Taipei Times: Suing [Jiang Zemin] to safeguard rights

Thursday, Nov 27, 2003,Page 8

Seven members of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Institute filed a lawsuit at the Taiwan High Court on Nov. 17 accusing former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, former Chinese vice premier Li Lanqing and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Luo Gan of committing genocide.

This is the first time that Taiwanese people have invoked the genocide statute, which was put in place in 1953 in accordance with the UN's 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

We have four statements to make regarding this lawsuit.

First, we demand that justice be served to safeguard basic human rights and freedom.

Falun Gong pursues no political ends and its practitioners do not harbor any political interests. We are following a judicial path to safeguard humanity's basic rights to free spiritual expression, free speech and individual liberty. We hope for a fair trial that will encourage the basic values of justice and goodness.

Second, violators of human rights should be punished by law so that international justice can be realized.

The Falun Gong is a group that cultivates the heart and the mind through exercise and meditation. It does not oppose any political regime. China's suppression of Falun Gong is motivated purely by Jiang's self-interest. Since July 1999, and with the assistance of Li, Luo and hundreds of government agencies, Jiang has arbitrarily threatened political groups, schools and business entities all around China to misrepresent the pure, good and peaceful Falun Gong as an illegal religious sect and target it for political struggle.

Using the media, the Beijing government has planted false evidence, slandered the group and stirred up public hatred toward Falun Gong. They have also brainwashed, tortured and killed Falun Gong practitioners. Such vicious and terrifying means of persecution are quite simply beyond the imagination of Taiwanese people living in a society that upholds freedom and the rule of law. These atrocities, stretching over more than four years, have deprived millions of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners of their freedom of religion and basic human rights. The atrocities have even occurred outside China. After lengthy investigation by international human rights organizations, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, irrefutable proof of this has been collected. Amnesty International named Jiang one of its "Human Rights Scoundrels" of the year 2000. Over the past four years, governments around the world have issued more than 130 statements condemning China's persecution. The persecution that Jiang's system has inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners has become a focus of world attention.

Third, Jiang's brutality has violated Taiwanese people's rights and must be stopped.

The fact that some Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners suffered persecution proves that the Jiang regime's atrocities have encroached on Taiwan's territory.

Over the past four years, Taiwanese practitioners have been illegally detained, mistreated and forced to give testimony while in China. When they attended officially approved activities in Hong Kong and Iceland, they were illegally detained and repatriated, and harmed financially, psychologically and physically for no reason.

Even the livelihood of the residents of Matsu has been threatened because of China's brutal repression of Falun Gong. Several Chinese women married to Taiwanese men have been secretly detained and questioned after returning to China and then charged, jailed or forced to leave home.

The safety and privacy of Taiwanese people are now controlled by China. How can the Taiwanese public allow its good and honest people to live under the shadow of Jiang's conspiracies and threats?

Fourth, we call on Taiwan's courts to try the case fairly and we call on the public to view the matter conscientiously.

The seven plaintiffs are not the only victims. All Falun Gong practitioners are victims. In fact, everyone is a victim. The Jiang regime deceived China and the rest of the world with blatant lies. Yet some people failed to see the truth, and they too harbored hatred toward Falun Gong and even participated in these crimes.

The Jiang regime has fabricated data to cover up a weak Chinese economy. It has lured international investors into providing capital for their suppression of justice. Many governments have been blinded by China's economic illusion and have sacrificed their own traditions of human rights and protecting their peoples.

A famous quote in the 1980 US human rights case Filartiga versus Pena-Irala said that whoever adopts torture is the enemy of humanity. Now, in addition to the lawsuit filed in Taiwan against Jiang, Li and Luo, human rights lawyers from around the world have joined hands to help persecuted Falun Gong practitioners sue Jiang and other Chinese officials who joined with him in committing crimes.

Since October last year, plaintiffs in the US, Belgium, Spain and other nations have lodged charges of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. Plaintiffs in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Ireland are also planning to follow suit.

Our government has pledged to make Taiwan a human rights-oriented nation. Amid the international wave of support for a public trial of Jiang, we declare that he and other human-rights scoundrels will be brought to justice in Taiwan so that justice can be safeguarded for all. We also call on everyone in Taiwan, China and the rest of the world to try these public enemies in the court of their own consciences.

If all the righteous people of the world can condemn these atrocities with one voice, the worst human rights tragedy within Chinese society in the 21st century can be stopped. Then Falun Gong practitioners, who believe in "truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," can enjoy freedom, innocent Taiwanese will no longer be threatened by China's persecution of human rights and the light of truth, goodness and justice will shine in every corner of the world.

Translated by Jackie Lin

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/11/27/2003077451