Amnesty Israel to the Israeli Foreign Minister: Help Rescue Wei Xiong

(Clearwisdom.net)

January 5, 2003

Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu

The Foreign Minister

We are writing to you on behalf of Mr. Zion Xiong, the Israeli citizen whose sister was arrested in China a year ago because of her association with the "Falun Gong" organization. We would like to verify what is known to us about the persecution going on in China against the members of the group, and ask you to try to help the Xiong family to contact the sister.

Wei Xiong was arrested as part of a crackdown conducted for roughly a year and a half in China on organized crime. The operation started in April 2001 and it's claimed purpose was to abolish violent crime. As the crackdown progressed temporary procedures were declared to speed up the arrests and trials of the criminals. Explicit instructions were issued so as to shorten the interrogation and court procedures of the detainees. As of such, during the first 3 month of the crackdown alone, at least 1781 people were sentenced and executed, some of the executions were carried out for punishing property related felonies, drugs or meditation.

Since the beginning of the crackdown in April 2001, the local authorities in China extended their mission objectives and employed the same measures when dealing with suspects of conscience, including those who are member of organizations or groups that were declared as illegal.

The "Falun Gong" organization was established at the early 90's. In essence, it is a system that combines physical relaxation techniques with a meditation method and spiritual practice. The organization won millions of [practitioners] in China and throughout the world, as well as in Israel. According to the standards of the international law, there is no just cause for the ban on the system. It seems that the gathering of millions of people in a single movement poses a threat to the stability of the regime. Since its ban, thousands of activists were arrested without trial and were sent to forced labor camps. It is worth noting that while serving the penalty at the forced labor camps, detainees in China are subjected to severe torture. In many cases, these tortures lead to loss of life. The "Amnesty International" organization has learnt of some 200 "Falun Gong" activists, half of which are women that died in custody, apparently due to torture.

Given the evidence we have presented to you, we believe that Wei Xiong is a prisoner of conscience who was arrested only for her membership in the "Falun Gong" organization, and as it appears, has not received a fair trail. We are concerned for her well-being, and are afraid that she is subjected to severe torture that might claim her life. We sympathize with the pain of the family and with the great anxiety they are experiencing, as throughout the long period of her arrest her family has successfully contacted her only once. Wei Xiong is due to serve another half a year in the labor camp, where she is to undergo the so-called "re-education".

We ask you to do whatever you can to find out the condition Wei Xiong is in and to verify that she is not subjected to torture and that she is treated fairly. We will continue with our efforts to claim the release of the prisoners of conscience wherever they might be. Nevertheless, we believe that the Israeli Foreign Ministry should intervene, so as to ease the suffering of the Israeli citizen Zion and his family.

Sincerely,

Yael Weisz-Rind, Manager

Amnesty International, Israeli Branch

CC:

Mr. Dan Ben-Eliezer, Manager Human's Right Department, 3 Arbel Street, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Prof. Aharon Evitar, Board Coordinator and Member of the Managing Committee, Amnesty International

Ms. Rony Borstein, China Board Coordinator