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Los Angeles, February 17, 2001: Demonstrators carry photographs of Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death in China. In the evening, practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese consulate and held a candlelight vigil in memory of the dead.
Here, we are documenting only a tiny fraction of the intense suffering of millions of people whose lives have been devastated--and in many cases ended--by the ongoing persecution in Communist China.
Jan 1st, 2001,
[The appeal and arrest of FLG practitioners]
Title: An Appeal to China, An Appeal to the World:
Human Rights Violations, 2001
In May of 1992, Mr. Li Hongzhi revealed to the world a unique qigong practice known as Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, which consists of five sets of gentle, slow-moving exercises andexercises and a profound spiritual philosophy.
In 1996, Mr. Li's book, Zhuan Falun, became a national best seller in China. A few years later, a survey by the Communist Party revealed that the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China had grown to between 70 and 100 million--more than the entire membership of the Chinese Communist Party itself. Moreover, many Party members were also practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture. Soon, it spread rapidly to more than 40 countries through out the world.
To have so many people involved in something that transcends the confines of the Communist Party ideology--something that promotes independent thinking and is intended to elevate each individual's spirit--was a challenge to the Party's top leader.
On July 22, Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin proclaimed that Falun Gong was now illegal and that henceforth, any citizens who practiced Falun Gong, petitioned or appealed for Falun Gong, or assembled together with others for the purpose of exchanging and spreading information about Falun Gong, would be arrested and punished.
The nationwide attack on Falun Gong came on like a violent thunderstorm. It was compared by many old-timers to the Cultural Revolution launched by Chairman Mao over 30 years ago, during which time many innocent citizens had their human rights abolished and were treated as enemies of the state, while many corrupt politicians and lawbreakers prospered.
Given the brutality of the government's attack upon many of its citizens, it is not surprising that reports of torture and death soon started emerging from China's jails, detention centers, and labor camps.
On April 20, 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported from Weifang, China:
"The day before Chen Zixiu died, her captors again demanded that she renounce her faith in Falun Dafa. Barely conscious after repeated jolts from a cattle prod, the 58-year-old woman stubbornly shook her head. Enraged, the local officials ordered Ms. Chen to run barefoot in the snow. Two days of torture had left her legs bruised and her short black hair matted with pus and blood, according to cellmates and other prisoners who witnessed the incident. She crawled outside, vomited and collapsed. She never regained consciousness, and died on Feb. 21. "
Liu Yufeng, 64, was a retired worker from Wendeng City. On the morning of July 18, 2000, Liu was detained because he took part in a group practice session at Huilong Mountain. On July 23, Liu died from being severely beaten and tortured. An autopsy revealed cuts and bruises on his face, and black and blue marks left by electric shocks on his throat, chest, and legs. His ribs on both sides were fractured.
For practicing Falun Gong in a park, Ms. Zhao Xin, a 32-year-old university professor, was detained at the Haidian Police Substation in Beijing. A few days later, she was admitted to the hospital, still wearing handcuffs and shackles, with three broken vertebrae in her neck. She suffered from extreme pain for six months before she died.
The Washington Post reported the case of practitioner Su Gang, a computer engineer who died after spending a week in a mental hospital, where doctors injected him twice daily with an unknown substance that made him lose mobility and finally led to heart failure.
From AFP news on June 28, 2000: Zhao Xinli, a military officer, was placed in a mental hospital in Beijing and injected daily with a drug which damaged his nervous system. This left him physically weak and disoriented. An official in the department where Zhao worked confirmed that he had been sent there because of his affiliation with Falun Gong.
So far, over 1000 Falun Gong practitioners have been committed to mental hospitals, where they have been abused with injections, sedatives, anti-psychotic drugs, and electric shocks.
The persecution of female practitioners has been unimaginable. Recent reports have been released of women being sexually abused in a variety of ways, including being shocked by electric batons inserted into their vaginas by male guards also practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into cells with male criminals.
The Falun Gong crackdown is not limited to Chinese nationals.
[News report]
Australian citizen Zhang Cuiying was detained for eight months because she went to China to appeal during the annual meeting of the People's Congress. While in jail, she was forced to work more than 10 hours a day and suffered humiliation in front of male guards. With the help of the Australian government she was later released.
On Nov. 15, 2000 without benefit of trial, Professor Zhang Kunlun, a Canadian citizen, was sentenced to three years in a Chinese labor camp, for peacefully practicing Falun Gong exercises in a public park. In the labor camp, he was severely tortured. Due to international pressure, he was released after serving two months of his sentence.
Although many organizations and governments around the world have condemned China for its human rights practices, the persecution still continues. These organizations still persevere to reveal the truth about Falun Gong. Most recently, on March 14th Freedom House (the world's oldest organization that monitors human rights) honored Mr. Li Hongzhi and Falun Dafa with the International Religious Freedom Award of 2001.
To date, over 50,000 practitioners have been detained. At least 10,000 have been sent to labor camps without trial. 150 have been sentenced to extended jail terms. Over 1000 have been illegally sent to be tortured in mental hospitals. 172 people have died as a result of police torture.
You can help to stop this brutality now! While tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been deprived of their freedom to speak, you still can!
[Show on the screen]
As nations unite in Geneva for safeguarding human rights, we urge you to join us in demanding the following from the Chinese government:
- Engage in a genuine dialogue with Falun Gong practitioners and/or its founder.
- Lift the ban on Falun Gong immediately and grant its legal status in China.
- Release immediately all detained and jailed Falun Gong practitioners
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Picture: If you are willing to help stop the brutal persecution, please contact: XXXX
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