(Clearwisdom.net)
Hello and good afternoon everyone.
It is a pleasure to be here with you for this luncheon of thankfulness, but obviously also a time where we need to reflect and remember that while there have been some very important successes, there is much to be done with respect to the serious human rights situation facing Falun Gong in China and the situation more generally in China. Because basic human rights are violated, flouted and undermined daily in China. While the world eagerly courts China's business and turns a blind eye to the post September 11th abuses which are carried out under the rhetoric of fighting terrorism. Arbitrary detention, torture, unfair political trials, executions are the frightening inescapable reality for men women and youth in every corner of the country. And perhaps saddest of all is that it is getting worse not better.
The treatment of Falun Gong followers is one particularly stark example of the dire straights of human rights in China. For more than three years now Amnesty International has been recording an escalating pattern of serious human rights violations, arrests of tens of thousands of practitioners, thousands sent to labour camps without charge or trial. We believe that the Chinese authorities may have allowed over 400 practitioners to die in custody as a result of torture or ill treatment. As we all know a number of Canadian citizens, permanent residents or their family members have suffered the consequences of this brutal crackdown. At present Amnesty international has taken up the case of Lizhi He who is married to Li Zhang, a Canadian permanent resident. Lizhi He was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment in December of 2000 because of his Falun Gong activities. Lizhi is a prisoner of conscience and should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Amnesty has repeatedly urged Canada more actively to push China to end the systematic abuses of fundamental human rights of Falun Gong followers and countless others, groups and individuals through out the country. And to pressure China to enact the sort of human rights reforms that will guard against these abuses and or end. Instead we must see a commitment at every possible turn and juncture. One such opportunity lies immediately ahead, in just over two weeks, Jean Chretien will meet up with Jiang Zemin at the APEC summit in Mexico. In Mexico the Prime Minister must press for action, real action, with respect to human rights in China. With respect to the treatment of Falun Gong followers and with respect to the case of Lizhi He. Action not silence.
