07/18/2002

A Chinese TCD postgraduate student held in a labour camp in China for being in Falun Gong will be among those marching in Dublin on Saturday to highlight the plight of thousands still being persecuted.

The march, which has been organised by members of Falun Gong, which is banned in China, is to call on Irish people to help those in China being detained in labour camps and mental institutions because of their membership of the spiritual movement. Mr Zhao Ming was held in a Chinese labour camp for two years when he returned from Ireland for the Christmas holiday in 1999. He said he was beaten by 10 men and that others were tortured. He was released after a high-profile campaign in Ireland.

Since returning to Dublin, Mr Zhao has worked with other members to help those left behind. He wants to raise the awareness of Irish people that the torture is continuing. He said they knew about 428 people who had been tortured to death since July 20th, 1999, when the first large-scale arrests began all over China.

On Saturday, the third anniversary of that event, members will gather at 1.30 p.m. at the Central Bank. Among the speakers will be Dr Chris Neilson, who founded the Irish Foundation for Torture Sufferers. Also speaking will be a representative of Amnesty International. The marchers will move through Grafton Street and St Stephen's Green to the Department of Foreign Affairs, where a letter will be handed in. They will then go to the Chinese Embassy in Ballsbridge.

Mr Zhao has organised an exhibition which continues until 5 p.m. today in TCD. The exhibition gives information about Chinese people, many of them students, being detained. The Falun Gong members say that in the last three years, more than 100,000 people have been illegally arrested and detained and more than 500 sentenced to prison for up to 18 years.

More than 1,000 have been forced into mental hospitals and 20,000 have been abducted and transported to labour camps without trial.