Chinese Group Attempts to Provoke and Disrupt Public Testimony Sponsored By Amnesty International

[ClearWisdom.net] Geneva, March 21, 2001

On the evening of March 21, Amnesty International held a forum open to academics, government officials and researchers at the university "Unimail". The forum, similar to the one on the previous Monday, featured the personal testimony of Professor Zhang Kunlun from Canada, Ms. Xiang Cuiying from Australia and Dr. Sunny Lu regarding on the torture and persecution going on in China.

Before the forum was to begin, four Chinese attendees were spotted in the audience who had previous histories of slandering Falun Gong. The most notorious of the group was, Sima Nan, a scientist who, like He Zuoxiu, (who was instrumental in convincing Jiang Zemin to outlaw and persecute Falun Gong against the advice of others in the leadership) has taken a public stand to slander Falun Gong. Also in attendance were a French translator, a photographer who had been taking a lot of photos of practitioners' demonstrations, and a reporter from the Chinese media who had tried to disrupt Falun Gong activities at last year's conference in Geneva.

As one practitioner began to tell their story, one of the Chinese group attempted to record it. A practitioner quickly and firmly told him that taping was not allowed and there was no need to tape the public testimony. Also the photographer started taking numerous photos of practitioners and speakers. As the testimony got underway, the Chinese group remained silent.

After the testimonials were given by the Falun Gong practitioners, the forum was opened up for questions. Upon hearing this, Sima Nan became quite agitated and made loud outbursts directed at Professor Zhang. Sima Nan kept trying to bring up lies and tried to discredit Professor Zhang in front of the invited guests. Members of Amnesty International stopped him several times and asking him to stop behaving in this manner.

Professor Zhang was unmoved by the disruption and instead took the opportunity to educate the audience in more detail regarding the Chinese Governments propaganda methods. To illustrate his point, he mentioned that the beds in the prison were brought in for show during inspections. They were all made up so they looked very neat and organized like army barracks and were shown during inspections. However in the evening all the old stuff was brought back.

Professor Zhang said a prisoner who was detained with him said, "If a person cannot see through the tricks employed by the Chinese Government, they must be really gullible". He told the audience that all their fabrications have some loose thread if you scrutinize carefully. In the case of the prison inspections, they showed toothbrushes that were still unused and in their boxes, thus proving that the conditions in the prisons were fake.

He explained that the Chinese Government spread lies that Professor Zhang was treated well. Before his release they began to feed him very well in order to make him look healthy before his release. The Prison Warden even tried to coerce Prof. Zhang to teach him painting saying it was such an honor to have a talented prisoner. They then tried to film professor Zhang painting so they could use it to claim he was well treated and in a leisurely environment.

Sima Nan started to shout, "Professor Zhang, didn't you write a letter giving up your practice?"

Professor Zhang posed a question to the audience. He said, "Whose words do you believe? The words from a man who is free or those from a man who was held in prison under extreme pressure and mistreatment."

After the Q&A, the Chinese group began to discuss loudly to everyone around them. Sima Nan rushed to the front and again shouted loudly at Professor Zhang while pointing his finger angrily. He accused Prof. Zhang of changing his story. The members of Amnesty who were hosting the discussion became quite upset and ordered him to cease his bad behavior at once. Meanwhile, the practitioners all remained very calm and firmly encouraged the Chinese group to leave the auditorium. As a last attempt, Sima Nan pitifully shouted in vain to Professor Zhang some additional words. Finally, the whole Chinese group left the premises.

Throughout the entire event, practitioners handled every conflict in a peaceful manner and used their wisdom while not permitting the evil forces to interfere with spreading the truth about Falun Dafa.