Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China
New York—A 40-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner in Hunan province has died in custody, apparently due to psychiatric torture, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned. The woman had been detained in May 2008 in a local crackdown before the Olympic Torch passed through the province.
Ms. Chen Chunjun (陈楚君), a former accountant at the local railroad company, was arrested on May 10, 2008 in Huaihua city by agents of the 610 Office, an extra-legal task force created in 1999 and charged with wiping out Falun Gong. (6-10 Office) She was walking to a bus stop on her way home when she was detained. Chen was one of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners arbitrarily detained that month in Hunan, as part of a crackdown by local officials ahead of the passage of the Olympic Torch relay through the province from June 1-3, 2008.
Sources inside China recently discovered that Chen died in March 2009 at Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital (a.k.a. Huaihua No. 4 People’s Hospital).
China: Detainees ‘Disappeared’ After Xinjiang Protests
(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately account for all detainees in its custody and allow independent investigations into the July 2009 protests in Urumqi and their aftermath, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on enforced “disappearances” released today.
South Korea, please stop deporting Falun Gong refugees back to China
The South Korean government needs to get in shape. Despite plenty of evidence that Chinese authorities can persecute anyone who practices Falun Gong in China, even if they practiced in their homes, the South Korea government has repatriated 3 Falun Gong refugees back to China in the past weeks.
Here’s hoping that South Korea is able to do the right thing.
Falun Dafa Information Center Urges Korean President to Protect Falun Gong Refugees
Excerpt:
However, a wide range of eyewitness accounts and third party reports – including those from Amnesty International, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and the United Nations – document the ongoing systemic and widespread nature of persecution against Falun Gong in China. Practitioners fleeing the country are regularly granted asylum in the United States and Western European countries, as well as protection from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees because of the risk they would face should they be forced to return to China. South Korea has ratified several international human rights treaties that prohibit repatriation of individuals to countries where they risk torture.
Wife of Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Speaks For Falun Gong on Anniversary
This is a moving, inspirational speech from Geng He, wife of the renowned human rights laywer Gao Zhisheng who is currently imprisoned in China. Geng He and her children escaped to the United States after intense persecution and harassment from the Chinese regime’s authorities since Gao Zhisheng has spoken out against the perseuction of Falun Gong on numerous occasion. She gave this speech over the weekend during activities marking the 10th year of the persecution of Falun Gong practitoners in China.
Here’s a powerful excerpt:
Though the same persecution as those done to the Falun Gong practitioners happened to our family and Gao himself, because of his three open letters, and Gao’s whereabouts is not known currently, we have never regretted his actions. Gao has said, to end this nation’s sufferings, we need people with high morals, Falun Gong practitioners have done it, and we must also do our part. Not to mention that there is also God, whose will cannot be resisted. When God is standing with us in this battle, dawn won’t be too far away.
Read her full speech here:
Wife of Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Speaks For Falun Gong on Anniversary
Human rights lawyers disbarred in China
Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong has had his professional license revoked by the Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality. Amnesty International has condemned the decision.
“There are only a tiny group of lawyers left in China who are brave enough to take the risk of representing victims of human rights violations. A further crackdown against human rights lawyers is a major blow not only to these legal professionals but to the human rights defence movement in China,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director.
There are more than 140,000 lawyers and 14,000 law firms in China but only a small proportion take the risk of taking on cases involving human rights violations, including providing legal aid to Tibetans who were detained in connection with the March 2008 protests. Others cases these lawyers worked on involved Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression and families of victims affected by the baby milk powder scandal.
The Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality issued a notice stating 53 lawyers’ licences, including Jiang Tianyong’s, were revoked in accordance to articles 23(1)(3) and 23(1)(4) of Methods for the Management of Lawyers’ Practice.
The justice bureau also issued a list of 24 Beijing-based lawyers who will not have their licences re-registered. According to the list these lawyers “failed their assessments” and include prominent human rights lawyers, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Li Chunfu, Wang Yajun and Guo Shaofei.
Without a license, lawyers are restricted in their ability to represent those seeking to obtain justice and redress for human rights violations.
China: President Should Ease Tension by Acknowledging Grievances
(New York) – Chinese President Hu Jintao, who on July 7, 2009 abruptly left the G8 Summit in Italy to return to Beijing to cope with the Xinjiang protests, should break with past practice and acknowledge Uighurs’ grievances, Human Rights Watch said today. Analysts expect that Hu will speak publicly about the developments in the coming days.
Members of Congress Urge President Obama to Support Falun Gong Practitioners in China
The 10th anniversary of the start of the Falun Gong persecution in China is July 20. It really is one of the cruelest persecutions of our time, and the media is rather silent on reporting it. Hmmm, wonder why?
Congressional letter calls Falun Gong plight “one of the most unjust and cruel persecutions of our times.”
WASHINGTON DC — In a bi-partisan letter sent to President Obama yesterday, sixty one members of Congress urged the President to “speak very clearly and specifically” in support of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
“We applaud these members of Congress,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Mr. Erping Zhang, “for articulating in no uncertain terms that the United States government will not tolerate the arbitrary arrest, torture and death of Falun Gong practitioners — peaceful, law-abiding citizens — as a result of a systematic Communist Party-run campaign. We hope President Obama and his administration will heed their call.”
Initiated by Congressmen Rob Andrews (D-NJ) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), the letter highlights how Falun Gong practitioners were first targeted by the Chinese regime ten years ago and how an extrajudicial security force known as the “6-10 Office” was established to stamp out the traditional Chinese practice. “The ‘6-10 Office’ ruthlessly implements the ban [on Falun Gong],” the letter states, “through massive propaganda campaigns intended to demonize Falun Gong and…supervises the arbitrary detention, beating, torutre and ‘transformation through reeducation’ of Falun Gong practitioners.”
Read more at Falun Info Center.
China must investigate 156 deaths during protests in Urumqi
One hundred and fifty six people were killed in the city of Urumqi in western China late on Sunday, after a protest turned violent, according to media reports.
Xinhua, the official state news agency, reported that police in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and home to over 8 million Uighurs, have detained 1,434 individuals in connection with the protests. These include more than ten key figures that were accused of instigating the unrest.
Amnesty International on Monday called on the Chinese authorities to immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation into the deaths.
“The Chinese authorities must fully account for all those who died and have been detained,” said Roseann Rife, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific programme.
“Those who were detained solely for peacefully expressing their views and exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly must be released immediately. A fair and thorough investigation must be launched resulting in fair trials that are in accordance with international standards without recourse to the death penalty.”
“There has been a tragic loss of life and it is essential that an urgent independent investigation takes place to bring all those responsible for the deaths to justice,” said Roseann Rife. “Violence and abuses from either the authorities or protestors is in no way justified.”
Amnesty International urged the authorities to respect their obligations under domestic and international law, which protect peaceful freedom of expression and assembly, prohibit arbitrary arrest and torture or ill-treatment in custody. The organization also called on the authorities to allow free access for domestic and foreign journalists and independent observers to report on the incident.
The protests are reported to have begun with non-violent demonstrations against government inaction after a violent riot at a factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, resulted in two deaths. On 26 June, hundreds of Uighur workers clashed with thousands of Han Chinese workers at a factory where Uighurs had been recruited from the XUAR.
Police were reported to have detained the man, a laid-off employee from the same factory, who circulated the rumours which provoked the deadly clash. In response to the violence in Guangdong the authorities imposed an information blackout on the incident, with websites and online discussion boards instructed to delete posts related to the clash.
Beyond responding to the immediate outbreak of violence, Amnesty International said that the authorities need to address issues that have given rise to tensions. Since the 1980s, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. These include arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious restrictions on religious freedom as well as cultural and social rights.
Chinese government policies, including those that limit use of the Uighur language, severe restrictions on freedom of religion, and a sustained influx of Han Chinese migrants into the region, are destroying customs and, together with employment discrimination, fuelling discontent and ethnic tensions.
The Chinese government has mounted an aggressive campaign that has led to the arrest and arbitrary detention of thousands of Uighurs on charges of “terrorism, separatism and religious extremism” for peacefully exercising their human rights.
World Media Follow Beijing’s Lead in Xinjiang Reporting
This is a very interesting article from The Epoch Times and I have observed the same. It seems the world’s media is following, seemingly without questions, China’s state-controlled media in reporting the Xinjiang violence.
Excerpt:
But media experts and Uyghur activists say that China’s state-controlled media are working to frame the story in favor of the regime, a strategy one Hong Kong-based Chinese media expert calls “Control 2.0.”
“By getting the information out, officials can get the ‘peripheral media’ (influential portal news sites, and commercial newspapers) to work for them,” writes David Bandurski editor of the China Media Project Web site in his analysis of the earlier riots in Shishou.
“These media feed off of the original Xinhua reports, amplifying their effect. Those same reports, with only slight permutations in many cases, become AFP, Reuters, and AP reports.”
Read the full article: World Media Follow Beijing’s Lead in Xinjiang Reporting
China: Exercise Restraint in Xinjiang
(New York) – The Chinese government should exercise maximum restraint in the face of unrest and violence on July 5 in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Human Rights Watch said today. China should allow the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into the events.