NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER

Dec. 8, 2000

OTTAWA - Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer, yesterday harshly criticized China for breaking its own laws as well as international treaties by detaining, imprisoning and torturing Canadian professor Kun-lun Zhang.

'What we are seeing here is a case study of a pervasive and persistent assault on human rights in China in general.' - Irwin Cotler, Human rights lawyer

"What we are seeing here is a case study of a pervasive and persistent assault on human rights in China in general, and a case study in the attempt to suppress the fundamental freedoms of the Falun (Dafa) peaceful spiritual movement in particular,'' he said.

Cotler, who represents the riding of Mount Royal, said he had agreed to represent Zhang's family as international legal counsel on a pro bono basis in their efforts to get him released from prison.

Zhang and his wife, Shu-mei, was arrested July 27 for practising the meditation exercises of the movement in a park.

He was released a month later, and re-arrested on Nov. 15.

The 60-year-old sculpture professor was sentenced to three years in a labour camp by a court in Shandong on Nov. 15 and now is in the Liuchangshan labour camp outside Jinan.

Zhang, who came to Canada as a visiting scholar in 1989, became a Canadian citizen in 1995 while retaining his Chinese nationality. He returned to China in 1996 on his Chinese passport.

The former McGill University professor is a follower of Falun Dafa, a movement that combines meditation and exercise in a form based loosely on Buddhist and Taoist teachings.

Cotler was one of four MPs who yesterday called on Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley to intervene with the People's Republic of China.

"We're still having difficulties obtaining consular access,'' Jennifer Sloan, Manley's director of communications said yesterday. "China does not recognize dual citizenship; the Canadian citizen entered China using his Chinese passport.''

Asked about this, Cotler said that China is breaking its own laws, and international agreements that it has signed.

The imprisonment and torture of Zhang has focused attention on Prime Minister Jean Chretien's plans to lead a Team Canada trade mission to China in February.

Bloc Qubcois MP Francine Lalonde, whose staff had alerted foreign affairs that Zhang had been re-arrested, stressed that speed is important.

"Canada should act, and Mr. Manley should act very quickly,'' she said.

Cotler also stressed the need for quick action.

"It needs to be emphasized that we're not dealing with an opposition political movement in the case of the Falun (Dafa); we're dealing with a peaceful, non-violent, meditative exercise movement whose spiritual values are organized around notions of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance."