Video: FGM TV News - 10/08/2002

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Script

• Falun Gong is freely practiced in more than 50 countries, but relentlessly persecuted in China.
• The peaceful courage of practitioners there has shocked their oppressors and moved the people of the world.
• While China continues to block information about the persecution, FGM TV brings you the stories you may not hear anywhere else.

Hello, and welcome to the FGM TV weekly news review on October 8, 2002

I'm David Tompkins

In this week's update from China...

• The number of Falun Gong practitioners verified to have died while in detention is 491, with details of 4 more confirmed deaths received in the past week. Reliable sources inside China put the actual death count in the thousands.
• In the last 7 days, reports of persecution have come in from 13 provinces and from the cities of Beijing and Shanghai.
• 246 people declared as void all statements they had made under torture and at times when their minds were not clear. They said they intend to continue to practice Falun Gong.

Our top story this week:

• Unocal, an American oil company, will face a lawsuit in the U.S. that claims human rights abuses were committed against villagers in Myanmar, and setting a precedent for multinational companies worldwide.

And some of our other stories:

• The provincial government of Quebec in Canada asks the Federal government to communicate the need for China to meet its human rights obligations
• Internal documents of the Chinese government prove the government is breaking the country's constitution
• A practitioner dies from torture in central China
• A family business is destroyed because of persecution by the police
• The largest web site hijacking in history
• The Asian games in Korea
• Anti-violence day in the Netherlands
• A native community in the U.S. learns Falun Gong
• And finally, a family is saved from tragedy

Our top story this week...

• American oil giant Unocal was ordered in mid-September to stand trial in a lawsuit by Myanmar villagers for human rights violations committed in that country.
• The villagers content that the country's military subjected them to forced labour, rape and murder during the construction of a gas pipeline.
• The ruling makes companies in the United States potentially liable in human-rights cases by making them stand trial for allegations of abuses by parties acting on their behalf.
• The company argued that it wasn't aware that the Myanmar military had been hired as security for the project, and that they in no way endorsed or authorized human rights violations.
• However, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal said that a jury should be allowed to decide if they are liable for those violations.

In Canada...

• The Provincial government of Quebec carried a motion calling on the Canadian government to speak out against the persecution of Falun Gong.
• In particular, they asked the federal government to "increase its representations to the Chinese officials in order that they respect section 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
• This section refers to the rights of freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

In China...

• Internal documents of the central government recently obtained by western practitioners verify that authorities in that country are breaking the law.
• Before the National Holiday of October 1, various levels of the Wuhan City government held emergency meetings to circulate an internal document from Jiang's regime, which prohibited appeals from three groups of people during the National Holiday.
• The three groups prohibited from appealing are:
• Falun Gong practitioners
• Veteran soldiers who fought in the Korean War
• And laid-off workers of state-operated industries
• Appealing is a fundamental right guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution.
• In 1996, the policies regarding appeals made by the State Department explicitly stated, "No organizations or individuals shall suppress, retaliate against or persecute appealers."
• Recently, some government officials have equated appealing with causing trouble, and people who report problems are regarded as unstable elements and malcontents.

In central China...

• Falun Gong practitioner Wang Jiqin endured brutal torture at the Maojiashan Female Labor Camp in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province.
• As a result, her health deteriorated rapidly.
• Then, under the guise of treating her illnesses, the guards ordered 7-8 drug addicts to force feed her with an unknown drug.
• This caused her to lapse into a coma.
• Seeing that Jiqin was near death, the labor camp sent her home in order to avoid responsibility for her death.
• At home, Jiqin remained in critical condition, spitting blood and passing blood.
• She had difficulty breathing. She coughed, vomited, had diarrhea, and she felt sharp pain in her abdomen, was weak in her limbs, and could not sleep.
• On September 23, 2002, Wang Jiqin died at the age of 29.

In Northern China...

• Police in Panjin City, Liaoning Province shut down a small design firm because the owners practice Falun Gong.
• Li Ansong and his wife Ren Hongli were forced out of business in May of this year when police ransacked their office, carrying away three computers, a palm pilot, and other equipment.
• Hongli was illegally arrested and taken to the Shuangtaizi Police Department, but Ansong escaped.
• Ansong's father had used his entire savings of the equivalent of $15,000 USD to start the business, and had borrowed another $5,000 USD. The average annual urban wage in China is about $1,000 USD.
• Ansong and his wife are in their mid twenties and have only been married for one year.
• After he escaped, the police officers broke into his home and turned it upside down.
• His mother-in-law, Zhao Lijuan, who is also a practitioner, was visiting their home.
• She was forcefully arrested and then her home was ransacked.
• The police were afraid she might escape so they used chains to bind her. She was released two weeks later, but in early July, Ren Hongli was illegally sentenced to prison.
• Ansong is currently living away from home to avoid persecution while his wife is still in jail.
• Ansong's father tried to continue the business, but the police told him that he couldn't unless Hongli, an owner, was released.
• However, the police refused to release her unless the father would turn in his own son.

All over China Internet sites are hijacked by the Ministry of Public Security

• Dynamic Internet Technology reported recently that an unprecedented number of domain name hijackings have occurred throughout China.
• The central government wants to use the Internet to promote economic growth, but at the same time prevent its citizens from having unrestricted access to information.
• In the process then it has set up a new technique that industry watchers call dns spoofing.
• Bill Dong, a Spokesman for DIT Inc, a company providing technical services to Voice of America's, Chinese-language Web site explains it this way,
• "This is the largest web site hijacking activity in history. Since late last week, visitors to the most popular forbidden sites are re-directed to a single IP address, which is already blocked in China at the international gateway level. This is performed by spoofing DNS records on name servers all over China."
• The DNS will tell a computer the address for a website when a request is made, and the technique works by falsifying those address records.
• At the end of August the government blocked the I.P. address for the Internet search engine Google, just as it had blocked I.P. addresses for many other web sites.
• Analysts speculated that this was done because Google was a popular way for people to search for information on Falun Gong.
• There was an immediate international outcry, and within a few days, the government lifted the block.
• This caused an international scandal because it clearly demonstrated the threat to international Internet commerce through the attempts of the Jiang regime to use the internet for political purposes.
• At the same time, blocking Google violated international protocols for the use of the Internet.
• This Internet blockade even involved Hong Kong, although the hijackings were less extensive there.
• The effect on Macau is not yet clear.
• Last week we reported that the official site dailynews.sina.com.cn was found to be pointed to the falundafa.ca address.
• This was an error on the part of the technicians at the Ministry for Public Security that appears to have come about because of the large scale of the government's effort to block web sites.

In Korea...

• The opening ceremony of the 14th Asian Games was held in Pusan on September 29, 2002, the largest seaport of Korea, and practitioners from that country took the opportunity to clarify the truth to the Chinese audience.
• Athletes from 14 Asian countries are participating in the 16-day competition.
• Several tens of thousands of Chinese are expected to attend.
• Practitioners from Seoul arrived the day before the opening ceremony, and they went to the Chinese Consulate to send forth righteous thoughts overnight.
• On the day of the event at 2:00 p.m. Dafa practitioners from other places joined local practitioners and went to major intersections near the Pusan Asiad Stadium to clarify the truth to people.
• Some practitioners did the exercises.
• Some distributed hats and fans that said, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."
• Some passed out Dafa truth-clarifying materials.
• On the afternoon of September 30, the practitioners went to the Masan Stadium where there was to be a soccer match involving the Chinese team.
• The Jiang regime forbade those traveling to Korea from talking with practitioners, and even dispatched spies to monitor them while they were abroad.

In the Netherlands...

• September 27, 2002 was "Anti-Violence Day", and Taiwanese practitioners who had just concluded peaceful appeals in Denmark at the Asia Europe Summit (ASEM) joined local practitioners in a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy.
• They also held a peaceful sit-in in front of the Premier's Office and the Parliament Building, and called on people around the world to pay attention to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
• On September 28, they went to Rotterdam's Chinatown to do the exercises and to clarify the facts about Falun Gong.
• Then on September 29, they went to Amsterdam, and at the De Dam Square, they demonstrated the exercises and handed out truth-clarifying materials to tourists from different countries.

Now to Russia...

• From September 28 to 30, 2002, the third Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held in Moscow.
• Falun Dafa practitioners from Russia, Ukraine, and Baltic Sea area nations attended the conference.
• On the first day, a candlelight vigil was held in front of the Chinese Embassy in the rain to commemorate fellow practitioners who have been tortured to death by the Jiang regime.
• On the morning of the second day, practitioners went to the Embassy again and held a peaceful appeal to demand the end of the persecution, and to protest the spreading of lies overseas to defame Falun Dafa.
• The peaceful appeal won the support of Moscow residents passing by, and it was covered by the Russian media.
• Practitioners exchanged experiences on searching inside when facing interference, and clarifying the truth to over 100,000 Chinese people in Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In Georgia, USA...

• In late September, practitioners introduced Falun Dafa to people at the Enota Mountain Retreat 12,000 feet above sea level. Many tribes of Native Americans once lived there.
• Practitioners learned that the people living there have had many trials and experiences and have searched hard for the best cultivation practice in the human world.
• Some of them had already heard about the special effects of Falun Dafa.
• When they saw Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrate the five-sets of exercises at a recent health expo, the wonderful music and tremendous energy field attracted them immediately.
• They then invited practitioners to Enota to teach them the exercise.
• At the retreat, when practitioners finished sending righteous thoughts at noon, they turned and noticed six people sitting behind them.
• The people learned the five-sets of exercises, and they accepted the precious book Zhuan Falun, an exercise instruction video, a truth-clarification VCD and other literature that the practitioners had brought.
• When they learned that such a peaceful and wonderful practice is being ruthlessly persecuted in China, they were moved to tears.
• When they learned of the arrival of the head of the PRC to the US, they said that they would write to President Bush and declare that America, the land of freedom, does not welcome those persecuting "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance."
• They said that they would not only learn Falun Dafa but also spread it to other mountain residents, and the tourists.
• They expressed their best wishes to the practitioners.

And finally...

• A practitioner in China reported that earlier this year, her husband was the only uninjured survivor of a truck accident.
• She said, a cement truck suddenly rolled over, and all 6 people including her husband were thrown to the ground.
• Three of them died immediately, and two were seriously injured with many broken bones. But her husband didn't have a single injury, just a little cement in his eye.
• He got out of the hospital in a few days, after his eye was washed.
• At the hospital, the family members of the victims of the accident wanted money from the owner of the truck.
• However, when the owner asked her how much she wanted, she said: "I won't ask for anything. My husband is fine, except for some cement in his eye. It's no big deal, and he will be fine in a few days. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner."
• He was very grateful. She said many people couldn't understand her, and thought she was being foolish.
• But another person said, "You see how good it is to be a Falun Gong practitioner; otherwise her husband wouldn't be fine."

Thanks for watching FGMtv...

dedicated to breaking through China's information blockade, revealing propaganda, and bringing you the truth of Falun Gong.