Issued by Clearwisdom Net

The University of Paris played host to the 29th International Congress on Law and Mental Health from July 2nd to 8th 2005. Experts, scholars and witnesses to the persecution of Falun Gong were invited to attend the mental health summit.

The seminar room

Throughout the duration of this congress, over one thousand experts, lawyers, judges psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors in the fields of mental health and social science attended 182 forums concerning mental health and human rights. The attendees came from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Compared with previous congresses, this year the 29th Congress expressed more concern over human rights abuses, particularly over the topics of torture, refugees and children. Human rights abuses in China drew intense attention from all present. In China, many dissidents are being tortured in psychiatric units; forced psychiatric treatments of Falun Gong practitioners who have no problems with their mental health serve as a prominent example.

David N. Weisstub talking about Falun Gong

The 29th International Congress on Law and Mental Health was held under the auspices of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IAL MH), headquartered in Montreal, Canada. David N. Weisstub, chair of the IALMH, professor of the University of Montreal and recipient of a French Honorary award, is a prominent academic in the fields of law and mental health. Mr. Weisstub stated that IALMH had been making remarkable contributions to the fields of law and mental health in its efforts to safeguard human rights. In addition, IALMH had contributed a lot to ending the Soviet abuses of psychiatry, as well as the misuse of psychiatry in other nations who violate human rights.

He told the reporters, "The IALMH was the first international professional group to arrive in the Soviet Union to investigate the serious allegations of abuse and misuse of psychiatry to persecute political dissidents. At present, the IALMH centers on China. China's abuses of psychiatry to persecute dissidents, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, concern us...The human rights committee that belongs to the IALMH offered us plentiful material. In the next few months, we will come up with some policies to conduct a further investigation."

The host of the congress took the initiative to invite academics and experts on Falun Gong to attend the Falun Gong seminar. The IALMH has been expressing concerns over China's persecution of Falun Gong. "It is necessary to inform more international experts and academics of the facts of the persecution," David N. Weisstub was cited as saying.

He also expressed his willingness to consult those present about certain concrete projects to help bring an end to the persecution.

On the afternoon of July 7th, the following speakers made contributions to the Falun Gong seminar: spokesperson for Falun Gong Zhang Erping, psychiatrist and Chairperson of China Mental Health Watch Viviana Galli, representative lawyer for the Global Association to Bring Jiang to Justice Theresa Chu, professor of National Taiwan University Chu-Cheng Ming and three Falun Gong practitioners who had been subjected to psychiatric persecution -- Zhao Ming from Ireland, Chen Ying from France and Liu Xioatian from Denmark.

Statements by the speakers enabled those present to have a further understanding of the reason for, the social background to and the brutality of China's persecution against Falun Gong, particularly the psychiatric persecution inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners, and global lawsuits against former Communist leader Jiang Zemin. National Taiwan University professor Chu-Cheng Ming and human rights lawyers on behalf of Falun Gong David Matas and Theresa Chu talked from various angles about China's psychiatric control over its people and the progress of global lawsuits against Jiang Zemin.

Three persecuted Falun Gong practitioners as witnesses to the persecution: Liu Xioatian (second from the left), Chen Ying (central), Zhao Ming (second from the right).

The three persecuted practitioners testified to the brutal psychiatric persecution inflicted on them by China's dictators. Their painful experiences deeply touched those present who afterward expressed their deep concern and encouragement to the persecuted practitioners.

Psychiatrist Viviana Gall

After the seminar, Doctor Galli told a reporter, "China's mental institutions are never independent ones, but are under complete control of the government. This is the very reason why international organizations keep being denied admission to the PRC on an investigative mission...To change this situation, some changes must be brought about inside China. It was Russian psychiatrists that exposed Soviet abuses of psychiatry to persecute dissidents. Here we are supporting and calling on psychiatrists of conscience and righteousness, such as the military doctor Jiang Yanyong, who exposed China's SARS cover-up, to tell the facts based on their conscience and to stand against totalitarianism with rationality."

Falun Gong practitioners invited to attend the cocktail party on the evening of July 7th, Zhang Erping (left photo), Theresa Chu and Sunny Lu (right photo).

The one-week discussion among international experts and academics raised everyone's concerns over China's persecution of Falun Gong. During a cocktail party on the evening of July 7th, Dr. Weisstub conversed with the practitioners, giving credit to their efforts to stop the persecution and promising to keep in contact with them and work together with other professionals in the field of mental health. Hopefully, more people of conscience and righteousness will also help to bring an end to the persecution.

The following is the testimony given by Falun Gong practitioner Chen Ying:

My name is Chen Ying. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to describe my personal experiences of psychiatric persecution in China's detention centers and forced labor camps.

In 1996 I started to practice Falun Gong. The belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" filled my heart with sunshine and a sense of fulfillment and also upgraded my thoughts and morality. I adopted a peaceful and tolerant attitude towards others. In the office I was hardworking and dutiful. My family enjoyed domestic felicity. I felt confident and hopeful. At that time, there were over 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in the parks in China every day. But all of a sudden, things changed. On July 20th 1999, China launched the persecution against Falun Gong. As a witness to the persecution in China, I am willing to narrate the facts of the persecution.

In December 1998, I arrived in France to be reunited with my ex-husband working in France. At the end of December 1999, I returned to China to visit my parents. Since then, I was detained three times without any legal trials or procedures because of my firm belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." For the third time the police lied to me that Beijing Chaoyang Police Station wanted to talk to me to gain a better understanding of the situation and I would be allowed to go home twenty minutes later. By lying to me, the police abducted me to Xin'an Female Forced Labor Camp where I was unlawfully imprisoned for one year.

In the labor camps, torture and atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners are common and severe. During my detention I was subjected to ill treatment and torture. For example, I was stripped naked with a basin of icy cold water being poured all over my body, in the presence of many others; I was ordered to sit on the freezing ground for two days and two nights, not allowed to stand up and deprived of sleep; I was beaten by the other inmates and the police ordered the inmates to torture me. Once I was beaten so mercilessly that all of the inmates involved in the torture burst into tears.

Physical pains also caused mental pains. For me, mental pains were greater than physical pains. Physical wounds will heal gradually, but mental wounds can never heal. In China's labor camps, the psychiatric persecution inflicted on me almost choked me, leaving me feeling the coming of death. As a human being, I was deprived of my dignity, my personality, and my basic physical needs. My body was under forcible control. In this way, I lost my human conscience and belief. Then I underwent a mental breakdown. China uses forcible brainwashing as a form of psychiatric persecution to weaken a being's conscience.

During my illegal detention, my ex-husband was under various kinds of pressure. He worked as a government agent in China. All his coworkers, blind to the facts, agreed that he should divorce me and even encouraged him to do so. Under pressure and threats, he divorced me, which caused me great spiritual and mental pressure. I often suffered from insomnia and nightmares.

In China, the police forced me to renounce my belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance". I was injected with psychotropic drugs that caused harm to my nervous system, deprived of sleep, forced to labor for long periods of time and forced to watch and read Falun Gong-slandering tapes and books. These methods were used to "brainwash" me. The police had my hands cuffed to a window, and both my legs cuffed, and then they forcibly injected psychotropic drugs into my body causing harm to my nervous system. At the moment when the drugs were injected into my body, my heart beat fast, each turbulent movement of my heart coming with panic; seemingly each heart beat would make my chest burst open; my heart and veins seemed to be torn into pieces.

After that, I had a hard time thinking clearly about matters, my reactions were retarded, and my memory deteriorated. I was always in a sleepy state, feeling that my head was getting so heavy that I could hardly turn it. The left part of my body started to move uncontrollably and I was gradually losing the control of my body movements. Now the left part of my body still feels numb and moves uncontrollably. The torturing led to loss of part of my memory, which happened to be what I had painfully experienced in the labor camps. Not until my arrival in France were my fragmented memories recalled bit by bit; when I viewed photos and read articles about persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, my numb nerves were shocked and painful memories were awakened. Throughout the duration of the extended atrocities, I was mentally and physically weakened.

China's forcible "brainwashing" went beyond what I could stand. I was forced to give up my belief and conscience. The mental pains resulting from this forced "transformation" were beyond description. I felt I was transformed into a soulless being. They deprived me not just of my thoughts and freedom of belief but also of my life conscience and basic rights to live in this world. This persecution murdered human souls and conscience; the persecuted were mentally sentenced to a death penalty. In China's labor camps, Falun Gong practitioners were forced to make a choice between a physical death penalty -- safeguarding with nobility the belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance -- and a mental death penalty, betraying their consciences and feeling guilty for the rest of their lives. As far as I was concerned, the deprivation of my freedoms and rights equaled the destruction and the death of my soul. This persecution is brutal and inhumane.

The persecution is sustained by lies and deception. After I was forcibly "brainwashed" to give up my belief and conscience, I lived in fear that I would be "re-brainwashed" once the police found that internally I did not give up my belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." To prove that my "transformation" was "sincere," the police forced me to "transform" other Falun Gong practitioners who had a firm belief in Falun Gong. My "transformation" after I was brutally tortured was cited as a good example to torture and deceive my fellow practitioners who determinedly safeguarded their belief. Living in fear and under threats, I mentally collapsed, my soul being painfully distorted. In this manner, I proved that "I was saved by the Chinese Communist Party," and "sincerely" said good-bye to "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." In China someone like me was arranged by the police to be interviewed by foreign and Chinese reporters and the media. China used this method to deceive the international community, international human rights organizations and those blind to the truth.

After leaving the labor camp, I arrived in France. I was unwilling to recall my painful experiences because the damage to my mind and my soul scared me. The fear was such that I was on the edge of mental collapse. Distortion of my personality and loss of my conscience kept me feeling mentally abnormal. I usually felt that I suffered from mental disorders. I no longer trusted the society and humans, feeling life was meaningless. The thought often came across my mind that I wanted to separate myself from society. I even often mumbled, "I am dying. I am dying. I am dying."

Fortunately, I came to France, a nation of freedom, where I started to practice Falun Gong again. Today I have the courage to speak out about all of these painful memories. It really means a rebirth to me. I speak out the truth for my fellow practitioners in China who are being subjected to more severe persecution than I was. I speak out the facts to inform kind people worldwide of the physical and psychiatric persecution happening in China. Let us stand together to bring an end to the persecution and the brutal torture and murder of Falun Gong practitioners.

The seeds of peacefulness and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" are growing again in my mind. I feel thankful and happy that I am a Falun Gong practitioner again.

Thanks for your attention.

On the morning of August 11, the Malaysian Falun Dafa Association submitted a memorandum to the Malaysian Human Rights Committee, calling for attention to the persistent discrimination against the Association since its establishment. The Malaysian human rights organization, "Voice of the People" and the human rights committee have both stressed that the Malaysian government should not violate the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners in order to maintain relations with the Chinese regime.

This is the second time that practitioners have contacted the Malaysian Human Rights Committee, as their freedom of association has been severely violated by the government.

Malaysian practitioners call upon Human Rights Committee to pay close attention to persistent interference with the Falun Dafa Association

When submitting the memorandum, Cai Weiqiang [phonetic], spokesman for the Malaysian practitioners, said that the freedom of association of Falun Gong has been repeatedly violated. For example, the practitioners' application to form an association has been turned down three times. The practitioners then applied to the Company Registration Bureau to form the Falun Dafa Association; however, this process also met with a lot of interference.

A former Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs warned practitioners of potential interference upon learning of the establishment of the Falun Dafa Association. Later on, the Chinese Embassy unreasonably requested the Bureau to terminate the Falun Dafa Association. Thereafter, practitioners received a letter from the Bureau claiming that they had the authority to terminate the association on the basis of "National Security." Then, this May, the Company Registration Bureau sued Malaysian Falun Dafa Association for 6 minor technical errors in organizational operation.

Cai said that they had sufficient reason to believe that this lawsuit is just one of many efforts to sabotage the Falun Dafa Association in order to prevent practitioners from establishing legal registration.

Zhen Likang [phonetic], a representative of "Voice of the People," said that the government should not put foreign policy above human rights, and just because another country requests it to violate a groups' basic rights, it can't do so. He believed that the Malaysian government must take a clear stand on the Falun Gong issue.

A representative of the Malaysian Human Rights Committee said that the committee would pay close attention to the violation of practitioners' freedom of association. He also said that Malaysian government should not violate practitioners' rights in order to maintain relations with China.

The Tel Aviv City Government recently invited practitioners to teach city dwellers Falun Gong during the city's "One Hour Before Sunset" program at Central City Beach near city hall. Ever since, many citizens have come to the beach to learn about the truth of the persecution and to practice the exercises. A lot of Israelis have asked, "Why is such a good practice being persecuted in China?"

Practicing at Tel Aviv Beach has become a fashion

Typically, a practitioner will give an introduction while others are demonstrating the exercises. Many tourists and local people are then attracted by the peaceful exercises and join them.

Truth-clarifying materials displayed at the beach

Clarifying the truth

At the beach, practitioners also display many posters to illustrate the six-year brutal persecution of practitioners by the Chinese Communist regime. The slow and relaxing exercises and the peaceful practice site are a dramatic contrast to the brutal torture documented in the posters.

Israelis practicing Falun Gong

A practitioner from Jerusalem said, "After learning the truth, many have chosen to join us to experience Falun Dafa."

A practitioner from Tel Aviv said, "Many people believe that Falun Gong is great, and they can't understand why such a good practice is being persecuted in China."

The "One Hour Before Sunset" program will continue to the end of August. Every Thursday evening in August, people can come to the beach to practice Falun Gong.