To: National and International Desks

Contact: Alan Adler of the Friends of Falun Gong USA, 201-410-1883 or aadler@fofg.org, Web site: http://fofg.org

WASHINGTON, April 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following statement on the World Psychiatric Association's (WPA) fact-finding mission to China, was released today by Friends of Falun Gong USA:

The World Psychiatric Association's (WPA) fact-finding mission to China, originally scheduled for 4 April to investigate the allegations of psychiatric abuse of healthy people that practice Falun Gong, has been postponed indefinitely due to the refusal by the Chinese authorities to abide by the conditions to which they agreed in January. Friends of Falun Gong USA (FoFG) recommends that this mission be resumed at the earliest possible date. Otherwise, we recommend that the Chinese Society of Psychiatrists be expelled from the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). We further suggest that a Chinese-speaking American be included in the delegation rather than relying on Chinese-government translators who might misrepresent prospective Falun Gong witnesses.

Since July 1999, the government of China has been systematically trying to eradicate the practice of Falun Gong. The main tool of the persecution has been a massive propaganda campaign used to discredit Falun Gong, turn public opinion against practitioners, and justify the severity of the government's punitive actions. Part of the propaganda claims that Falun Gong practitioners are psychotic, homicidal, and suicidal. The state-owned media publish actual cases of homicides and suicides and attribute them to Falun Gong.

There are first-person testimonies of non-mentally ill Falun Gong practitioners being illegally placed in psychiatric facilities (including psychiatric hospitals) where they are administered electric shocks, and high doses of psychotropic drugs that cause slurred speech, paralysis, and even death. Other means of physical torture are also used. Inside sources say that victims have been sent home when they are close to death and then died shortly thereafter.

The torture methods used in the labor camps and prisons, including sleep deprivation, physical torture, brainwashing, and constant coercion to give up the beliefs of Falun Gong, have led to mental breakdowns, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and depression. Throughout the almost five years of the persecution, the psychiatric community in China has remained silent.

Background

Falun Gong is a way of life that includes exercises, meditation, and following the principles of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance.

The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 955 deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Expert sources now estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 sentenced to forced labor camps, typically without trial. Experts are available for interviews.

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© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=135-04292004

Categories: International News, FoFG USA Speaks Out.