Seven Falun Gong Practitioners Appeal to Singapore Government to Withdraw False Charges

(Clearwisdom.net) We are seven Falun Gong practitioners who do our exercises and raise awareness about the persecution in China at Esplanade Park in Singapore. In early May 2010, we were falsely accused on charges of "vandalizing public property" (displaying information) and "abetting others" (distributing information to the public) by the Singapore police. Although the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong is well-known around the world today, Singapore is still going against the international trend and siding with the evil CCP. Once again they have committed crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. We strongly urge the Government of Singapore to withdraw the unreasonable charges against us as soon as possible. We also call on all people who have a sense of justice to express concern about this case and to stand up against the illegal charges forced upon us.

On October 5, 2009, the police came to Esplanade Park and arrested four Falun Gong practitioners who were practicing their peaceful exercises and displaying and distributing information about the persecution of Falun Gong. Another practitioner who was at work was called to come down to the police division to "assist an investigation" and was arrested after arriving at the station. After being released on bail, the passports of the five practitioners were impounded by the police in the name of their investigation. To date, the passports have not been returned. This is a serious human rights violation and a violation of international law. At the same time, the police changed the visa status of the three Chinese national practitioners to a monthly extension "special visa", which directly caused one practitioner to lose his job, and another one to be unable to seek employment. These practitioners are facing great financial difficulty.

On May 6, 2010, the Central Police Division called these five practitioners to come to the station for a "talk." Upon arrival, the police immediately arrested the practitioners and accused them of "vandalizing public property" and "abetting others" and brought them to court. Two other practitioners who also participated in Falun Gong activities at Esplanade Park were arrested and indicted on May 6 and May 7, 2010 on charges of "vandalizing public property" and "harassment", etc.

Prior to this case, ever since the MacRitchie Reservoir case back in 2000, the Singapore police prosecuted Falun Gong practitioners six times on false charges including "unlawful assembly", "distributing unlicensed CDs", "assembly without permits", "defaming Li Lanqing" and "displaying insulting language to cause harassment" when a practitioner displayed a banner that read "7.20 hunger strike to protest the CCP's inhuman persecution of Falun Gong practitioners" in front of the Chinese Embassy. This year's "vandalizing public property" and "abetting others" are two new charges.

Not coincidentally, all of these false accusation cases occurred prior to the visits of Chinese leaders to Singapore. For example, the MacRitchie Reservoir incident occurred in the end of 2000 when ex-Prime Minister Zhu Rongji arrived in Singapore to attend the fourth China-ASEAN Summit; the cases in 2004 occurred when China and Singapore started free trade negotiations; the four cases in 2006, happened when the CCP leader Li Lanqing, who was the head of 610 office, was invited by Lee Kuan Yew to be awarded an honorary doctorate degree at the National University of Singapore. The arrest occurring on October 5 last year at Esplanade Park happened prior to Hu Jintao's arrival to attend the APEC CEO Summit (APEC CEO Summit 2009).

From the above cases, we can see that the Singapore government officials prosecuting Falun Gong practitioners have their political purposes. Although they understand Falun Gong practitioners are peaceful, socially beneficial and harmless, for political reasons and economic interests, they continue to betray their sense of justice and conscience and prosecute practitioners in exchange for bonus points with the CCP.

The allegations are groundless. Falun Gong practitioners have been holding peaceful activities and raising awareness in Esplanade Park for about ten years. Every day , display boards illustrating the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners are adhered to the wall using Blu-Tack, and are taken off at the end of the day. It leaves no trace, and no damage to any public property. Where has any "vandalism" been seen? In fact, in Esplanade Park, Falun Gong practitioners not only did not "vandalize public property", but consciously safeguarded the public environment by picking up trash left by other visitors.

Falun Gong practitioners follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance as their life principles and they strive to be considerate of others in everything they do. Millions of practitioners have experienced amazing improvement in their health through the practice. Falun Dafa has been widely spread for 18 years and has attracted people from all walks of life in 114 countries.

However, such a great practice that has physically and mentally benefited millions of people has suffered unprecedented slander and cruel persecution in China. Simply for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and being a good person, one may face imprisonment for several years or up to more than ten years, be subjected to all kinds of tortures, or be locked up in a mental hospital and injected with unknown drugs. Thousands of practitioners have been tortured to death, and thousands more have had their organs harvested when they were still alive.

The CCP also tries to cover up its crimes by controlling the media, the Internet and all other methods of communication, while spreading lies to discredit Falun Gong, and to incite hatred. Ignorant people even follow the persecutors to victimize practitioners, but they are not aware that doing this will bring to themselves very dangerous consequences, as they face karmic retribution from heaven for such wrongdoing.

In order to stop the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and to awaken the public from the deception of the CCP's propaganda and prevent them from persecuting Falun Gong in ignorance, Falun Gong practitioners around the world have been exposing the crimes of the CCP using peaceful means. These activities have also been warmly supported by many governments and people.

Among the charges this year, one is similar to a previous charge, that is, "displaying insulting words to cause harassment". In July 2009 a Falun Gong practitioner displayed a banner in front of the Chinese Embassy that read, "Stop Chinese Communist Party from extending the persecution of Falun Gong to Singapore." She was charged with "displaying insulting words on a banner", which supposedly violated the Miscellaneous Act (public order and harassment). What is written on the banner is a well-known fact. How is this "insulting" or "harassing"? The ancients said, "If you want to prosecute an innocent person, you have to make up lies to do that." The Singapore Government abuses the law to prosecute Falun Gong practitioners. This is an extremely ridiculous false accusation case, damaging Singapore's reputation in front of the whole world.

People living here all know that Singapore has proposed having a commitment to core values of tradition and modernity, East and West. The intention of this combination in itself shows that construction of Singapore's core values is based on universal values. Freedom, equality, rule of law and basic values--these are the common goals of all mankind. It is not only co-owned by the whole world, but also practiced universally.

However, it is sad that while support for ending the persecution of Falun Gong is growing around the rest of the world, the practitioners in Singapore are subjected to a variety of illegal and unreasonable charges by their government. The Singapore government's attitude towards Falun Gong practitioners clearly contradicts the core values they espouse.  

Since the CCP started the persecution of Falun Gong [in July 1999], many Chinese national Falun Gong practitioners have been unable to apply for asylum or extend their stay in Singapore. Instead, they were forced to seek help from UNHCR and become refugees in some other countries. A mother, just for practicing Falun Gong, could not renew her social visit pass, and was forced to leave the country, leaving her 12-year-old child to study in Singapore alone. A mother is displaced, a child is left unattended--such an insidious means to persecute a Falun Gong practitioner and her daughter, which has led to a broken family.

As the saying goes: "Justice has long arms." At present, legal proceedings have been initiated all over the world against more than 50 people considered responsible for initiating, promoting and implementing the persecution. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted Resolution 605 on March 16, 2010. This resolution calls on the Chinese regime to immediately stop the persecution, intimidation, imprisonment and torture of Falun Gong practitioners, and release all detained Falun Gong practitioners.

The Singapore government promotes "Eight Kinds of Morals" and "Five Moral Principles," and considers these as the model of conduct for citizens of Singapore and also consider them as the "Principles to Rule the Country." The Singapore people also follow traditional moral values, and they also believe that goodness is rewarded, and evil deeds are met with karmic retribution.

The CCP will one day have to answer for its crimes against humanity. Those who act against the historical trend will face the consequences. Here, we sincerely advise the Government of Singapore and the police that they should acknowledge the truth that Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted by CCP, face the mainstream trend of the international community which supports Falun Gong, consider the nation's long-term benefits, respect the rights granted by the Constitution of Singapore for the people to express themselves, immediately revoke the false accusations from this case, which is unlawful and intended to please the CCP, treat the practitioners fairly, and avoid serious consequences for themselves and the future of Singapore. Please don't leave an indelible disgrace for yourselves and future generations.

Yours sincerely,

Seven Falun Gong practitioners in Singapore

on June 9, 2010