Wisconsin Dells Events: Dells Woman Fights for Freedom of Falun Gong

This Falun Gong practitioner has protested in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

Wisconsin Dells - A Dells woman returned Monday from New York City where she had participated in a protest of China's treatment of practitioners of Falun Gong.

Yan Chuan Koehler, wife of Chris Koehler, traveled to New York with her parents, Xiang Lin Wang and Yiuqing Cheng, to the protest - one of several she attended trying to bring attention to the plight of those who follow Falun Dafa or Falun Gong.

Yan Chuan is a practitioner, as are her parents.

According to the Falun Dafa Reader, "Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) is a way to improve the body, mind and spirit that consists of exercise, meditation and teachings that are rooted in ancient Chinese culture."

One component is slow-moving, relaxing exercises that are supposed to improve health. A second part of the philosophy is the traditional Chinese teachings known as the Tao or law. The core teachings are truth, compassion and forbearance, according to the Reader. "Students of Falun Gong consider these virtues to be the nature of the universe, and it is these that they strive to perfect in themselves."

The philosophy originated in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Yan Chuan said it has no church and no leader. Followers study the books, "Zhaun Falun" or "Falun Gong."

Since 1992, it has attracted 100 million practitioners in China and the government of China is not happy. Yan Chuan, with help in translation from her husband, said the government is afraid of the practice because it cannot control it and the government worries that practitioners will overthrow the Communist Party.

On July 20, 1999, she said, the government ruled that no one could study Falun Gong in China, take classes about the philosophy or do the exercises. The Chinese government began to throw people in prison and torture those who practiced Falun Gong.

Yan Chuan said her son-in-law's mother was sent to prison for being a follower of Falun Gong. While there, she was tortured with electrical shocks. She was not allowed to eat, sleep or use the bathroom for three days at a time, Yan Chuan said. After three years, she was released, and Yan Chuan said that was probably because she had relatives in America. "She got off easy." Those with relatives in the United States are less likely to be killed and more likely to be released, she said.

Of special concern to Yan Chuan now is a prison near the city she is from in China. The Sujiatun Death Camp, she said, is harvesting organs from prisoners and disposing of the prisoner's bodies by cremating them. "They die. They are put in the fire," she said.

The operations for organs are done at a nearby city hospital in the basement she said. Doctors from the hospital are now defecting to the United States or committing suicide, she said, to escape the work the government is making them do.

Chris Koehler compared the camp to those Hitler set up to exterminate Jews during World War II.

Chris met his wife in China when he went to visit a friend there. They have been married nine years. He said it took him a year to get her out of China and then it took two years to get her daughter out of China. It took nine years to bring her parents to their Newport home from China.

While Yan Chuan was waiting for Chris to get her to the United States, she learned about Falun Gong. She is glad to be in the United States because she can continue to follow the philosophy. "If I was in China I would be in prison."

She does not just practice the philosophy. She is very active in protesting the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China. She has traveled to Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. to participate in protests and pass out information about Falun Gong.

With the help of a friend in Madison, she wrote a letter to the editor, (see page A6) asking people here to contact President Bush. She wants people to ask Bush to demand the Chinese government disband the Sujiatun death camp and other prison camps and lead an international investigation of the camps.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will be visiting Bush in Washington on April 20. Yan Chuan plans to be in Washington to protest the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. She hopes to take word from people here that they also support the right of people in China to follow the Falun Gong philosophy.

Source http://www.wiscnews.com/wde/news/index.php?ntid=78031&ntpid=3