Falun Gong is freely practiced in at least 57 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 the FGMtv Weekly News Review on August 13th,
2002
I¨m Susan Mitchell,
and I'm David Tompkins.
The
number of Falun Gong practitioners in China verified to have died as a result
of mistreatment by Jiang Zemin's regime is 450. However, sources in China put
the actual number in the thousands.
A member of the British House of Lords urges the Chief
Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Government to drop all charges against 16 Falun Gong practitioners.
And some of our other stories:
,
Over one thousand
female Falun Dafa practitioners are still being held in Masanjia forced labour
camp
,
Cambodia violates the
UN Geneva Convention by deporting 2 Falun Gong Chinese holding UN refugee
certificates back to China
,
Visitors to
Singapore's largest consumer fair are introduced to Falun Dafa
,
Jiang's regime
manufactures more propaganda in the wake of US Concurrent Resolution 188
,
New Zealand government
turns down a Chinese embassy request to cancel a Falun Dafa art exhibit
,
In Hong Kong sixteen Falun Gong practitioners including four
Swiss citizens are being persecuted for alleged obstruction. They were
peacefully protesting about the right of Chinese citizens to practice Falun
Gong without persecution at home and abroad, and without being tortured and
murdered at home, in pursuance of president Jiang Zemin's policy of torture and
murder. The prosecution is a disgraceful and rather pathetic attempt of the
Chinese authorities to make life difficult for the Falun Gong in Hong Kong
without actually banning it, and to warn foreigners that they should not
practice it.
,
The Hong Kong magistrates have a choice, and nobody can
pretend it is an easy one. If they acquit the practitioners they will be acting
justly but incurring the danger that their careers may be affected by the
displeasure of the Beijing government.
,
If they convict, they will perhaps help their careers in the
short term, but given the manifest unfairness of the charges and of the whole
campaign against Falun Gong they will do their reputation no good when the
policy of the government is reversed, as at some time it will be.
,
They could perhaps make private representation to the effect
that the "one country, two systems" approach to Hong Kong question is
to the advantage of Beijing in many ways, and that a "not guilty"
verdict in this comparatively small affair would help to show it is genuine.
,
A guilty verdict, however, would show that there is really
only one system, not two, and that system is a barefaced tyranny.
Over one
thousand female Falun Dafa Practitioners are still detained in the Second
Women's Facility in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp
,
At present, the second women's facility of the Forced
Masanjia Labor Camp is still detaining over one thousand female Falun Dafa
practitioners.
,
Under the Jiang regime's acts of state terrorism, more and
more practitioners have been kidnapped.
,
Therefore, a large four-story building built in November
2001 has already been filled to capacity. Right now, the Masanjia Forced Labor
Camp would rather detain four people by merging two beds in one room than
release these illegally detained practitioners who steadfastly insist in their spiritual
belief.
,
A number of very determined practitioners were locked in
solitary confinement "small cells" on the east side of the first
story of the building.
,
Among practitioners who were detained in these cells, some
were persecuted until they suffered from mental collapse. Doctors in the Second
Women's facility injected them daily with narcotics, an abuse of medicine that
has been condemned by the international group, "Physicians for Human
Rights."
Practitioners
who persisted in practicing exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts were
also sent into these cells.
Cambodia
violates the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
,
On August 12, the Falun Dafa Information Center (the FDI) in
New York advised that sources in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, report that under
pressure from the Chinese Embassy there, a Chinese couple who practise Falun
Gong and who held official United Nations Refugee Certificates, have been
deported back to China. Mr. Guojun Li and his wife, Xinyi Zhang are being held
in a detention center in their home city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan
province. Their condition is unknown.
,
FDI spokesperson Erping Zhang said, "This is a blatant
and direct violation of their official status as UN refugees. We call on the UN
to take immediate action to protect those to whom it has granted refugee
status. At this very moment, this couple could be facing severe torture of
worse, simply because of their beliefs. This is precisely the situation the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established to prevent.
Immediate action is necessary."
,
From July 31 to August 4, 2002, Falun Dafa practitioners
participated in the country's biggest consumer fair. It was estimated that
about 300,000 people would attend.
,
A booth was rented to sell Dafa books and to hand out
truth-clarifying literature and materials.
,
Thousands of visitors and many Singaporeans and Chinese
people took advantage of the opportunity to resolve their questions about the
practice of Falun Dafa.
More
propaganda in China:
,
In spite of the fact that the members of
the United States House of
Representatives unanimously passed Concurrent Resolution 188, drafted by
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and co-sponsored by 100 members of Congress, calling
for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, China's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs spokesperson, Mr. Kong Quan, commented that this "anti China"
resolution was supported by "an extremely small number of Congressional
members."
,
Through this dissemination of misleading
information, Jiang's regime has deceived its citizens while at the same time
tapping into the emotion of Chinese nationalism.
,
The so-called 'Western anti-China force" is a ploy
created by the Jiang
regime. By regularly appealing to people's nationalism and the blind
sentiments to their country, he hopes no one will pay attention to the
cruel persecution, the killing of good citizens, and to the large scale
plundering and corruption.
Scottish practitioners win first prize in the annual Cavalcade
parade in Edinburgh´
,
Falun Dafa fan dancers were rewarded with a front page
photograph in Scotland's biggest daily newspaper, The Scotsman after they won
first prize in the annual Cavalcade parade on August 4th. The famous annual Art
Festival Parade drew crowds of almost 200,000.
,
They were killed by Jiang's regime simply for believing in
Falun Gong and clarifying the truth to people.
Chinese
Embassy in New Zealand once again tries to interfere in activities there:
,
According to an August 9th report in the New
Zealand Herald, Chinese Embassy complaints to the Speaker's Office about a
Falun Gong art exhibition have fallen on deaf ears.
,
The embassy objected to a one-day exhibition of paintings in
Parliament by an artist who belongs to the spiritual movement, which is banned
in China.
,
The exhibition, sponsored by Green MP Keith Locke, included
information about Falun Gong, and was displayed on the ground floor of the
Beehive August 8th.
,
Speaker Jonathan Hunt said the second secretary at the
Chinese Embassy had expressed disapproval. But Mr Hunt said he had given the
go-ahead as New Zealand was a democratic country and different points of view
were entitled to be aired.
,
Many areas in China have suffered unusual floods this
summer. About 800 people have died. The affected population in the disaster
area has reached 100 million, and the flooding has caused direct economic loss
of at least 200 million dollars.
and
finally´
Touching
the hearts of passersby in front of the Chinese embassy in London, England.
Since
July 20 of this year, UK practitioners have displayed a poster with the
following pictures and words:
Sit by my side
Closing your eyes
Together in silence
We call for
The end of torturing
The end of killing
The end of the persecution
Compassion grows in our hearts
Together in silence
Our wishes can make a difference
After
reading this poster and other materials of truth-clarification, many people
passing by have signed our petition form to support our peaceful appeals and
stood or sat silently. There have been many touching stories.
for instance´
Last
Sunday, the weather changed all the time between being sunny and raining
heavily. A Caucasian man, over 50, well dressed, stopped in front of the
poster. While the practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts in a heavy rain,
he sat down next to us. Although he had an umbrella in his hand, his clothes
were soaked quickly. Since the heavy rain came down all of a sudden, the water
could not drain away quickly and almost reached the level of the pavement. He
carried on and still did not stand up. After a while, his trousers became completely
soaked, so he stood up. He then stood together with practitioners in silence.
He spent about an hour with the practitioners there. Before he shook hands with
practitioners to say good-bye, he told them that he is a Quaker and is very
sympathetic to Falun Gong practitioners and against the persecution.
On
the same day, a middle-aged woman and a young man also joined the
practitioners' peaceful appeal. Instead of sitting down, they knelt down and
prayed.
Thanks for watching FGMtv, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.