Falun Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries, 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 information about the persecution, FGM TV brings you the stories you may not hear anywhere else.

 

Hello, and welcome to the FGM TV weekly news review on November 12, 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 511, with confirmation of 1 more death received in the past week. Reliable sources inside China, however, put the actual death count in the thousands.

·         In the last 7 days, reports of persecution have come in from 17 provinces and from the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing.

·         215 people declared as void all statements they had made under torture and at times when their minds were not clear. They said they intend to continue to practice Falun Gong.

 

Our top story this week:

·         Mrs Yuzhi Wang, a survivor of the Wanjia Labour Camp Lands in Canada after being rescued from the United Arab Emirates where local police were preparing to send her back to China

 

And some of our other stories:

·         Everyday since November 1st Falun Gong practitioners in China have gone to Tiananmen Square.

·         The widow of a UN Military Observer is jailed for six years for believing in Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.

·         Wangcun Labour Camp has detained and tortured 1000 practitioners since November 1999.

·         Guards at a forced brainwashing center write a pledge to not harass Falun Gong practitioners who had escaped the center, allowing them to return home safely.

·         Oracle Corporation is Challenged in a Shareholder Resolution on Human Rights in China

·         Korean practitioners participate in a Korea-China friendship celebration

·         And, Christine Loftus speaks with a dancer in the Guanming Dance Group.

 

·         Mrs Yuzhi Wang a survivor of the Wanjia Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province landed in Canada today after an around-the-clock emergency rescue effort by practitioners, supporters and Canadian government officials.

·         She was being held in the United Arab Emirates under pressure from the Chinese consulate there.

·         In a telephone interview over the weekend she said, “The local police and the [Chinese] consulate officials were trying their best to send me back to China.”

·         Mrs. Wang is 46-years old and a resident of Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province, where she used to own a computer store.

·         Because she practices Falun Gong, she was arrested three times in China. The last time she was sent to Wanjia Labour Camp in Harbin City, where she says she suffered brutal torture.

·         “I almost lost my eyesight,” Mrs. Wang recalled.

·         She served her entire term, which ended in May 2002.

·         To avoid further persecution, Mrs. Wang departed for the United Arab Emirates as a visitor on June 1.

·         Mrs. Wang says she was spotted by an agent of the Chinese consulate while speaking with fellow Chinese people in a local airport in the United Arab Emirates on Oct 31st.

·         After she was arrested by United Arab Emirates police and her appeal was rejected, she called for help from Canadian Falun Gong practitioners through her family members.

·         According to one of the coordinators of this rescue effort, Mr. John Zhang, Mrs. Wang was arrested on Thursday, October 31.

·         Canadian Falun Gong practitioners received the news on Friday afternoon.

·         Immediately, practitioners and supporters began making appointments and talking with Canadian officials on Saturday.

·         On Sunday, the Canadian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates contacted local government officials and local police about Ms. Wang’s case.

·         Mr. Zhang said he received word from the Canadian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday telling him they had received letters from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Department, and the Canadian Justice Department.

 

·         Since November 1st, every day, several Falun Gong practitioners have gone to Tiananmen Square to appeal.

·         Although many guards were present in Tiananmen Square during the Sixteenth Party's Congress, on the opening day of the meeting, many protests still took place in front of the People's Great Hall.

·         Falun Gong practitioners distributed flyers to protest Jiang's illegal persecution.

·         According to a report in the Apple Daily on November 9th, at least seven protesters were taken away from Tiananmen Square.

·         On the morning of November 8th, several people tried to enter the People's Great Hall between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., the time of the flag-raising ceremony when Tiananmen Square was opened to the public.

·         When they scattered flyers, large groups of armed police rushed forward to pick them up.

·         Some news reporters waiting outside the People's Great Hall picked up flyers, but the police snatched them away.

·         The police also had conflicts with news reporters as they stopped them from taking pictures and drove them away.

 

·         Han Yuejuan, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province and the widow of a UN Military Observer, has been sentenced to six years in prison because she maintained her belief in Falun Gong.

·         Since July 22, 1999, Ms. Han has worked very hard to clarify the truth of the persecution, and she has gone to Beijing several times to appeal for Dafa.

·         She had to leave home at the beginning of 2001 to avoid persecution, and remained homeless until she was arrested on June 8th 2001. 

·         She was sentenced to six years in prison because she used to be a volunteer in charge of the Dafa assistance center in Guangzhou City.

·         Her husband, Liu Mingfang, had been an observer in the UN Peace Force, and had died while on duty in Cambodia when he contracted malaria.

·         He was named a hero by the United Nations, and Ms. Han and her 16-year-old son have been receiving a pension from the world body since that time.

·         Ms. Han has appealed to Secretary General Mr. Annan, and Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to have her case investigated.

 

·         Authorities from Wangcun Forced Labor Camp have kidnapped and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners since November 1999, and as of September 2002 more than 1000 practitioners have endured physical and mental torture while detained there.

·         The camp authorities continually try to force the practitioners to write the "Three Papers".

·         One is to guarantee giving up practicing Falun Dafa, one is to ask for forgiveness, and one to reveal the names of other practitioners and denounce them).

·         The kinds of torture used at Wangcun includes sitting on tiny wooden stools just inches off the ground for 16 hours per day, for as long as 70 to 80 days.

·         Sleep-deprivation is used commonly on steadfast practitioners for long periods of up to two to three months in order to confuse them mentally and break down their will.

·         Torture in solitary confinement where one is put into a small, windowless cell is another method.  The room has a single wooden bed with six positions for handcuffs and shackles. Some practitioners were handcuffed to the bed diagonally so that they could neither sit, squat nor lie down, and they would be confined this way up to three months.

·         Another method is to hang a practitioner by cuffing their hands on either side of a window or on the end of a bed, with their feet barely touching the ground. 

·         Often practitioners are punched and kicked, or a wooden board is used to beat them on the face and body and stomping on their toes.

·         Guards have used force-feeding with alcohol, knowing that this is extremely painful for Falun Gong practitioners.

·         Many other methods are used.  All of them are designed to wear practitioners down mentally, break them physically, and bankrupt them financially.

·         Despite the brutality, quite a large number of practitioners have maintained a good state of mind and efforts to counter the persecution have never stopped.

 

·         Guards at an unnamed forced brainwashing center write a pledge to not harass eighteen practitioners who had walked out of the center, and for whom they had searched for 10 days.

·         At the brainwashing center the practitioners had participated in a hunger strike to protest their illegal detention, and they had been beaten and force-fed.

·         After half a month in the center, amidst heightened security with windows and doors secured, extra guards, and a roll call every three hours, all eighteen practitioners slipped out between the narrow iron bars on the window.

·         They divided into 3 groups and headed into the mountains, which were covered with snow.

·         After 10 days of useless searching, the perpetrators from the center consulted a fortune-teller and they were told not to touch the 18 special practitioners.

·         As a compromise they then wrote a pledge that the practitioners would not be sent to forced labour camps or brainwashing classes. 

·         The practitioners were able to return to their homes safely.

 

Oracle Corporation is Challenged in a Shareholder Resolution on Human Rights in China

·         The shareholder resolution, which received over 7% of the vote according to preliminary results, requested the company to comply with the China Business Principles, a corporate code of conduct for companies operating in China.

·         Because the resolution received more than 3% it will be reintroduced in 2003.

·         John Harrington, President/CEO of Harrington Investments, Inc. said, "Oracle is providing software to the police and military in China which may be leading to massive human rights violations."

·         Harrington's resolution also asked Oracle to join with other high tech companies to provide leadership and actively participate in the China Working Group (CWG).

·         The China Working Group is an informal group of companies and organizations such as Amnesty International, the International Labor Rights Fund and Global Exchange, that share "best practices" information and members' experience working or operating in China and educates members about Chinese government policies and human and labor rights abuses.

·         Harrington specifically mentioned that several hundred members of the peaceful Falun Gong movement have died in detention as a result of torture or mistreatment by the Chinese government.

·         "Failure of Oracle's management to recognize and acknowledge human rights violations in China and take an active role in finding solutions is a disgrace. China's use of Oracle's software to track down advocates of democracy is no different than Nazi Germany's use of IBM's technology to move Jews to concentration camps during World War II" Harrington concluded.

 

·         On October 19th and 20th, Korean practitioners participated in the "Tenth Anniversary of the Korea-China Friendship" celebration in Inchon.

·         Practitioners from across the country attended.

·         They hung banners, set up a photo display, and practiced the exercises.

·         They also handed out balloons that read "Falun Dafa is good" and during the celebration, they could be seen both inside and outside the main site.

·         Practitioners at times ran into various kinds of interference, but with a firm conviction they were able to clarify the truth and have many overseas Chinese people come to see the ugly nature of the persecution and the beauty of Falun Dafa.

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/11/9/28573.html

 

·         Next Christine Loftus, from FGMTV, spoke with Cecilia Chipkar, a dancer from the Guanming dance group.

·         [Interview]

·         Thank you Christine and thank you Cecilia.

 

Thanks for watching FGMtv…

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