Feb. 26, 2008 - www.faluninfo.net

Monitoring the Falun Gong Human Rights Crisis in China

Shenzhen Court Sentences Hong Kong Resident to Six Years in Prison
On January 29, 2008, Bao’an District Court of Shenzhen City in Guangdong province sentenced Hong Kong resident and Falun Gong adherent Mr. Chen Jinshu to six years in prison in a closed-door trial.

49-year-old Chen was detained in April 2007 while visiting his elderly father in China. He was then charged with shipping copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, to the Mainland. The book, an editorial series on the history of the Chinese Communist Party, is banned in China, but circulated freely in Hong Kong. Chen’s family and lawyer have denied the charges, stating that the said case had already been closed in 2005 when another Falun Gong adherent was sentenced.

“They kidnapped him and put him into prison because he is a Falun Gong practitioner,” Chen’s sister, Ms. Chen Lili, told New Tang Dynasty Television. “First of all, my brother is a Hong Kong resident. Secondly, it is legal to practice Falun Gong in Hong Kong. So the Shenzhen court set him up using a closed file from the year 2005. We think that is nonsense.”

Chen is the second Falun Gong adherent from Hong Kong to be sentenced this year to prison in China. On January 8, 2008, Ms. Lin Lixia, who had spent much of 2007 under house arrest in Shenzhen, was reportedly sentenced to three years in jail.

More details can be viewed here: http://english.ntdtv.com/?c=145&a=1777

Over 15 Falun Gong Adherents Arrested in Beijing at the End of January
The Falun Information Center has received reports that on January 24, 2008, the Beijing authorities carried out a round of arrests of Falun Gong adherents in the city. In the sweep, at least 15 people were detained, either from their workplace or their homes, which police ransacked at the time of arrest.

Among the locations raided was Jinkui Decoration Plant in the city’s Chaoyang District, where all of the employees were initially detained. Two days later, ten employees who do not practice Falun Gong were released, but ten others, including several practitioners remained in custody.

Information Center in the News: New York Times Parrots the Party Line
On February 14, 2008 The Epoch Times published a response to as a “biased and unfair report” in the The New York Times about the Chinese New Year’s Splendor, a variety show that includes traditional Chinese folk dances and legends, as well as two contemporary pieces depicting repression and resistance. The following are excerpts of an interview with Falun Dafa Information Center Executive Director Levi Browde:

“The New York Times article neatly fits the [Communist] Party's template by suggesting the Chinese New Year Splendor is 'political' because it portrays the persecution of Falun Gong."

…."The descriptions of Falun Gong [in the article] also fit this template. In particular, the article three times in quotes gratuitously uses the slanderous description of Falun Gong that is the basis of the Party's propaganda campaign. We believe that not even one appearance of this description is acceptable.

"Would The New York Times repeatedly mention in an article the defamatory words used for blacks, Hispanics, or Jews? I don't think they would. Such words communicate nothing. They are only expressions of hatred. But their reproduction by the The New York Times serves very well the Party's agenda.”

Full story: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-2-14/65961.html

Daily Mail: China ‘will make secret checks on backgrounds of Olympic visitors’
Feb 16, 2008 – “Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott claims China's Ministry of Public Security has drawn up a document detailing how people are to be assessed – and listing 43 categories to be kept out.

Any athlete, member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), journalist, sponsor or guest who has been on a peaceful demonstration in support of the independence of Tibet should be excluded, according to the alleged document…

Mr McMillan-Scott, a long-standing critic of the Chinese regime, said last night that he had been assured the details were accurate and he believed them to be so. They were passed to him by exiled members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a philosophical and exercise regime that has been persecuted in China since 1999.

Mr McMillan-Scott said: ‘There is absolutely no question in my mind that it is a genuine document. The Falun Gong have an incredible network of communications and they penetrate every area of Chinese life.

‘This document epitomises the way the Chinese state operates against any form of dissidence, any form of nonconformist religion and any form of opposition to the established order.’”

Full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=515171&in_page_id=1770

Epoch Times: Hundreds Participate in Human Rights Torch in Israel Despite Rain
Feb 20, 2008 – “Although weathermen predicted storms and occasional rain, hundreds of people came out to support the Human Rights Torch Relay in Tel Aviv Monday evening, Feb. 18, and called for an immediate end to all crimes against humanity taking place in China before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Darfurian refugees, Falun Gong practitioners, Rabbis, religious leaders, physicians, artists and all kinds of supporters participated in the rally. Prior to the rally, religious leaders and community leaders from different religions and sects signed a joint statement calling for the stop of the crimes against humanity in China such as the persecution against Falun Gong, and the forced organ harvesting. […]

‘I hope the entire humanity will work together on preventing those things,’ said the Sufi Imam in Israel, Abed Al-Salam Mansara. The Cherkes Sheikh Zinaldin Faruk said that humanity must join hands and fight against the brutal practice. ‘We do not want any more disasters like the Nazis did in the forties to happen,’ he said.”

Full story: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-2-20/66290.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 917-757-9780, Levi Browde 646-415-0998, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Joel Chipkar 416-709-8678. Email: contact@faluninfo.net, Website: http://faluninfo.net/

Category: Accounts of Persecution