Script:

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 March 19th, 2002

I'm Joel Chipkar.

Zhao Ming, a student at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland was released from prison in China on Tuesday 12 March 2002 after two years of illegal detainment in Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing. This follows tremendous pressure from the Irish Government, the students at Trinity College, Amnesty International, as well as other politicians and non-governmental around the world.

• Reports from China indicate that, although Ming has been released and is now being cared for by his family, he is very frail after the abuse he has suffered in the labour camp.

• It has also been revealed that during the last few weeks of detainment, Ming's oppressors intensified the physical and mental torture against him.

• A spokesperson for the European Falun Gong Information Centre, commented that: "Ming's release is a clear indication that, under pressure, the Chinese government will release those who have been unjustly detained. It's time the international community spoke out and asked for the release of all Falun Gong practitioners and to stop the current shoot to kill policy being implemented by Jiang Zemin."

moving now to Hong Kong...

• On March 14, 4 Swiss and 12 local practitioners of Falun Gong were forcefully removed by police from a peaceful appeal outside the China Liaison Office.

• The Swiss were released Thursday night and the Hong Kong practitioners were released Friday, after posting bail

• Despite overwhelming video evidence to the contrary, Hong Kong police have falsely charged the demonstrators with "obstruction". These charges could mean jail sentences of up to six months.

• The sidewalk in front of the China Liaison Office is approximately 30 feet wide. The sixteen people were quietly sitting without being in the way of either passers-by, or office workers entering and leaving the building.

• In these photographs, Hong Kong police, trained in martial arts techniques, press accupuncture points at the base of the skull and strangle this 60-year-old non-violent demonstrator.

• In this third photo, at least 4 police are working on one meditator

• CNN interviewed the Reverend Fung Chi-wood, a Christian civil rights activist, who said, "The police were obviously pressured by the Chinese liaison office. No one would believe this is not politically motivated."

On March 13, 2002, Voice Of America reported that the China Affairs Executive Committee of the U.S. Congress has urged President Bush to support the submission of a human rights resolution regarding China to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Conference currently being held in Geneva.

In this week's update from China...

The number of Falun Dafa practitioners verified to have died while in detention is 381. However, trusted government sources inside China put the actual death count at more than 1,600.

At 8 p.m. on March 12, Changchun practitioners successfully installed cable television broadcasting equipment in a residential sector of Changchun City in the northeast of China.

• Continuing for about 30 minutes each, the broadcasts helped more people to break free from the control of the lies spread by the Chinese government.

• The Changchun Police Bureau is using a 3000-man police force every day to monitor the cable television signal amplification boxes.

• Hundreds of people have been arrested, and witnesses have reported hearing screams from torture inside police stations.

In its statement following the release of Shenli Lin, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa claimed that the practice of Falun Gong has caused over sixteen hundred deaths.

• When the crackdown on Falun Gong was instituted by President Jiang Zemin in July, 1999, the government published a list of 1,400 names. The government said these people had died from practicing Falun Gong.

• On June 14, 2001, Minghui Net received the following message: My husband, Wang Ku, once had type B hepatitis. It was diagnosed in 1984, and he died in 1998 due to liver cirrhosis.

• The death of my husband was included in the government's list and published in the newspaper to attack Falun Gong. My husband died of liver disease, and it had nothing to do with Falun Gong because he never practiced Falun Gong.

• In a comprehensive report issued on February 7, 2002 the respected organization, Human Rights Watch, stated that the Chinese government's .... "claim that belief in Falun Gong is a public health menace is equally bogus. The danger to health comes from the treatment its practitioners receive at the hands of the police and prison officials."

A 57-year-old female Falun Dafa practitioner from Weifang City of Shandong Province has managed to submit an account of the atrocities committed against her because she maintains her faith and practice of Falun Dafa.

• As well as having coat, shoes and socks removed, a bucket of cold water poured over her and then being tied to a tree overnight outside in the winter time, she was beaten until an official cautioned the attackers that she might die.

• In January, 2000 she reported that she was tied up, along with seven others who had gone to appeal in Beijing, and they were force fed with human excrement and urine.

• This practitioner's home was later burned to the ground.

• She and her husband and his 90-year-old father have been forced to move from place to place, existing with occasional temporary work.

Moving to Jincheng Village, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province...

• Wu Zhiguang, Communist Party Secretary in Jincheng Village, burned many Falun Dafa books, illegally sent practitioners to forced labor camps and extorted money and valuables from practitioners. Mr. Wu recently suffered a stroke and died

• It is universal law that good will be rewarded and bad deeds will be punished.

Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, USA has declared May 13 to be Falun Dafa Day in the County.

In a Proclamation issued on the 11th of March, 2002 the County Council commended practitioners for seeking to enrich their lives through the practice and for peacefully resisting the unjust violation of their human rights. It also urged the Chinese government to immediately release all Falun Dafa practitioners from detention.

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