29.8.2002

Mr. Anatoliy Kinakh

Prime Minister of Ukraine

Government of Ukraine

Kyiv

Ukraine

Dear Mr Kinakh

We are writing to express our extreme concern over the treatment of 23 Falun Dafa practitioners who were detained on 24 August while practising their exercises in a park. As the Falun Gong practitioners were taken into custody, witnesses say police cited pressure from Beijing as the cause, stating that China is "huge and powerful" compared with a developing country like Ukraine and that Ukraine "can't afford trouble with China relations." According to the detained practitioners, police also mentioned that Chinese officials had struck a deal with the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop Falun Gong activities in the Ukraine. Fortunately the judge dismissed the case brought against practitioners of Falun Gong by Ukrainian police as "groundless." This detention never should have occurred. The facts of this case are clear: the Ukrainian police were acting under pressure from Jiang's regime, a regime that continues to wage violence against tens of millions of good people in China. The 23 Falun Dafa practitioners did nothing wrong. They had been practising in the same park regularly for the past two years with permission from the Ukrainian Committee of Safety and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is appalling that Jiang Zemin can dictate the actions of an independent state like Ukraine and that the Ukrainian authorities would be subject to decrees from as far away as Beijing. Through a series of recent events, we are witnessing a systematic expansion of Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong in Europe. We hope that the Ukrainian Government will stand up to the pressure from Beijing, and truly protect its citizens' right to freedoms of conscience, expression, and association.

If Ukraine wishes to aspire to the highest European standards, then upholding the freedoms of belief and association will be one of the basic building blocks. No Western European country should tolerate the interference of Jiang's regime in its internal affairs.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

PETER JAUHAL

CO-CHAIRMAN

Category: Opinion & Perspective