7/15/01

Beijing's selection as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics Friday stirred mixed emotions for Dakun Sun.

As a Chinese citizen, Sun said it is an honor.

"But on the other side, I'm very worried about the Falun Gong practitioners," said Sun, a Dallas resident who has lived in the United States for six years.

Sun was one of eight Falun Gong practitioners who stopped in Baton Rouge on Saturday en route to Washington, D.C. The group, traveling from Houston, will be meeting other Falun Gong practitioners Friday in the nation's capitol to raise awareness about alleged persecution. July 22 is the two-year anniversary of the People's Republic of China's ban on the spiritual group.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, practices meditation and exercise and espouses the principals of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. It was started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi.

"This practice was very popular in China and it grew too fast for the Chinese government," Sun said. The size of the group - 2 million members at one point by China's own count - is what led the government to ban it, Sun said.

Since the government ban in 1999, there have arrests, harassment and deportations to "reeducation" camps where Falun Gong members are beaten and killed, Sun said. The Chinese government [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted].

[...]

Sun and other practitioners, who met Saturday outside the State Capitol, weren't surprised by the allegations.

"There are many lies over there that can easily be proven wrong," Sun said. Sometimes, he said, tapes are altered, confessions are faked and wrong information is released to the public. "All the state media is tightly controlled by the government," Sun said.

In fact, several practitioners on Saturday gave their accounts of persecution before coming to the United States.

Until 1999, Amy Lee was a wife, mother and fashion designer in China. However, after the Falun Gong ban, Lee said she was arrested several times for practicing her beliefs. After one of the arrests, Lee said she was sent to a camp, forced to work 15 hours a day, taken to a mental hospital several times, force fed (although she wasn't on a hunger strike) and repeatedly questioned and beaten.

"There were a lot of scars on her face and body and she asked for a medical check on her body and they said, 'We'll just say you're choosing suicide,'" Lee said through Sun's translation.

After she was released, Lee said she lost her job and her family. Yet, she refused to sign the papers renouncing her beliefs like others had.

"After they're released, they feel bad because it's against what they believe," Lee, who lives in New York, said through Sun's translation.

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