Nov 04, 2005
Australian Falun Gong practitioners have requested their government to block the entry of a visiting Chinese official who has been implicated in the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. They have also said that if this official does enter Australia they will seek to have him subjected to criminal prosecution.
Zhang Dejiang, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee of Guangdong Province, is expected to arrive in Australia in early November for the China Guangdong - Australia Business Conference 2005.
Falun Gong practitioners say that Zhang is among a group of high-level Chinese government officials involved in implementing and sustaining the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China, particularly in Guangdong Province. This campaign they say includes, but is not limited to, extra-judicial killing, arbitrary detention, forced labor, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and torture.
One Sydney resident, Ms. Shelly Yan, was illegally held in Chatou Women's Forced Labour Camp in Guangdong Province for two years before coming to Australia to marry her Australian fiancée. During her detention she was force-fed, and tortured for days on end, including being strung up on a wall and being physically bound in unnatural positions.
The Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) associations of Australia have formally requested the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs to refuse entry to Zhang. The associations have further requested that if he is admitted, it is only to subject him to criminal prosecution under Australia's commitments to the UN Convention Against Torture through the Crimes (Torture) Act 1988. A statement from the association said that the request rests on the well-defined national legislative framework of enforcing Australia's obligations under international law.
"In China such criminals can escape the law through various means, however in Australia we should maintain the integrity of our legal and moral obligations to deny entry to such criminals," said Kay Rubacek, Falun Gong spokesperson.
In early October of this year the Falun Dafa Association in New York, a group representing Falun Gong practitioners outside China, issued an announcement warning all Chinese officials who are taking part in the persecution of Falun Gong that they will be sued should they travel outside China. The statement also said that officials who wish to disavow their participation in the persecution are given the opportunity to submit a statement to that effect.
According to recent reports in the Canadian press, at least two visiting Chinese officials implicated in the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in a visit to Canada have been served with legal papers for crimes against humanity and torture.
http://theepochtimes.com/news/5-11-4/34153.html