Age (Melbourne): Australian Woman Wants Government to Help Her Retrieve Husband's Ashes

January 2, 2002

An Australian woman whose husband was killed allegedly for being part of an outlawed religious group in China wants the Australian government to help her retrieve his remains.

Jane Dai said her husband, Chen Chengyong, had been persecuted by the Chinese government for several years because he was a Falun Gong practitioner.

Ms Dai, of Hurstville in Sydney, said her husband had been arrested on several occasions by police and at one time was subjected to severe electric shocks.

She said she last saw her husband on January 10 last year, when he disappeared from their home town of Guangzhou.

His remains were found in an abandoned hut in July.

Ms Dai said she feared that if she returned to China to retrieve her husband's ashes, she and her daughter, Chen Fadu, would be killed.

She said she believed they were only alive because they were Australian citizens.

Ms Dai said her family became Falun Gong members after her father-in-law made a miraculous recovery from illness which was attributed to the group's practises.

She said since becoming members, her entire family had been persecuted.

Her sister-in-law was sentenced to two years in a labour camp and her brother's house searched without a warrant, she said.

Ms Dai has called on the federal government to ask the Chinese government to undertake a formal investigation into her husband's death.

She also wants the government to ensure her safety when returning to China to retrieve her husband's ashes.

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has told her the Australian government cannot do anything because her husband was not an Australian citizen.

"I don't know which way I can go. I need help," she said.

"I am afraid we will be arrested, because when I left there were already problems.

"I just worry we will just disappear. No-one will know where we are."

Ms Dai said having her husband's ashes would at least give their daughter a link to her father.

"It's the most heart-breaking thing. I don't know how to tell her about this terrorism, and how it will affect her," she said.

Chinese authorities have pursued Falun Gong followers since the government outlawed the group in July 1999.

The government says Falun Gong is an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] [...]. Last year, four Australians were among 35 foreign Falun Gong members who were detained overnight then deported after staging a peaceful protest against China's human rights record in Tiananmen Square.

Falun Gong says almost 300 followers have died in custody during the crackdown and that many more have been tortured and abused.

Thousands of followers have been sent to prisons and labour camps.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/01/02/FFX9KNQZXVC.html