Falun Gong. The three are:

· Mr. Wei Zheng, of Dalian City was severely hunchbacked. Placed in the notorious Dalian Labor Camp, sources indicate he was humiliated, beaten and tortured by camp guards. He died shortly after his release last April. It has taken a year for details of his death to reach North America.

· Fifty-year old Mr. Qingxiang Wu and his brother, both from Taiping village in Harbin City were arrested in December 2000 when they went to Beijing to visit the appeals office there. During the first few months of his detention, his punishment consisted of being forced to stand up in a dark and damp cell from 6 am until midnight. In the summer of 2001, Wu took part in a hunger strike with other detainees, to protest being jailed solely for their spiritual beliefs. Over the next three months, he was force fed several dozen times by camp guards.

· After his release in December of 2001, he had difficulty breathing, was unable to lie flat in bed, and couldn’t speak or eat. He could only drink a little water. Mr. Wu never fully recovered and died in his home on March 4, 2002.

· Thirty-seven year old Ms. Shuyun Liang from Fushun, was detained and beaten severely for practicing Falun Gong in the No. 1 Fushun Detention Center. Authorities rushed her to a nearby hospital, but medical workers were unable to resuscitate her, and she died on March 17^th. Once again, local police claimed that she had "committed suicide" by "jumping out of a building," but witnesses say her body was covered with bruises and there were deep scars on her wrists where she had been handcuffed.

Falun Gong Practitioners around the world hold hunger strikes to bring attention to the situation to the extreme persecution of practitioners in Changchun

· In early March, Falun Gong practitioners tapped into the cable television networks in Changchun City in northeastern China. For almost one hour, they broadcast two films exposing the lies in the Chinese government's propaganda campaign against Falun Gong. President Jiang Zemin issued orders to "kill without mercy" any practitioners found.

· By March 29^th, sources from Changchun reported that over 5,000 people have been arrested and at least 100 tortured to death. According to insider reports, Changchun City police personnel brutally torture every arrested practitioner to extort confessions and to force them to reveal the names of other practitioners. Few details are available except for the following eye witness accounts:

· A 70-year-old woman practitioner was arrested when she was putting up posters. Police beat her face until it was swollen. She has since been illegally sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp.

· A woman teacher at a music school was arrested and detained after two Falun Dafa flyers were found in her home.

· Photo exhibitions slandering Falun Dafa are currently being held at Changchun University and also at the Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics.

· On March 23^rd, a 22-year-old male Dafa practitioner, on the verge of death, was admitted to Changchun City Central Hospital with a severe head injury that apparently caused a blood clot in his brain. After allowing him to stay for only two days, more than 30 police officers then came, took photographs of the young man and removed him from the hospital on March 25. The doctor warned that leaving the hospital would be life threatening for this patient, but his warning was ignored by police and the practitioner's current condition is unknown.

· Apparently, every work unit in the city has received orders to publicize defamatory, fear-inducing rumors, such as "Falun Gong practitioners are going to put poison in people's food" and "They are planning to commit a 5,000-people group suicide."

· The teachings of Falun Gong, like the world's great religions, forbid killing of any kind.

Sudden Death of another Chinese official

· Forty-eight year old Mr. Yongzhan Cheng died suddenly of heart disease in late February 2002.

· Mr. Cheng was head of the City Management Office in Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province and had often assisted police in ransacking the homes of Falun Gong practitioners and in having them illegally arrested.

· Like other great spiritual teachings in the world, Falun Gong teaches that good will be rewarded and bad deeds will be punished.

and finally…

A statement of support from a Western Teacher in Beijing….

· "I am a [Western] English teacher in Beijing and I would like to express my outrage at the treatment of Falun Gong members by the Chinese government.

· As a Christian, I believe we should treat all people -- whatever their beliefs -- with love and compassion.

· While in Beijing, I am going to make it my personal mission to provide help to any member of the Falun Gong who asks for my support. As an English teacher, I tell my Chinese students about the lies the Chinese government is telling them and how good Falun Dafa is. My students are eager to learn more & support the Falun Gong.

· I pledge to provide money, supplies, or a place to sleep. If members need a place to meet, please call me -- I will always be there to help. The Falun Gong will always have my support."

Thanks for watching FGMTV, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.