(Clearwisdom.net) (From the Conscience Foundation) At 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of June 17, 2008, the United Nations Association of San Diego and the Conscience Foundation held a special press conference at the United Nations media center in Geneva, Switzerland. Governmental delegates along with approximately a dozen western media attended the conference. The press conference disclosed facts about the Sichuan earthquake, and details about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) inciting narrow-minded patriotism overseas, framing Falun Gong and masterminding attacks of Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York. The conference also made public the CCP's behind-the-scenes interference with the forum on the Sichuan earthquake held on June 11.
Mr. Chen Shizhong, representative of the United Nations Association of San Diego and chairman of the Conscience Foundation, stated in the press conference, "On June 11, during the eighth meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations Association of San Diego, the Conscience Foundation, and Interfaith International held a forum at the United Nations. The topic was 'A forum to discuss the Chinese government's management of the earthquake in Sichuan.' Video footage of the Flushing incident, where thugs attacked Falun Gong practitioners, was to be shown during the forum, so a special request was made for conference room facilities. The host reserved conference room No. 22 one week ahead and informed attendees. The room is beside the main conference hall. The host confirmed the reservation one day before the forum."
Mr. Chen continued, "On the forum day, at 12:20 p.m. on June 11, less than four hours before the forum, I received a call from the secretary's office of the United Nations Human Rights Council and was asked to change rooms. The reason given was that another room had problems and so a series of room adjustments were needed. Our forum was moved to conference room No. 8, a room that is difficult to find."
When Mr. Chen protested that the room change could affect attendance, he was told that it was the German government that had requested the room change. The caller also promised to issue a room change notice right away.
Mr. Chen and his colleagues soon realized the oddity of conference room No. 8 being scheduled for a German government meeting. At 3:00 p.m., Mr. Chen and his colleagues went to room No. 8 and saw the room change notice for the German meeting. At 3:30 p.m., they found a notice for the German meeting on the door of room No. 22. But there was no notice of room change for the forum at either conference room. When Mr. Chen and his colleagues prepared to post a notice on the door of room No. 22, two UN staff members appeared and would not allow it. They said that the name 'Sichuan Earthquake Forum' was not formal and official notice should be posted. A female staff member said, "In this way, everyone is happy," which indicated that a third party was involved.
After the forum, Mr. Chen asked a German delegate about the room change. The German delegate said they had not asked for a room change, since it also brought inconvenience to them. It was the secretary's office of the UN Human Rights Council that requested the change. The German delegate repeated that they never made trouble for non-governmental organizations and would not make such a last-minute room change decision.
Mr. Chen said during the press conference, "It was clear that both parties of the room change were not happy. So there must be someone else who was happy. Who was that party behind the scenes? Someone interfered with the forum and was afraid of having many people attend the forum. The key topics of the forum included: Whether the government withheld the earthquake forecast; the poor construction quality of schools, which caused the bulk of the casualties; that a contributing factor to the earthquake damage was a dam constructed in the earthquake area; how local officials took advantage of the earthquake to evacuate people in order to appropriate their land; and the Chinese government's new regulations that effectively cut off international media access to the earthquake area.
"From the above topics, we can see that it is the Chinese Communist Party that would most like to divert people's attention from these issues. Thus the CCP regime must be the third party that ordered UN staff to make the room change under the name of the German government, as an attempt to minimize the exposure of the Sichuan earthquake facts to the international community."
Mr. Chen pointed out that this incident was not over. He plans to share information about the incident with the Chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and all non-governmental organizations at the UN and other offices. He said, "We are not against the UN and the UN staff. Many kind-hearted UN officials helped us. We will uphold the UN's dignity while working to prevent the occurrence of such inappropriate actions in the future."
Category: April 25 Events
