Video: FGM TV News - 02/12/2002

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Falun Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries around the world, but relentlessly persecuted in China. The peaceful courage of practitioners there has shocked their oppressors and moved the people of the world. While China continues to block all information, FGMtv brings you the stories you may not hear anywhere else.

Hello, and welcome to FGMtv on February 12th, 2002.

I'm Susan Mitchell and on behalf of all the volunteers here at FGMtv, I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Our top stories this week:

• A Canadian and an American practitioner hold a secret press conference in Beijing to expose a state murder plot, and return to North America after being detained briefly.
• At a stopover in San Francisco while en route to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the Mayor of Beijing is served with a lawsuit by Falun Gong practitioners, charging him with torture and other crimes against humanity.

And some of our other stories:

• A parade honoring the spirit of the Olympics is held by 500 Falun Gong practitioners in Salt Lake City
• Montreal's largest daily newspaper reports on the defamation lawsuit being upheld in Quebec Superior Court
• Photos from Turkey: Falun Gong in the park
• Anti-Falun Gong photo exhibit at the Chinese Embassy in Paris, France closes after just one hour.
• French President Jacques Chirac sends personal new year greetings to practitioners in France

In this week's update from China:

• More than 54,700 Falun Gong practitioners vow to continue their practice of Falun Dafa and declare null and void all documents signed while they were in detention
• China's financial woes increased by relentless persecution of Falun Gong
• Anshan City police detain all relatives of 19 practitioners who escaped illegal detention and threaten them with one year of forced labour

and finally...

• How misfortune turns into great fortune for a mother in a Chinese prison

Secret Press Conference in Beijing to Expose State Murder Plot:

• Two Falun Gong practitioners from North America were arrested and detained on Tiananmen Square Monday morning. They had come from a press conference in a nearby hotel to expose Jiang Zemin's attempts to use slander and false reports to vilify the spiritual practice.
• During the press conference, which lasted over an hour, Levi Browde, an American software engineer and Jason Loftus, a Canadian engineering student at the University of Toronto, showed a newly released video. It exposed the notorious "self-immolation incident" in Beijing's Tiananmen Square as a set-up by the Chinese authorities to turn public opinion against Falun Gong.
• The video clearly shows the murder of one of the victims in the Square by a police officer. It also contains a revealing analysis showing that the whole incident was a deadly setup to frame Falun Gong.
• The secret press conference fell on the first anniversary of the incident.
• Later, after holding a brief peaceful demonstration, the two were surrounded in Tiananmen Square by police and taken away in waiting vans at approximately 3:00 PM (Beijing time, Monday). One witness reported that Loftus was forcibly dragged into a van by police after holding up a banner.
• During the brief scene, Loftus called out in Chinese "Falun Dafa is good" and "The self-immolation incident was staged!" until seven to ten police surrounded him and covered his mouth with a white handkerchief to silence him.

Both men were deported from China after being detained overnight. FGMtv was at Toronto's Pearson International Airport to greet Jason Loftus on his return.

Beijing Mayor served with a lawsuit over Falun Gong torture claims

• On Saturday, February 9th, ABC News on line reported that Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, has been slapped with a lawsuit by six Falun Gong members, including an Australian, claiming they were physically abused during a protest in the Chinese capital.
• Mr. Liu, who is also president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) is charged under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act. These Acts give US courts jurisdiction over acts of torture committed outside the country. For a suit to proceed, the defendant must be served with legal papers while in the United States.
• According to Sherry Zhang, a spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Centre in northern California, the papers, handed down by a US district court, were served to Mr. Liu shortly before he boarded a flight to Salt Lake City.
• Ms Zhang says the civil lawsuit was filed against Mr. Liu by six Falun Gong members from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Sweden and the United States.
• The Mayor of Beijing has been charged with "torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, arbitrary detention, crimes against humanity and interference with freedom of religion and belief" because of overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong in Beijing.

Maintaining the Olympic Spirit, Falun Gong Practitioners Hold Parade and Press Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah

• On February 7, 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah, the host city for 2002 Winter Olympics was anticipating the opening ceremony for the games.
• On the same day, over 500 Falun Gong practitioners from Germany, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, and many states across the U.S. held a large parade with the theme "Maintaining the Olympic Spirit." The parade was followed by a news conference calling for an end to the persecution in China.
• During the news conference, five practitioner representatives related their personal experience of torture in China. They called on more people to pay attention to the persecution there.
• Everyone hopes that the Chinese delegation and athletes will have a chance to learn the true facts of Falun Gong while visiting Salt Lake City.

Montreal's largest newspaper, La Press, reports on Falun Dafa practitioners' defamation lawsuit against Les Presses Chinoise.

• La Presse reported this past Thursday, that the court took charge again to specify, among other things, restrictions prohibiting the newspaper from making use of terms such as "evil", "hate", "deviant", "perverted practices" or "enemies of the State", in reference to Falun Gong adherents.
• The newspaper also printed a photograph of one of several large Falun Dafa posters displayed in prominent places in Montreal -- this one in the train station. The advertising campaign is a personal gift from a local practitioner.

Photographs from Falun Gong practice in Turkey

• Like Falun Dafa practitioners the world over, the people of Turkey are practicing their exercises in parks. Here are three photos taken during the autumn of 2001 that we have just received.

Anti-Falun Gong photo exhibit at the Chinese Embassy in Paris, France closes after just one hour.

• Jiang Zemin's 610 Offices in China recently ordered all Chinese Embassies and Consulates to hold photo exhibits defaming Falun Gong.
• FGMtv reported on the Ottawa MBA student who was beaten by Embassy staff when he tried to photograph the exhibit.
• There was such resistance by French Embassy Staff against holding the exhibit that they actually closed the doors on it just one hour after it opened.
• Even Jiang Zemin's staff have had enough of this false propaganda and no longer want to take part in the persecution.

French President Jacques Chirac sends personal new year greetings to French practitioners

• At the beginning of 2002, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the French Falun Dafa Association sent a New-Year greeting card to French President Jacques Chirac in the name of all Falun Dafa practitioners from France and expressed their kind wishes that "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" could bring an incomparably good future to him.
• The president replied personally soon after.
• "Your kind message for the New Year touched me deeply. I thank you warm-heartedly. Please accept the most sincere wishes that I would like to convey to you, and all of you for a year of happiness and peace."

And in this week's update from China:

54,700 Solemn Declarations to continue to practice

• According to the latest statistics on Minghui Net, more than 54,700 Falun Gong practitioners have made "Solemn Declarations" to the world that the documents they signed under detention are null and void and that they will continue to practice Falun Dafa. More than thirteen thousand, two hundred of these were received In the last three months, which confirms that Jiang Zemin's attempts to eliminate Falun Gong continue to be ineffective.
• Those practitioners who did not know how to sign on to the Internet wrote their declarations on signs and posted them in public places such as a work unit dormitory for employees or in a marketplace.

Financial Woes in China:

• On Minghui Net it was reported that a former "610" office worker, who had been forced into doing the job complained about the hardships he endured working in the "610" office.
• He was again conscripted by the office the next time they needed help. This time, however, what he complained about was not the hardship of working there, but the abject poverty of the "610" office. Besides having to work hard, he had to put a lot of his own money into supporting his job and was therefore requesting compensation for his financial losses.
• Last year a special brigade for persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners was established and a lot of effort and money were put into it. The financial allocation from higher authorities was far from enough and much money used in the persecution was from the camp itself, which created a financial crisis.

The Anshan City Police Detain Relatives of Falun Dafa Practitioners who escaped illegal custody

• The laws persecuting Falun Gong violate the constitution of the People's Republic of China, and practitioners have committed no crimes. Therefore those illegally detained often take the opportunity to just walk out of police stations when they can.
• On January 27th, 2002, nineteen practitioners being illegally detained in the Third Detention Center of Anshan City of Liaoning Province assumed a special Falun Dafa hand posture for what Teacher Li Hongzhi has called "Sending forth righteous thoughts" and simply walked away to freedom.
• However, Jiang Zemin has ordered that relatives are implicated and all relatives of the 19 have now been detained for 15 days. Authorities have threatened to double their detentions and to send them -- without trial -- to one year in a forced labour camp unless the 19 practitioners are turned in.

Death in a brainwashing class:

• Mr. Wen Ding, a Falun Gong practitioner about 30-years-old, living in Shiyan City of Hubei province, was detained in a brainwashing class in Zhangwan district of Shiyan City.
• After many months of repeated beatings, he was tortured to death on January 14, 2002, and his body was surreptitiously cremated on January 16, 2002.
• His wife, Chen Rongmei is now being held in a brainwashing class at the local Second Automobile Plant and still does not know that her husband was killed.
• In an effort to keep the news from being made public, the police have threatened witnesses not to reveal the truth.

and finally... how misfortune turns into great fortune for a mother in a Chinese prison

• Detention of the relatives of criminals is a common practice in China. Recently, when police were unable to catch a young man who had been in a fight, they arrested his mother. She was so angry that she had a heart attack in prison.
• While there, she met some detained practitioners who taught her the Falun Gong exercises and principles.
• The woman's health returned to normal without using any medication. She was so delighted that she said, "My misfortune has turned into great fortune!"
• Seeing all this, some of the other prisoners and guards began to change their opinion about Falun Gong, and understood that the Chinese government propaganda is untrue. The propaganda claims that Falun Gong harms people. They witnessed first hand that the practice heals people.

Thanks for watching FGMtv, dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.