March 6th 2004

Human rights - The Chinese authorities are repressing Falun Dafa

Practitioners of Falun Dafa, an ancient practice that began in China and that seeks self improvement, are being massacred by the authorities through the 610 Office.

The victims are uncountable since 1999, when Jiang Zemin started the persecution against the practitioners of Falun Dafa. A special office was created called the "610 Office", to direct the operations of the repression. Its director, Luo Gan, as well as Jiang Zemin himself, are since last year being sued for genocide and torture in the courts of Spain.

On the morning of the 15th of October, 2003, a criminal lawsuit was presented at the National Court in Madrid against the ex president and actual Chief of the Military, Jiang Zemin and against the Director of the 610 Office, Luo Gan, for genocide and torture.

Jane Zhizhen Dai is an Australian citizen, but as her name indicates, she was born in China. She lives alone with her daughter Fadu, and recently visited Spain and the house of Pia-Maria Sandas, a blond ex-model with an extremely white complexion and a foreign accent that tells us the story of her friend like it was her own, suffering the same as her and persevering in telling us the story with the same intensity as if it was about her own life.

Jane Dai was happily married with the man of her life, Chengyong Chen, and the fruit of the marriage was the little one who now accompanies her around the world asking for justice for what is happening in China, in Guangzhou, where her husband was an electrician at the Paper Manufacturing Cooperation.

It is the testimony of only one person, of only one case, but not the only one that can be told. There are hundreds and thousands of arrests, torture, re-education at special camps of the Chinese government, a common practice of the persecution against the practitioners of Falun Dafa, against a hundred million Chinese inside the borders of the regime of Jiang Zemin.

Chengyong Chen was arrested for practising Falun Dafa and was with forcibly obliged to attend "re-education classes. He refused, and lost his job and was forced to wander about, homeless and defenceless. This is when Jane lost contact with her husband, in 2001.

Chen was not the only victim, although he possibly died knowing that his wife and daughter were safe in Australia. His sister, who was called in to identify his body, was also arrested and condemned to two years in a forced labour camp for refusing to give up her practice of Falun Dafa.

"My husband was murdered, the sister of my husband is detained in a forced labour camp, and the father of my husband also died. I was left alone with a baby of 15 months. My husband was murdered because he went to Beijing to deliver a letter, in which said that his whole family had obtained enormous benefits from practising Falun Gong, that Falun Gong is good. He was arrested, tortured and murdered when he was only 34 years old. My baby and I survived because we have Australian passports. When we left China, upon showing my Australian passport to the customs police, they took me aside and made me wait for a long time, and until the last boarding call they did not let me go."

This is the testimony, from Madrid, of Zhizhen Jane Dai, who wanted to return to China when she found out about the death of her husband. "However, the Chinese embassy did not give me a visa to enter the country, so I had no other alternative but to ask for help from everywhere and finally, eight months later, the Australian Government helped me obtain the ashes of my husband".

In March, 2002, Jane went to the headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva to make a call to the world to stop this persecution, because in China, "There are millions and millions of families that are in the same situation as mine, but they do not have any rights or possibilities of speaking out".

From Geneva, she then travelled with her daughter all around the world to clarify the truth about the persecution to all the governments, media and good willed people of the world. "I trust that together we can stop this brutal and horrible persecution".

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is an ancient practice that originates from China. It was first introduced to the public in 1999 by its founder, Li Hongzhi. Since then more than 100 million people practise it. Falun Dafa is a cultivation method. The practitioners cultivate the body, mind and spirit, incorporating the teachings of the universal principals, Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, in their daily lives. The main book is called Zhuan Falun, which teaches the highest moral principles and is the requisite and the guide to the practice. The book guides and helps the person to establish and strengthen the solidity of virtues and morality, in order to live with less stress, more benevolence and more peace in our every day life. The practitioners do five simple and gentle exercises that include four standing exercises and one sitting meditation, to balance and improve the well-being of the body. Falun Dafa emphasises the cultivation of the heart in our daily lives, maintaining a clear and independent consciousness in all situations. It emphasises that a practitioner should always look inside to improve oneself when confronting conflicts with others, and strive to become a better person every day. Falun Dafa has helped more than 100 million people in over 60 countries around the world.

 The practice extended throughout China in 1992

Exercise session in the Retiro Park in Madrid

On October 15th last year, Falun Dafa presented a criminal lawsuit to the National Court in Madrid against the former Chinese President and the chief of the military, Jiang Zemin, and against the Director of the 610 office, Luo Gan, for genocide and torture. There are eighteen plaintiffs of different nationalities. They are being accused of having designed a plan to eradicate the practice of Falun Gong, which comprises of more than 100 million practitioners in over 60 countries, and to devise and fabricate in an organized manner this cruel persecution, by creating the alarming 610 Office.

"The simple presence of any person asking for the smallest explanation of Falun Gong from the Chinese authorities implies detention and imprisonment, which clearly indicates that these crimes can not be prosecuted in China", the lawsuit states. For this reason they have chosen Spain, where Universal Jurisdiction has been claimed in the cases of the Argentinean and Chilean dictatorships.

Zhang Cuiying. Is an Australian citizen who was imprisoned for eight months for appealing to the Chinese Government against the ban of Falun Gong. She wrote down her impressions in the prison, but they took away any means of expressing herself. Finally she wrote a poem on her T-shirt, which she exhibited upon her release.

Victor Fernández-Sánchez was detained in Tiananmen Square after displaying a banner which read Zhen-Shan-Ren [Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance]. He was denied the right of contact with Spanish and Swiss consulates as well as his family, and was in solitary confinement for 23 hours and interrogated after midnight. He was also obliged to sign documents in Chinese, and was denied sleep during all the time that he was detained.

Ningfan Chen and her husband are musicians. The Chinese police started to harass them; they tapped their phone and searched their house twice. The 25th of June 2000, her daughter and herself were picked up from their beds and were only released after 30 days in detention. Her son was sent to a labor camp for 18 months. They only allowed him to sleep two to four hours per day and sometimes they did not let him sleep for up to 15 days.

Wang Lixuan was a 27-year-old practitioner from Nangou village in the Province of Shangdong. Her son Meng Hao was eight months old. They were arrested on the 21st of October 2000. She and her son died from torture.

Falun Dafa was first introduced to the public in China by Li Hongzhi, and it is based on the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance." In their practice, the practitioners cultivate to eliminate egoism, greed, jealousy, dishonesty, negative thoughts etc. At the same time as the practitioners improve spiritually, it also benefits the health and the body. Because of this, in only 10 years Falun Dafa rapidly spread all over world and is now practiced by over 100 million people.

Since its introduction in China in 1992, millions of people started to practice Falun Gong due to the enormous effects on improving the health of the body and mind. In 1998, the Chinese Government commenced a large scale investigation on the health of Falun Dafa practitioners. The result showed that 97.9% of the practitioners had successfully improved their health, among which 62% had totally recuperated from disease and negative health.

In the National Oriental Health Expo, Falun Dafa received the gold medal, the maximum prize. Since then Falun Dafa was supported by the Chinese government. However, when Jiang Zemin found out that the number of practitioners of Falun Dafa was higher than the number of the members of the Communist Party he saw this as a threat to his absolute power. This was something unbelievable to the practitioners of Falun Dafa, as it is a cultivation practice and its principles state that no practitioner should get involved in politics.

Since then the persecution of Falun Dafa started. Jiang Zemin used the state run propaganda machine, established severe control of the media and the internet, "inventing and fabricating lies to accuse Falun Dafa of all sorts of crimes, trying to cause hate and turn public opinion against Falun Dafa", say the practitioners.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200404/19179.html