Report from "Radio France Internationale": Female Falun Gong Practitioner Travels the World with Three-Year-Old Child Calling for Justice from the International Society

The following was broadcast by RFI to Mandarin speakers in Paris and Mainland China on September 13, 2003:

Hello everyone! I am Lu Wang.

The husband of Chinese-Australian Jane Dai was murdered because he practiced Falun Gong. Now Mrs. Dai travels the world with her 3-year-old daughter, calling for justice from the international society. Yesterday she was interviewed in Paris. This is her story.

Jane: My name is Jane Dai. My daughter is only 3-years-old and we are Australian citizens. This photo was taken before my husband was killed. At that time my daughter was only 6 months old.

Reporter: Why was your husband killed? Who killed him?

Jane: He was killed because he went to Beijing to deliver a letter [to the government], which said that all of our family was practicing Falun Gong, that we had benefited immensely from Falun Gong and that Falun Gong is good. He was arrested by police, imprisoned and later died of torture. He was 34 when he was killed.

Reporter: Can you provide any evidence that he was tortured to death?

Jane: I can, because I know the whole story. At the time of his arrest a member of the media, Ying Liu, was with him. She was the director of the program department at Yang Cheng city's broadcasting station. In China, trustworthy people are chosen to work in the media. At the time, the authorities tried to cover this up and therefore they were not thrown into a Beijing prison immediately, but were sent back to Guangzhou. Still, when they arrived at the Guangzhou airport the police with their vans and the head of my husband's company, the Guangzhou Paper Mill, as well as the head of Yang Cheng's TV Station were waiting. This is where the two parted company. The TV station took Ying Liu away and my husband was sent straight to jail.

When my husband's father went to give him some warm clothes for the cold winter in January, they didn't allow him to see his family members. All the other criminals had the right to see their family members. Only Falun Gong practitioners were not allowed to do so. Ying Liu is a witness. She has now escaped from China and we have sued Jiang together, with her as one of the plaintiffs. We still have the plane ticket for which my husband was forced to pay the "610 Office" police for his deportation. We have the original copy and Ying Liu can validate this. She also has a lot of other documents.

Reporter: Where is Ying Liu now?

Jane: I'm afraid I can't reveal that here. Outside of China, the Chinese authorities are trying to find her.

Reporter: From what you know, how many Falun Gong practitioners like your husband have been persecuted to death?

Jane: As confirmed by Amnesty International, there are now 772. Those are the ones for which we have pictures, ages and names. The unconfirmed ones though - I think there are a few thousand. During the Great Cultural Revolution, there were hundreds of thousands who died. The true figure is unknown. The persecution of Falun Gong is unprecedented; it is even crueler than the Great Cultural Revolution.

Reporter: So Mrs. Dai, how did you and your daughter manage to escape from Mainland China?

Jane: We had Australian passports. When we escaped from Guangzhou airport, we were stopped and when I presented the Australian passports at customs, they told me to stand aside. This is when I realized that I was on a blacklist. I was more frightened than I had ever been in my life, because I was holding my daughter. I stood there, as there was no place to sit. They arrested my husband; I didn't know what they would do to my daughter. There has already been a case of a Falun Gong practitioner who was a mother to an 8-month-old baby: they killed both the mother and the baby. The young baby was hung upside-down in front of his mother, as they attempted to force the mother to write a declaration denouncing Falun Gong. She did not succumb, so they killed both of them. This is the reason why I was so afraid. They only let us go when an announcement was made to say that boarding was commencing.

Reporter: So when was your husband killed?

Jane: July 2001

Reporter: And when was it that you left China?

Jane: I left China on the July 7. When my husband was killed, we wanted to return to China to obtain his ashes. However, the Chinese consulate would not give us visas. Afterwards, my daughter and I traveled around Australia calling for help. As a result, the Australian Foreign Ministry recovered his ashes. When I was informed that the box with my husband's ashes was recovered, I informed the media and they came to interview me. This photo was taken by the Australian United Newsagents. I said that I needed the help of the media, and needed to let every Australian person know that they are killing innocent people [in China], and that my husband was one of them. There are hundreds of thousands of families like mine. They don't have the freedom to speak up, so I will stand up and speak for them.

Reporter: Mrs. Dai, you then traveled around the world with your child...

Jane: My first stop was Geneva. Last year I went to attend the UN human rights meeting. At the meeting, I called out to every mother worldwide to help stop this persecution. From Geneva I began to travel around the world. France is my 35th country. In every country I visit, I tell their Foreign Ministry, the media and kind-hearted people what is really happening in China. I hope that compassionate people can help us to stop this cruel persecution. Yet the situation seems to be getting worse. We call peacefully; but Jiang Zemin has become more severe. Because of this, we have sued him in court.

Reporter: My friends, this is the conclusion of the program "Chinese People in Paris." Thank you for listening. See you next time.

Source: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200310/15799.html