(1) China’s Olympic Committee
President was found liable for torture
In 2004, a U.S. federal court
found that Liu Qi, the man heading Beijing’s Olympic Organizing Committee, was
responsible for the torture of Falun Gong adherents during his tenure as
Beijing’s mayor from 1999 to 2002. According to the Center for Investigative
Reporting, which publicized the case in April 2008:
“In an extensive legal opinion, the U.S. District Court in San
Francisco determined in 2004 that Liu Qi was responsible for the illegal
detention and torture of two Chinese nationals and a sexual assault against a
French woman in China.”The plaintiffs, who were represented by the Center for
Justice and Accountability, presented evidence that as mayor, Liu directed
security forces to violently crush Falun Gong. In addition, police under his
command subjected the plaintiffs and other Falun Gong adherents in Beijing to
severe beatings, sexual abuse, and ‘electric shocks through needles placed in
[the] body.’
For more information visit: http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/node/3625
For a
summary of the case and relevant legal documents visit: http://www.cja.org/cases/liuqi.shtml
(2) To prepare for the Olympics,
Chinese security ordered a “strike hard” against Falun
Gong.
According to Amnesty International, in preparing for the
Games, Former Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang issued the following order
in the context of “successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress [in
October 2007] and the Beijing Olympic Games”:
(3) Falun Gong practitioners are
being killed in custody faster and more frequently than
before.
Within the first three months of 2008, the Falun Dafa
Information Center (FDIC) documented six cases of practitioner deaths occurring
within merely 16 days of arrest and in some cases, within hours. By comparison,
in 2007, it was over the course of the entire year that the same number died
within such a short time in custody. In several of the recent cases, family
members were able to view the body before its cremation and saw signs of
torture, including strangulation marks or bruises from electric shock
batons.
One of the most prominent victims was Mr. Yu Zhou, 42, a musician
who was arrested with his wife Ms. Xu Na at the end of January on their way home
from a performance by his band. Eleven days after their arrest, the authorities
notified their family members to come to Qinghe Emergency Center, where they
found Yu already dead. He had been in good health before his detention, but the
hospital refused to conduct an autopsy. Ms. Xu, who was released in 2006 after
serving five years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, remains in custody.
According to The London Times, which reported on Yu’s death:
“[T]here 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….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.For more information on the recent surge in deaths in custody,
see:
http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9518For The London Times’ coverage of Yu Zhou’s case, see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article3779899.ece
(4) Thousands of Falun Gong
practitioners around China have been arrested “in preparation” for the
games.
Following orders such as Zhou Yongkang’s (see #2 above),
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 FDIC 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
2,000 arrests across 29 provinces, major cities, and autonomous regions. In
Beijing alone, over 150 arrests are known to have taken place.
See: http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9517
NOTE:
A follow-up report with up-to-date statistics and details will be released
shortly.
(5) Falun Gong practitioners are
officially excluded from the Games because of religious belief, in clear
violation of the Olympic Charter.
Throughout 2007, several
statements by top officials, as well as an internal document, indicated that
Falun Gong adherents from both inside and outside China will be excluded from
participation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as athletes, coaches, journalists or
spectators. Such a policy that discriminates on the basis of religious belief
contravenes both the Olympic charter as well as the code of ethics signed in
Beijing in April 2007.
One official admission of the intent to exclude foreigners who
practice Falun Gong from the games was provided by Li Zhanjun, director of the
Beijing Olympics media center, in November 2007.
While rejecting allegations that the Chinese authorities intended
to limit the entry of Bibles for personal religious use, Li singled out Falun
Gong texts as an exception. As reported by the Associated Press: “We don't
recognize it [Falun Gong]… So Falun Gong texts, Falun Gong activities in China
are forbidden.”
For more information see: http://faluninfo.net/downloads/FDI_Press/FDI-FACTSHEET-OLEX.doc
See also: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/08/sports/AS-SPT-OLY-Beijing-Bibles.php
(6) Falun Gong has never taken a
position on an Olympic boycott.
As a spiritual practice, Falun Gong
in and of itself does not take a stance on issues such as whether or not to
boycott the Olympics. Yet, individual adherents are entitled to take their own
positions and make statements accordingly. Nevertheless, such views represent
the opinion of that particular individual, rather than Falun Gong as a
whole.
What the FDIC is concerned about is the escalation of abuses and
extrajudicial killings of practitioners ahead of the games, and indeed, because
of the games. There is ample evidence, including points presented in this
document, that shows how China’s communist leaders are using the Olympic games
as a reason to intensify the campaign to ‘eradicate’ Falun Gong.
(7) A “clean up” of districts
hosting Olympic venues has included the arrests of local residents who practice
Falun Gong.
Between December 2007 and March 2008, at least 16 Falun
Gong adherents had been arrested from Chaoyang District alone, which is set to
host the beach volleyball and tennis events, and 10 from Shunyi district, the
site of the Olympic rowing and kayaking venues. In total, over 156 practitioners
in Beijing and at least 1,878 nationwide have been rounded up during this time
period.
According to reports received by the FDIC, many of the arrests
have followed a common pattern. Officers from the local police station or Public
Security Bureau (PSB) branch come to the adherent’s home or workplace, conduct a
search for any Falun Gong-related materials, and take the individual into
custody at the district detention center. In some cases, family members or
co-workers who do not practice Falun Gong have been taken into custody as
well.
The systematic nature of the arrests suggests that authorities are
using a previously compiled list of local adherents – a common practice of the
PSB. According to former PSB agent Hao Fengjun, who currently resides in
Australia, authorities in the city of Tianjin, where Hao formerly worked, had a
database of 30,000 Falun Gong practitioners’ names.
For a list of 67 adherents detained in Beijing as of March 2008,
including the above-mentioned 16, visit: http://www.faluninfo.net/downloads/FDI_Press/Olympics%20arrests%20-%203-12-1.pdf
(8) Despite ostensibly freer
regulations for foreign journalists, Falun Gong remains taboo.
The
Chinese government issued temporary regulations for foreign journalists in
January 2007. The directives, in place until October 2008, reduce travel
restrictions and the need for pre-approval of interviews. According to the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), however, in practice “the government
continues to interfere with foreign reporters,” particularly regarding taboo
topics like Tibet or Falun Gong.
The following is an excerpt from a recent CPJ report illustrating
the official obstacles placed before reporters seeking to cover Falun Gong:
Bracing for the 21,500 accredited and 5,000 to 10,000
unaccredited foreign journalists who will descend on Beijing for the Games,
China’s Olympic planners have issued police an English phrasebook.
It gives some indication of the welcome that foreign journalists will
receive. In a section titled, “How to Stop Illegal News Coverage,” the practice
dialogue features a police officer confronting a reporter who tries to cover a
story on the outlawed religious group Falun Gong.
“Excuse me, sir. Stop, please,” says the officer politely but firmly, before
explaining in impressively advanced English: “It’s beyond the limit of your
coverage and illegal. As a foreign reporter in China you should obey China law
and do nothing against your status.” “Oh, I see. May I go now?” says the
visiting reporter hopefully. “No. Come with us,” the officer is told to reply at
this point. “What for?” “To clear up this matter.”
For the original report
from which this excerpt is taken and a full discussion of press freedom
violations ahead of the Olympic Games, see “Falling Short” at:
http://cpj.org/Briefings/2007/Falling_Short/China/10_2.html(9) Hundreds of thousands of Falun
Gong practitioners will experience the Olympics from inside labor camps, where
they are often tortured.
Sentencing without trial to “re-education
through labor” camps remains one of the most prevalent ways in which the Chinese
authorities punish people for practicing Falun Gong. According to the U.S. State
Department’s 2007 report on human rights in China: “Some foreign observers
estimated that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000
officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labor camps, while Falun Gong
sources overseas placed the number even higher.”
Adherents are usually picked up by police from their home,
workplace, or while attempting to distribute leaflets about the practice and the
persecution against it. After being held in a detention center, they are
sentenced to a labor camp. They are never brought before a judge and most are
denied the right to employ a lawyer. According to Amnesty International:
“The decision to assign a person to RTL is taken by the police,
without charge or trial. People can be detained for up to three years, which can
be extended by a further year when necessary…[I]n the lead-up to the 2008
Olympic Games, Beijing police have used abusive detention practices such as RTL
to 'clean up' the city.”Once in a labor camp, Falun Gong adherents are beaten,
deprived of sleep, and tortured, including with electric shock batons, in order
to force them to recant their faith. In 2006, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on
Torture reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of
victims of alleged torture in custody.
For two stories Falun Gong practitioners who had been detained in
an RTL, see: Daily Mirror: “Annie Yang reveals Olympic torch guards place her
into labour camp”: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/12/annie-yang-reveals-olympic-torch-guards-place-her-into-labour-camp-89520-20380214/
For information about Bu Dongwei, a Falun Gong practitioner
detained in a Beijing labor camp for whose release Amnesty International is
campaigning, and to write an appeal letter on his behalf, see: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/052/2007/en/dom-ASA170522007en.html
(10) Most Chinese are unaware of
any of the above because independent information about Falun Gong remains
blocked inside China.
For the majority of Chinese people, their only
source of information about Falun Gong is the state-run media or government
sponsored websites, all of which have been used to vilify Falun Gong and deny
rights abuses. Domestic journalists receive specific directives forbidding
independent reporting on the topic.
On the internet, Falun Gong and related terms remain among the
most highly filtered by the “Great Chinese Firewall.” According to the Committee
to Protect Journalists: “A Web search for “Falun Gong,” […] would not draw a
blank, but it would yield carefully vetted sites that present the
government-approved line.”
Websites such as the FDIC’s, that are run by overseas Falun Gong
practitioners and include information about rights abuses, are inaccessible from
inside China. So are the sites of independent rights organizations like Amnesty
International or Human Rights Watch. Even discussion of the issue over Instant
Messenger is prevented by filters built-in when Chinese IM software is
downloaded (see below).
The only way to access independent information about Falun Gong
from inside China is with a proxy server used to circumvent censorship, a
technological luxury that remains out of the reach of most Chinese.
As a result, though they live in China, many Chinese remain
oblivious to the nonviolent nature of Falun Gong adherents or to the brutality
meted out against them.
For a brief explanation of online censorship in China, see: http://cpj.org/Briefings/2007/Falling_Short/China/9_2.html
For a list of censored words integrated into downloadable IM
software (20% of which relate to Falun Gong), see: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2004/08/the-words-you-never-see-in-chinese-cyberspace/
(6/10/2008
12:32)
