Mar. 23, 2007
AMNESTY ISSUES URGENT ACTION FOR FALUN GONG WHO COULD FACE TORTURE
On Tuesday, March 20, 2007, Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action (AI Index: ASA 17/014/2007) calling for support to help free eight Falun Gong "prisoners of conscience" currently being held in Guangdong province, China and who are at risk of torture. According to the Urgent Action, the individuals were detained simply for gathering together in a private home, and were subsequently sentenced -- without trial or any judicial process -- from 1.5 to 2 years of forced labor. Family members of the individuals have not yet been officially informed of the sentences, says Amnesty, nor have family been allowed to see them since they were detained on February 10, 2007. Amnesty has asked individuals to send letters "expressing concern that the eight Falun Gong practitioners were detained in violation of their fundamental human rights to freedom of expression, association and religious belief, and calling on the authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally."
WOMAN'S CORPSE HELD AS EVIDENCE OF TORTURE AS FAMILY SEEKS JUSTICE
Family members of torture victim and recently deceased Ms. Cao Aihua are desperately seeking justice, going so far as to guard Cao's corpse (which bears evidence of torture) for three months in a frigid, rented room of a funeral parlor in northwestern China, sources tell the Falun Dafa Information Center. Cao died within two short weeks of imprisonment in the Women's Labor Camp of the Xinjiang Army Corps, passing away on November 13, 2006. China's communist authorities regularly cremate the bodies of torture victims so as to destroy evidence.
More information: http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9476
Related news: http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9472
BEIJING BRANCH MANAGER OF FRENCH COMPANY SEIZED FOR BELIEVED FALUN GONG CONNECTION
The Falun Dafa Information Center is concerned for the safety of Beijing resident Ma Jian, following his seizure on March 13, 2007, by Beijing police. Ma, the branch manager of the Beijing office of PCM Pumps, was seized at the company's office by six plainclothes police, sources indicate. According to one witness, Ma's secretary, violence was used in Ma's removal, and police proceeded to ransack the entire office. All business activity is said to have been stopped at the office following the abduction. Ma practices Falun Gong, and is believed to have been singled out by China's communist authorities for his beliefs.
More information: http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9477
CANADIAN INVESTIGATORS URGE IOC TO PRESSURE CHINESE REGIME OVER PRESECUTION OF "MILLIONS"
Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia David Kilgour are calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to question Chinese authorities concerning grave and widespread human rights abuses against "millions of innocent citizens in China." In a letter dated March 14, 2007, and addressed to IOC President Mr. Jacques Rogge, Matas and Kilgour cite the Olympic charter, which states the goal of the Olympics to be "encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with preservation of human dignity." Matas and Kilgour, who investigated organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China and recently issued a report on the atrocities, asked the IOC, "What dignities has the Chinese Government accorded the people of China with violations against the innocent still continuing after being awarded the Olympics?...We are confident that the IOC would not have awarded the Games to Beijing had they then known of the human rights abuses happening in China."
Full text of letter: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200703/38470.html
Matas and Kilgour report on organ harvesting: http://investigation.go.saveinter.net/