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 the weekly FGMtv news review

on August 27^th, 2002

I’m David Tompkins

In this week's update from China…

· The number of Falun Gong practitioners verified to have died while in detention is 458, with details of 6 deaths received this week. However, reliable sources inside China put the actual death count in the thousands.

· In the last 7 days, reports of persecution have come in from 12 provinces and from the city of Shanghai, and finally

404 people solemnly declared their statements extracted under torture are null and void. They said they intend to continue to practice Falun Gong.

Our top story this week:

The World Psychiatric Association voted to send a fact-finding team to China to investigate among others the abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in mental institutions.

And some of our other stories:

· An update on the UN Refugees forcibly deported back to China from Cambodia

· A University of Guangzhou professor dies under suspicious circumstances.

· A state of emergency is declared in Hunan Province.

· Falun Dafa Programs Broadcast on Cable TV in Gansu Province

· A peasant woman discovers that doing good things has many rewards

· Painter Zhang Cuiying was denied entry to Hong Kong

· Practitioners gathered in Bavaria

· Falun Dafa is introduced in the Crimea Peninsula

· Toronto practitioners dance at an annual celebration of the ruling Liberal Party, and

· A miner tells how practicing Falun Dafa saved his life.

· The Associated Press reported that the world's leading psychiatric association voted Monday, August 26 to look into reports that China is silencing dissidents by confining them to mental wards, where some - including Falun Gong members - are drugged or undergo electric shocks.

· The World Psychiatric Association hopes to send a fact-finding team to China, a move that could lead to Beijing's expulsion from the professional brotherhood if it resists the investigation as it has other similar missions in the past.

· The group said that among those reportedly detained in mental hospitals are nearly 500 members of Falun Gong.

· "We are concerned they have Falun Gong members who are not patients in their hospitals," outgoing association president Juan J. Lopez-Ibor told the World Congress of Psychiatry, gathering Monday in the Tokyo suburb of Yokohama.

· "I am concerned about the abuse of psychiatry," he said.

· In some cases, individuals without mental problems allegedly have been forced to take psychiatric drugs and given electroshock treatment, sometimes as punishment for their views, the association said citing reports from international nonprofit organizations and family members.

· U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson visited China last week and said the detention of Falun Gong members in psychiatric wards was an ongoing problem. She also said that U.N. officials have had difficulty getting permission to investigate the alleged abuses.

· Chinese officials vehemently deny holding dissidents in mental institutions.

· In its vote Monday, the association - which represents professional groups from 105 nations - said it wants to inspect China's hospitals by May after working out ground rules with Chinese authorities.

· Lopez-Ibor said he went to China in February to meet with the Chinese Deputy Minister of Health Xiaowei Ma and discuss the potential of investigating the claims.

Two weeks ago FGMTv brought you a breaking report on two Falun Gong practitioners with UN Refugee Certificates that had been forcibly deported back to China…

· In a letter to the Ambassador of Cambodia in Washington DC, Lavinia Limon, the Executive Director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), a non-governmental organization concerned with refugee protection worldwide, wrote that the USCR strongly protests the Cambodian government's recent decision, and urges them to refrain from such action in the future.

· In the absence of a national procedure to determine refugee status, Cambodia permits UNHCR to operate in the country and to determine such claims. By failing to respect this process in the case of Mr. Li and Ms. Zhang, Cambodia has violated its international obligations.

· Ms. Limon concluded by reminding the ambassador that Cambodians have known persecution. For years, hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees fled their country to escape persecution and death, and were protected and assisted by the international community. It is therefore, she said, particularly disturbing that the Cambodian government should turn its back on other asylum seekers.

· Associated Press reported that other Falun Gong practitioners in Cambodia have gone into hiding since the deportation.

· Each week we bring you stories of those who are enduring mistreatment at the hands of Chinese authorities, and for many like 30-year-old University of Guangzhou Professor Li Xiaojing, their stories come too late.

· Professor Li was abducted by several thugs on June 27, 2002 and taken to the brainwashing class at the Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Center.

· She died the next day under suspicious circumstances.

· At the time of her death all practitioners held at the center were moved to a meeting room, and they were forbidden to leave.

· The entrance to her room was blocked, and that night the practitioners in adjacent rooms were moved elsewhere.

· A few days later, the head of the local "610 office", a government branch specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, told several practitioners that Li Xiaojing had already died.

· Because Falun Dafa practitioners held in the brainwashing center are kept isolated from each other in separate rooms, with both outside communication and communication between practitioners prohibited, little is known about how Li Xiaojing died.

· We hope that independent human rights organizations can help investigate this case.

· CNN reported that a state of emergency was declared in the central province of Hunan

· Surging water levels in the country's second biggest freshwater lake threaten more than 10 million people.

· The lake acts as a giant overflow for the flood-prone Yangtze River and should the Dongting burst its banks an estimated 10 million people as well as 1.6 million acres of fertile farmland are at risk, said the state-run China Daily.

· Hunan has been one of the provinces worst hit by flooding this year. This month alone, more than 100 people were killed while the total damage bill across China is reportedly at least $3 billion.

Falun Dafa Programs Broadcast on Cable TV Stations in Gansu Province

· According to sources in China, at around seven o'clock on August 17, 2002, the Baiyin Cable TV Station in Gansu Province broadcast a three-minute Falun Gong program entitled "History Will Judge."

· The station has an audience of more than ten thousand local viewers, and the program showed the true evil nature of Jiang Zemin's persecution.

· The next day, as news spread around the city, many plainclothes police appeared on the streets.

· A peasant woman who distributed fliers telling the facts of the persecution has escaped drought and insect infestations, and has been able to provide for herself and her son.

· During a drought, when she saw the corn-seedlings on her mountain-plot were quite sparse, she transplanted some seedlings onto the plot to fully utilize the space. Someone told her to not waste her time because transplanted corn-seedlings don’t survive.

· But it suddenly started to rain, and as a result, the transplanted corn-seedlings thrived!

· She said, "The crops that I planted this year are growing well, while other people had a very poor harvest on their flax crop from destructive insects. Meanwhile, our flax plot next to theirs had no insects and grew just fine."

· She also said, "Once I was out delivering truth-clarifying material. I got tired as I came to a village. An older lady, whom I had never met, called to me and said, 'My girl, I have been waiting for you. Come and have some tea and steamed buns. You look just like my daughter.'"

· She said, "I feel great! Since I started distributing truth-clarifying materials, everything has gone well for me."

· Painter Zhang Cuiying, who had been jailed in Mainland China for Falun Gong activities, was intending to open an exhibition of her traditional Chinese-style art in Hong Kong's City Hall, but was denied entry last week.

· Zhang, an Australian citizen, talked with Associated Press by telephone from Sydney. She said had been kept out of Hong Kong when she tried to attend a conference in January 2001, and was again barred last week. "I'm obviously on their blacklist," she said. "This is absolutely unacceptable for Hong Kong, which is supposed to have freedom of speech."

· Zhang said her art has nothing to do with Falun Gong, but added she'd hoped to voice an appeal to China to stop cracking down on the group

· She said that immigration officials gave no reason for barring her, and organized thirteen uniformed officers to escort her to the flight back to Australia.

· Australian citizens do not require visas for Hong Kong. Normally, they are admitted without incident, but a spokesman for the Australian consulate, Wan Wai-lun, declined comment on Zhang's case.

And now to Bavaria Germany…

· where practitioners gathered in early August for two days to study and share experiences.

· The practitioners also took advantage of an annual festival to set up a Falun Gong Consultation Center, which allowed them to introduce Falun Dafa to local people and many tourists.

· There were veteran practitioners, new practitioners, those who just began, and those who wanted to join.

· They shared their experiences, spent time reading together, and discussed problems they met with in the course of cultivation.

· When practitioners went to the Crimea Peninsula they visited a beach in the city of Alushta.

· People came to look at the display of pictures and information.

· One lady felt that this was something she had searched for, and it really touched her heart.

· She began to read Zhuan Falun and she came and stood beside the boards and began to introduce Falun Dafa to others.

And in Toronto…

· The annual celebration of Canada's ruling Liberal Party was held on August 17, and the Guangming Dance Group composed of Toronto Dafa practitioners was invited to perform.

· Over 40 Members of Parliament and Provincial Ministers joined.

· After a short introduction six practitioners danced to the music of Pu Du.

· A 14 year-old practitioner played the Gu Zheng (an ancient Chinese music instrument).

· The last performance was called "Beautiful Tang Dynasty", which depicted the lives of women during this most prosperous period of Chinese history.

· The audience learned that at that time women also emphasized inner cultivation and playing musical instruments, painting, etc. in addition to their work.

· The practitioners' performances won warm applause. The hosting MP thanked the practitioners in Chinese, and he said that the Canadian government must make clear to the Chinese government that the persecution of Falun Gong must stop and that he would make sure this happened.

· Many people said they just learned that day that China had such beautiful culture and history.

· Because some late-arriving guests missed the show, the practitioners were asked to perform a second time. In the evening after the Ministers made their speeches, the host announced that the Falun Gong practitioners would come back to perform again "by popular demand". They intentionally delayed the practitioners' second performance to coincide with the media's arrival so that the TV could broadcast the practitioners' performance live on the 6 o'clock news.

· The entire event, including the practitioners' performances was broadcast live on the internet by the Liberal Party.

In the past few years the coalmines in China have claimed many lives. In the following story a Falun Gong practitioner tells of his experiences in the mines.

· He said, "I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996, and I would like to share two experiences that I have had so that more people can know about the truth of Dafa."

· "The first was in 1997 when I was in an underground mine. Some miners were smoking, which caused a gas explosion. Almost everyone at the scene was severely burned. My hands and face were also badly burned. Normally, I would have to go to hospital for treatment. I had only practiced Falun Dafa for around one year but I did not go to the hospital, nor did I have any medicine or injections. I often went outside and my burns healed very quickly without leaving any scars. My co-workers' burns took a long time to heal and left large scars.

· "My second experience was in the spring of 2002. The ceiling of the mine suddenly collapsed and crashed onto my head, pinning me beneath the rock. My fellow workmates quickly gathered around but even six to seven people together could not move the rock. At this time, I only felt that my head was a bit swollen but was not scared at all. I told my self that I was a Falun Dafa practitioner and that I was all right. I called for Teacher's help and somehow I was able to squeeze my head out from under the rock. When they took me to the hospital, blood was pouring out of my eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The doctors said that the situation was life threatening. However, when they took a CT scan of my head, they discovered that the blood from the injuries inside my skull did not stay there but was instead flowing out of my nose and mouth.

· "Normally in this situation, most people would die from the bleeding inside the head and from the high blood pressure. But the next day, I was able to sit up. On the fourth day, I was able to walk and I left the hospital on the tenth day.

· "If I did not practice Falun Dafa, I would have already died more than ten times. Falun Dafa is good. Only when you have practiced it and experienced it for yourself will you realize the severity of the crimes committed by those who persecute Falun Dafa.

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