Southside People (Ireland): Student could be near death

20 Jan 2004

FEARS are rising for the life of former Dun Laoghaire student, Feng Liu, who has been detained in a Chinese labor camp for more than a year. His rapidly deteriorating health has forced communist authorities in China, where he is imprisoned at a notorious labor camp in Dalian city, to discharge him for urgent medical treatment.

The business student who attended Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education was arrested following his return to China during the Christmas break in 1999.

He was seized for supporting the practice of Falun Gong - a meditation practice banned in China during July of that year.

The news announced recently by a Chinese Embassy official that Feng Liu (24) is receiving medical treatment outside the camp has been taken as proof by people campaigning for his freedom that he is in a very weak condition.

Two months ago Southside People reported his family's fears that he may die at the Yao Jia labor camp, where at least seven Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed dead from maltreatment.

Trinity College Dublin student Zhao Ming, who claims to have suffered from daily brutal torture during his 22-month detention at the camp for refusing to denounce Falun Gong, warned last week Feng Liu could be in grave danger.

"They would never release any practitioner earlier than the original sentence unless he or she is at the brink of death," he said. "Feng must be in very dangerous situation caused by torture or a lengthy hunger strike."

Falun Gong, according to the Ireland Falun Gong Information Center in Dublin, is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance".

Since its introduction in 1992 it quickly spread throughout China and is now estimated to be practiced in over 50 countries.

"Chinese leader [of the time], Jiang Zemin, outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999, fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party," said a spokesperson for IFGIC.

"Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labor camps, typically without trial."

Irish Falun Dafa practitioners held a protest outside the Chinese Embassy on Ailsbury Road in Dublin 4 last Tuesday (January 13) to lobby its government for the release and return to Ireland of Feng Liu and Yang Fang (32), a student at Senior College Dun Laoghaire who has also been unlawfully held.

A delegation from the European Union, who met with the Chinese prime minister and other officials last November during the EU China Summit, were asked to highlight the cases of Feng Liu and Yang Fang. Their situation is believed to remain unsafe.

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