Cyprus Mail: Falun Gong activists launch suit against visiting Chinese official

HUMAN rights activists yesterday launched a civil suit against a senior Chinese official on a one-day visit to the island, charging him with crimes against humanity and genocide.

The [...] practitioners of Falun Gong, staged a protest outside the Presidential Palace and the House of Representatives building, and later held a news conference outlining their complaints against the Chinese government.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of meditation and exercises that originated in China and has some 100 million followers in 60 countries. The Chinese government has banned it since 1999, persecuting its adherents.

The Falun Gong information service says it has verified over 1,600 deaths of practitioners plus 100,000 sentenced to forced labor without trial. The movement also claims thousands have been abused in mental hospitals, or detained, harassed, sacked from jobs and universities.

[Practitioners] in Nicosia yesterday tried to hand the lawsuit personally to Wu Guanzheng, labeled as one of the key leaders of the persecution campaign. Guanzheng is a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee and governor of the Shandong Province. He is charged by the [practitioners] with torture, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The [practitioners] are represented in Cyprus by human rights lawyer Laris Vrahimis, who said the lawsuit was being filed on behalf of a victim who was allegedly tortured and brainwashed for months on end; the man is now living in Canada.

Also attending the news conference was Jane Dai, the widow of a Falun Gong practitioner killed after his arrest in China.

Fighting back tears and clutching her three-year-old daughter, Dai said her husband died because of his adherence to the Falun Gong principles of truth, compassion and forbearance.

"My family has been torn apart now," she said, "and many of my friends are being persecuted for the same reason."

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"This is a peaceful movement, and all I want is for us to be able to practice Falun Gong again... that's all."

Dai, an Australian citizen, explained that her husband was arrested in 2001 when he went to Beijing to hand a letter to the Chinese government saying that "Falun Dafa is good". Her husband was apparently beaten to death while in custody, and his body dumped in a field. After considerable effort, Australian officials tracked him down and arranged transport of his remains to Australia.

"When I heard the news of his death, my hair went white overnight," said Dai. "And the same kind of pain has been inflicted on millions of other people."

The movement has filed international lawsuits against perpetrators of crimes against humanity in several countries, including Spain, Finland, Iceland, Australia, France, Switzerland and Belgium.

But the biggest catch would be former President of China Jiang Zemin, whom the movement accuses of spearheading their persecution through the infamous "610 Office". In October 2002 a lawsuit was launched in the United States against Zemin for his alleged campaign of genocide against Falun Gong.

"This civil lawsuit action in Cyprus is just one more step in our struggle for justice... we are keeping our hopes up," said LingNan Wu, another activist.

She explained that the Chinese government probably felt threatened by Falun Gong's enormous popularity. "Anything that gets that big in China is a cause for concern for the government." Another reason, she added, could be Falun Gong's teaching of telling the truth, saying the Communist government would clearly be apprehensive of such a philosophy.

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