Falun Gong prisoner comes home: Freed Canadian heads for reunion with daughter

The Ottawa Citizen

Brigitte Bouvier, The Ottawa Citizen / LingDi Zhang was delighted yesterday when she called Foreign Affairs for news of her father, KunLun Zhang, and was told he was already on a plane and on his way out of China.

KunLun Zhang, the former Montreal sculptor whose imprisonment in China sparked a diplomatic row between the Canadian and Chinese governments, was scheduled to arrive last night in Ottawa to be reunited with the daughter whose tearful public appeal two months ago kickstarted a global campaign for his release.

"I decided to call Foreign Affairs (yesterday) morning to find out if they had heard anything new," said LingDi Zhang, the University of Ottawa student who first drew attention to her father's plight at a Nov. 17 news conference that detailed China's brutal crackdown against practitioners of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong.

"It was about 10 or 11 a.m. and they told me, 'Your father is already on the plane.' I was so surprised and so happy."

Marie-Christine Lilkoff, spokeswoman with the Department of Foreign Affairs, confirmed yesterday that Mr. Zhang had left China and was scheduled to arrive in Ottawa late last night.

"He has returned to Canada," she said, adding that before his departure from China "Canadian embassy officials in Beijing had met with him and confirmed with him that he's well, but tired."

Mr. Zhang, 60, who holds Canadian citizenship but returned to his native China in 1996 to care for his ailing mother-in-law, was arrested last summer while practising Falun Gong's outlawed meditation rituals.

Fearful of the soaring popularity of the movement, the Chinese government had banned Falun Gong in July 1999 -- a move criticized as a human rights violation by Canada and other countries around the world.

In November, Ms. Zhang called on the Canadian government to help free her father and more sternly denounce the persecution of tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China. A series of Citizen articles about Mr. Zhang's imprisonment drew widespread attention, including that of Montreal-area Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.

Mr. Cotler, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer who once represented Nelson Mandela, offered to take on Mr. Zhang's case free and called the sculptor a classic "prisoner of conscience."

Mr. Cotler helped rally governments, academic organizations and human rights groups around the world to support Mr. Zhang and denounce China. He also leaned on his own colleagues in the Liberal government to play diplomatic hardball with China over its Falun Gong policies.

There was additional pressure from several opposition MPs -- including the NDP's Svend Robinson and Lanark-Carleton Alliance MP Scott Reid -- who urged the federal government to cancel its planned February trade mission to China unless Mr. Zhang was released.

Liberal MP Marlene Catterall also sent a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley, warning him that Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Canada's premiers risked being "embarrassed" if Team Canada participants were touring Chinese factories while a Canadian citizen was still imprisoned in a labour camp.

As recently as one week ago, Mr. Zhang's future appeared particularly bleak after he'd been transferred to the notorious Wangcun labour camp in northeastern China -- nicknamed "hell on earth" by human rights organizations because of frequent reports of torture deaths.

But in a stunning reversal last Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa announced that Mr. Zhang had been released from the labour camp and returned to his home in Jinan.

That news was greeted with only cautious optimism, because it appeared Mr. Zhang was still under house arrest with his wife, ShuMei, and her elderly mother. Furthermore, the official announcement of his release suggested Mr. Zhang had been freed only after agreeing to "break away" from [] Falun Gong.

His supporters in Ottawa held a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese embassy on Friday, demanding Mr. Zhang's "unconditional release," his prompt return to Canada and an end to China's crackdown against Falun Gong.

"I called him on Saturday, and he was still at home. On Sunday I called again and I was just cut off," said LingDi Zhang.

"So I sent an e-mail to Foreign Affairs saying my father is ready to come back. I didn't know we would get action so quickly."

Falun Gong practitioners were gathering at the Ottawa airport shortly after 9 p.m. to welcome Mr. Zhang back to Canada. But his daughter warned that he might resist making comments about his ordeal in China because his wife and mother-in-law remain there and continue to be subject to government surveillance.

Mr. Cotler, who was attending a conference in Jerusalem yesterday when he received world of Mr. Zhang's return to Canada, said he welcomed the news because it was clear his client's safety couldn't be guaranteed in China.

"I understood this is what the family was trying to do," he said. He noted that Mr. Zhang continues to have "concerns about leaving behind his wife and mother" and that efforts to have have them come to Canada are also expected.

LingDi Zhang said her father would "be staying with my friends for a couple of days" while she looks to find him his own apartment.

"It's a great thing to finally get him over here and out of the labour camp," said Lucy Zhou, the Falun Gong co-ordinator in Ottawa who spearheaded efforts to publicize Mr. Zhang's imprisonment. "We always felt he would only be safe when he lands in Ottawa."