Among the thousands of reporters, athletes, and spectators arriving this week
for the Beijing Olympics, most have likely heard of Falun Gong and the Communist
Party’s often brutal campaign to crush it. But what few realize is the extent to
which the violence meted out against these peaceful religious believers has in
some cases taken place within walking distance of Olympic venues, hotels, and
prominent landmarks.
So, what exactly is Falun Gong? Who are the individual victims of the Party’s
campaign of persecution and where are they from? What leads are available for
journalists seeking to investigate what lies behind one of the most taboo topics
in today’s China?
These are some of the questions this guide seeks to address, questions that
have become all the more pertinent given the scale and severity of the
pre-Olympic crackdown on Chinese citizens who adhere to this spiritual
discipline.
Since December 2007, the Falun Dafa Information Center has received reports
of over 8,000 Falun Gong practitioners who have been detained across China, at
least 500 of them from Beijing. We have received phone calls from people who
have just heard that their mother, father, or sister was taken from home by the
police, interrogated, and sentenced without trial to a “re-education through
labor” camp. Even more alarming has been the rise of reports about individuals
dying in custody within days, weeks, or even hours of their arrest.
However, with the exception of one article in the Times of London about a
Beijing musician who died in custody in March, there has been little attention
in the international media to this aspect of Olympic “preparation.”
To assist journalists in remedying this dearth of coverage and reporting on
an important chapter of the story of the 2008 Olympics, the Center has compiled
the profiles of sixteen Falun Gong adherents detained in Beijing and surrounding
provinces, most since the beginning of the year. At least nine of the 16 have
died in police custody since the beginning of 2008 and several were persecuted
with the complicity of local hospitals and educational institutions.
For each profile, we have included whatever concrete details are available
which might assist those seeking to verify the circumstances surrounding these
individual cases. These include a photograph of the individual, their address,
the name of their former workplace, the last place of detention, known
acquaintances overseas easily available for interviews and, in some cases, the
names and phone numbers of those perpetrating the abuses in question. Also
included in this guide are brief responses to the most commonly asked questions
about Falun Gong.
It is our hope that this guide will assist journalists arriving in Beijing to
shed light on what has happened to Falun Gong adherents in China in recent
months and over the past nine years.
For the individual accounts of Falun Gong practitioners relayed in this
volume reflect not only the tragic human costs of a religious minority being
brutally suppressed, but rather, the very real dangers any Chinese citizen might
face at the hands of the Party-state.
We thank you for your attention and look forward to working with you.
-- Levi Browde,Executive Director,
Falun Dafa Information Center
You may view the report as a .pdf (link),
or view all cases (link).
Cases in Beijing Area (View
All)
Cases Nationwide (View
All)
Related report: Torture Outside the Olympic Village: A Guide to Chinas Labor
Camps, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
(CIPFG) presents a guide to labor camps and detention facilities just a stone's
throw from Olympic venues.
