August 16, 2002

Honorable Ms. Mary Robinson
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Dear Honorable High Commissioner Mary Robinson:

We recently learned the news that you are on a trip to China,áCambodia andáEast Timor from 18 to 25 August. As people originally from China, we deeply applaud and appreciate your tireless effort on improving the human right situation in these areas, especially in China.

We are writing to you today to bring to your attention new developments and tactics deployed by the president of China, Jiang Zemin, in his campaign of terror against Falun Gong. We believe these recent development are serious enough to catch the attention of the United Nations and all democratic countries because many of these are beyond the Chinese border and affect citizens of western democracies.

You are doubtless already aware that in the past three years, there has been a systematic escalation of horrific attacks launched by Jiang against Falun Gong practitioners. Less well known are just how much this bloody campaign dominates Jiang's agenda, both foreign and domestic, and the extremes to which he will go to carry it out. One by one, Jiang has brought under attack the freedoms and constitutional rights as well as the morality of the entire world, including Australia, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Cambodia.

Hong Kong: Last month, sixteen Falun Gong supporters including four from Switzerland were put on trial in Hong Kong. They are charged with obstruction and assault during a peaceful appeal to the government of China that took place on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Liaison Office on March 14, 2002. This trial actually put the Chinese government's commitment to "one country, two systems " on trial. Please see attached report 1 for detail on this trial. And the following link has a compilation of the articles:

http://www.faluninfo.net/focus/hongkong.asp

Cambodia: On August 2, 2002, Cambodian police, under pressure and direction from the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, arrested a Chinese couple who escaped from China to Phnom Penh after Jiang launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in July, 1999 and were living and working in the city with U.N. Refugee Certificates. Please see attached report #2 for detail on this case. We appeal to you to ask Chinese government to release this couple and we believe they are in immediate danger right now.

Iceland & Hong Kong: A blacklist of Falun Gong practitioners' names mysteriously surfaced just days before Jiang visited Iceland in June. Hundreds of those whose names appeared on the blacklist, many of them American citizens, were denied of boarding the Icelandair flights at four major US airports and many other major European airports. In early July, similar things happened in Hong Kong.

China: The death toll of practitioners who are persecuted to death in the hands of Chinese police and detention centers has rise sharply in recent months.

Ms. High Commissioner, these evidence reveals a desperate and reckless man, grasping for support for his failed and flawed policy of persecution. In doing so, he has put the cornerstone of the western democracies under serious attack.

Given the increased evidence linking Chinese officials to this wave of persecution, U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) initiated House Concurrent Resolution 188 calling on Chinese regime to cease persecution of Falun Gong. It was passed on July 24, 2002 with a sweeping vote of 420-0. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing," said Ms. Ros-Lehtinen to her colleagues. "We must send a clear message to the PRC that such behavior will not be tolerated in this country and that violators will be held accountable for their actions."

Ms. High Commissioner, it is our hope that the above facts will be brought to your attention, and through your moral authority, brought to the attention of the entire UN body. It is our hope that you will urge these countries and areas come to realize what they have done wrong and to rectify it.

Sincerely,

Falun Dafa Association of New York, USA

Report #1: Hong Kong

http://www.faluninfo.net/focus/hongkong.asp

Timeline: Hong Kong Trial Shows Signs of Beijing's Influence

March 5, (2002)

  • Changchun City area TV stations' signals interrupted with footage revealing the persecution of Falun Gong in China
  • Chinese president Jiang Zemin issues secret order to "kill without pardon" Falun Gong practitioners
  • 4 practitioners from Switzerland who planned to appeal regarding the urgent situation in China were denied Chinese visas. They decided to go to Hong Kong.
á March 10
  • The 4 Swiss practitioners arrived in Hong Kong
á

March 14

  • 8:50 am, 4 Swiss Falun Gong practitioners began a sit-in and hunger strike with a banner reading "Stop Jiang Zemin's Order to 'Kill Without Pardon'" in front of the Chinese Liaison Office. Later, 12 Hong Kong practitioners joined them spontaneously.
  • Hong Kong law allows the gathering of up to 50 people without a permit.
  • Between 9-10 the Liaison Office made five phone calls to the police, calling a private phone line of a policeman who was actually on holiday (according to testimony)
  • 10 am, a few police arrived and asked the practitioners to move to a nearby building which actually had less street-side space than the Liaison Office. The practitioners declined.
  • The sidewalk at the Liaison Office is approximately 9.2m (about 30 feet) wide and practitioners used only a few feet, leaving at least 20 feet of walking space. There were very few passers-by on the sidewalk.
  • About 10 am, police put up barricades, closing off the whole sidewalk area, forcing people to walk on the street.
  • About 11 am, 50-60 policemen arrived.
  • Noon-12:30 pm, police held a press conference outside of the barricade. Then they moved in to arrest the practitioners.
  • 1:10 pm, police started to grab and choke practitioners and push their acupressure points; they took the 16 practitioners to waiting police vans and sent them to the police station
  • 9 practitioners were injured from police pressing their acupressure points; they had bruises, headaches, nausea and general weakness.

March 14-18

  • The barricade set up by the police was left for 5 days in front of the Liaison office, closing the whole sidewalk
á

March 15

  • Police released the practitioners from detention; Practitioners were charged with "obstruction of public property" and were ordered to stay in Hong Kong for a week.

March 22

  • The 16 practitioners were formally charged with "assaulting policemen"

á June 17

  • The trial started.
  • Magistrate after talking to the lawyers, stated the trial would last 11 days (the trial is now entering its 23rd day, August 5th)
  • During the trial, much evidence that the judge strongly favors the prosecution: the judge even yells in court at the defense lawyer, "Fight like a man!" ...after sustaining defense's objection allows prosecution to continue with an unrelated question nonetheless ... sustains the prosecution's request to not allow practitioners to read the statement explaining their appeal at the Chinese Liaison Office, on grounds that they intended to read a "political" statement. The letter had already been submitted as evidence.

á

July 17

  • The defense lawyer asked the judge to step down on grounds of "bias". The judge refused and the prosecutor defended the judge.
  • All witnesses called throughout the trial by the prosecution were either policemen or security guards from the Liaison Office
  • No witness was ever called stating that they had been "obstructed"
  • The police themselves blocked the entire sidewalk for 5 days while the appealers had taken only a small space there. The Liaison Office erected a wooden structure in the exact location that had been considered an "obstruction" when occupied by Falun Gong practitioners

á August 5

  • Testifying finished.

á

August 6

  • Final submissions from defense and prosecution.

á

August 15

á

Report #2: Cambodia

(From Sister Denise Coghlan, JRS Cambodia, 14 August 2002)

CAMBODIA DEPORTS CHINESE ASYLUM SEEKERS IN VIOLATION OF REFUGEE CONVENTION

Two Chinese asylum seekers , Li Guo Jun, 46, and Zhang Xinyi, 39, were deported by the Cambodian authorities on 9 August 2002 and are now held in detention in China's Hunan Province, according to New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center. The Chinese couple were Falun Gong practitioners and were persons of concern under the protection of the UNHCR in Cambodia. Their deportation is a gross violation of Cambodia's international obligation of non-refoulement under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Cambodia is a signatory.

The couple were arrested by Cambodian police on 2 August 2002, a Friday. Unconfirmed reports say that the couple showed to their arresting officers their UNHCR protection letters, but that these were ignored and torn into pieces. The UNHCR sought the couple's immediate release, but Cambodian authorities officially denied that the couple was in their custody. Last Friday, 9 August 2002, the UNHCR Regional Office in Bangkok sent a letter to Cambodian authorities asking for the immediate release of the couple, but it was revealed today that the Chinese had been deported that same day.

Li Guo Jun and Zhang Xinyi have been under UNHCR protection since January 2000 as persons of concern pending their official recognition as refugees. They left China in 1998 before the July 1999 Chinese government crackdown on the Falun Gong. Since 1998 they have been teaching in a Chinese school in Phnom Penh and have apparently had no trouble with the local Chinese authorities. In fact, the two have visited the Chinese mainland separately on several occasions since their first arrival in Cambodia and have had no problems with immigration authorities of both countries.

In June 2002, however, Zhang Xinyi received a package in the mail from Taiwan containing Falun Gong materials. Soon thereafter, on 3 July 2002, they were summoned by the Cambodian Department of Foreigners and informed that "Cambodia and China enjoy friendly relations" and that the couple was damaging these relations. In late July, when Zhang Xinyi went to the Chinese embassy to have her passport renewed, Chinese authorities took her old passport and refused to give her a new one. By the end of July, she and her husband were dismissed from the Chinese school. On 2 August, witnesses reported the couple's arrest. The UNHCR was unsuccessful in convincing the Cambodian authorities to honor their country's international obligation and release the asylum seekers.

The earlier disappearance of Thich Tri Luch, a dissident Vietnamese Buddhist monk, last 25 July 2002 remains unsolved. He was a recognised refugee and signatory to this convention.

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JRS Cambodia's homepage is www.forum.org.kh/~jrscam
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Category: Opinion & Perspective