[From the Danish newspaper: "Weekend Avisen", May 2, 2003, by former MP, Viggo Fischer]

Almost on a daily basis dramatic information is being sent from the Chinese Falun Gong movement about how its adherents are being persecuted in China, the consequence of which oftentimes is death.

The movement is trying -- up until now without much success -- to create public awareness in Europe in regard to the fate of so many of its adherents in China, and claims to have documented 634 cases of people having died as a result of the persecution since the movement was banned in 1999.

The latest annual report on human rights from the U.S. Foreign Ministry, points out, that thousands of people who have organized Falun Gong activities or who are merely adherents has been placed in "re-education through labour" camps or in prison.

The annual American report, the credibility of which is seldom an issue of dispute, refers to various sources according to which, more than 200 Falun Gong practitioners have been killed in detention or as a result of torture or abuse. Should only part of the information turn out to be true then what we are facing is one of the biggest human rights problems in Asia today. The Chinese communist power apparatus is in many ways trying to put a lid on the debate concerning the persecution of Falun Gong and other "deviants". But in spite of the censorship, which is also targeting the Internet, alarming information is coming out on a regular basis.

Seen on this background it is surprising how little debate there is in Denmark, in regard to the massive suppression in China of the freedom of expression and of its citizens, who peacefully tries to express their views.

In Denmark, the efforts in support of human rights and against torture is a top priority - every year considerable amounts of public funds are being spent on research in this area. One would expect that much more attention would be given to the serious human rights abuses that are happening in China, not in the least from the [Danish] Human Rights Institute.

In this context it is not an issue of whether one likes Falun Gong or its ways of appearance - it is solely a matter of focusing on the Chinese power apparatus' violent behaviour against people who are manifesting in a peaceful fashion, which is something that should be allowed in any community founded on the rule of law. The communist led China has committed itself internationally to oppose the use of torture, but time and again it comes to our attention that torture is exactly what the Chinese power apparatus is using against Falun Gong.

During the United Nations' world conference on human rights in Vienna in 1993, China voted to call on all states to "immediately end the practise of torture and eliminate this evil for good".

In the summer of 2002, the House of Representatives in Washington passed a resolution that characterizes the Chinese government's course of action against Falun Gong as being contrary to the Chinese constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

From the European perspective there must be a clarification on whether the Falun Gong is right about the information that the movement regularly sends out regarding the persecution of its adherents. If this proves to be the case then there should be a basis for, not only a Danish initiative, but very much so an EU-political initiative, in regard to the People's Republic of China in order to make the authorities observe human rights.