Practitioners Across Europe Alert Public to the Persecution of Falun Gong on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

(Clearwisdom.net) June 26th was the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. To remind people once again of the persecution that Falun Gong practitioners are subject to in China, both pictorial and live exhibitions were held by practitioners in countries in Northern and Central Europe exhibiting various types of torture taking place in prisons and labor camps across China.

According to a report by the Epoch Times, prisons in China are full and the government is therefore busy putting up installations in a rush to build and expand prisons. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned for their beliefs and news about their deaths as a result of the the persecution they were subjected to come out every week. It was reported that at least eight practitioners died in June, including Mr. Zhang Jianhua, who was persecuted to death on the "dead person's bed" - one of the torture devices used in Jilin prison. Thirty-two year old Liu Xiaodong died in Beian City prison in Heilongjiang; Wang Jinzhong died in the Shenyang Tiexi detention house on June 14th; Wang Juan from Hebei died in the Mancheng town prison of Baoding City; Bi Guohua from Shandong died on the spot when authorities from the "610 office" broke into his home to arrest him; Wang Shujun from Hebei was tortured to death in Handan City's brainwashing program on June 20th, he was only thirty-six years old when he died.

Agence France-Presse and the BBC reported on June 17th that Theo van Boven, an expert on torture from the UN, was supposed to go to China and conduct investigations into its different departments at the end of this month. However, the date of his visit was delayed due to the Chinese regime's claims that more time was needed for preparation, and that officials were on holiday.

Mr. Theo van Boven gave an annual statement to the UN Human Rights Committee in March this year. The statement included 420 pages of short reports about torture and ill-treatment, gathering information on torture from 115 countries around the world. The report about China was the longest, recording over 130 ill-treatment cases, in which over 100 cases were related to Falun Gong practitioners. This statement was formally published on March 23rd, 2004.