Worldwide Vigils Mark
April 25th Falun Gong Appeal
Practitioners of Falun Gong marked April 25 last Friday with candlelight vigils
around the world, renewing calls for the Beijing regime to end a nine-year
campaign of suppression that has recently escalated with the approach of the
Olympics. It was on April 25, 1999, that Falun Gong first gained worldwide
attention when some 10,000 adherents petitioned the central government in
Beijing. Those gathering asked officials to release 40 practitioners who had
recently been subjected to police abuse and unlawfully detained, and called for
protection of their right to practice their beliefs in peace. Falun Gong
practitioners and their supporters participated in candlelight vigils and
sit-ins outside Chinese embassies and consulates in New York, Washington DC,
London, Paris, Sydney, and other cities around the world.
Media Alert: http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9519
Falun Gong Arrests and
Deaths in Custody Escalate as Olympics Approach
Chinese security agencies have been conducting large-scale arrests of Falun Gong
adherents throughout China in recent months as authorities step up efforts to "stamp
out" the practice in advance of the Olympic Games in August. Since January, the
Center has been receiving regular reports from adherents and their families
inside China of door-to-door searches and arrests. According to statistics
compiled from these reports, there have been at least 1,878 arrests across 29
provinces, major cities, and autonomous regions.
In an alarming and related trend, the Center has received reports indicating
adherents in China are being killed in custody within days, or even hours, of
being detained by the authorities. Among those reportedly killed in custody
shortly after detention was folk musician and Beijing resident Yu Zhou (see
below).
For more information:
"Hundreds of Falun Gong Adherents Arrested in 'Preparation' for Olympics:" http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9517
"Falun Gong Deaths Escalate as Olympics Approach:" http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9518
Sunday Times
(London): Yu Zhou Dies as China Launches Pre-Olympic Purge of Falun Gong
April 20, 2008 -- "Members of a peaceful Chinese spiritual movement say that
more than 1,500 of its supporters have been detained in the run-up to the
Olympic Games and that one of them, a popular folk singer, has died in custody....
The official media have not reported the arrests, but there has been lively
discussion among music fans on Chinese websites over the fate of the singer Yu
Zhou, 42. "Another beautiful soul has left the world," commented one distraught
fan.
Falun Gong representatives said Yu was arrested on January 26 while returning
home from a concert in Beijing. His family were called to the Qinghe district
emergency centre on February 6 to view his body, which was covered in a white
sheet.....
Yu won a following among young Chinese for his mellow folk ballads. His group,
Xiao Juan and Residents from the Valley, released two successful CDs and
appeared on the Phoenix television channel."
Full Story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article3779899.ece
Weekly Standard:
Carrying a Torch for China
Ethan Gutmann, author of Losing the New China, has called for President
Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics because of the
severity of the persecution of Falun Gong, including evidence of organ
harvesting from detained adherents of the practice:
April 21, 2008--"Beijing's was always a blackmail bid....The blackmail bid took
place in clear sight of the mindbending persecution of Falun Gong, an operation
that had already mobilized China's state security forces on a scale that dwarfs
the current Tibet crackdown....I have interviewed some of the survivors. Roughly
half of the Falun Gong practitioners who have emerged from the camps describe
physical exams aimed at determining the health of their internal organs, along
with close examination of corneas. Ears, genitals, and the other parts of the
body usually scrutinized in medical exams--all of which have no value in the
organ market--were routinely ignored...
...As an indigenous Chinese movement, rather than a separatist one, Falun Gong
has taken a neutral position on boycotting the Chinese Olympics, sensing
correctly that it has become a matter of Chinese "face" that the Olympics
continue. But we in the West have our own version of face, a genocide line that
cannot be crossed without our identity beginning to crack. No matter how much we
ignored the crying, the persecution of Falun Gong demonstrably crossed that
line, and even if the Chinese leadership calls off the torch relay or makes an
effort to resolve the Tibet situation, it is too late for this Olympics."
For more information visit: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/986himak.asp
Daily Mirror:
Annie Yang reveals Olympic torch guards place her into labour camp.
The story of how Falun Gong practitioner Annie Yang was taken from her home by
Chinese special police and tortured for a year in a labour camp was reported in
detail in Britain's national newspaper The Daily Mirror.
The brigade of guards--the Flying Dragons--who took her from her home were the
same who donned blue tracksuits and accompanied the Olympic torch in its
progress around the world.
"When I saw the torch in London being guarded by men in blue tracksuits, it
brought back terrible memories," she told the newspaper. Also covered in the
article was the story of Wenjian Liang, sister of a Nottingham resident who was
sentenced to a labor camp last year and remains in custody.
For more information visit: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/12/annie-yang-reveals-olympic-torch-guards-place-her-into-labour-camp-89520-20380214/
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA
INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 917-757-9780, Levi Browde
646-415-0998, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Joel Chipkar 416-709-8678. Email: contact@faluninfo.net,
Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/