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Revealing the Chinese Embassy's Devious Activities in Russia (Clearwisdom.net)
On November 21, 2001, fifteen Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners went to
Moscow to attend an experience sharing conference hosted by local practitioners
in Russia. Here, there is a local marketplace frequented by a large number of
Chinese people. The practitioners decided to go there to hand out flyers and
clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the local Russians and Chinese. At about
1:00pm of November 23, Taiwanese and local Russian practitioners arrived at
Ismaelovsky Market to hand out flyers. It only took a minute before a few
uniformed security agents and some Chinese appeared. They appeared out of
nowhere, and escorted the eight Taiwanese practitioners to the Market Management
Office, where they were detained and their passports and Falun Gong flyers
confiscated. They forced female practitioners to take off their Falun Gong
vests, took away their backpacks, and inspected their personal belongings.
Taiwanese practitioners protested from the very beginning, asking these people
to explain why they thought they had the right to confiscate their private
property so rudely. The Russian Market Management personnel and local Chinese
ignored their protests and remained belligerent towards the practitioners. In
the end, they kept all the Taiwanese practitioners' truth- clarifying and
Fa-promoting materials, vests, and Falun Gong banners. When the security agents
inspected the practitioners' passports, they discovered they were from Taiwan,
so they had to return the passports to them; still they escorted the
practitioners out of the Market.
After this incident was over the practitioners found out that Chinese secret
agents monitor the Market at all times. When the agents noticed Taiwanese
practitioners handing out flyers in the Sun District of the Market, they
immediately contacted the Chinese Embassy. The Embassy personnel then pressured
the Market Officer to demand the arrest of all Chinese people handing out flyers
and have them deported, but they found out that those handing out flyers were
actually Taiwanese. This forced them to maintain at least a little civility.
Eventually they were released from police custody, and within one hour of the
incident, the Russian practitioners reported the incident to the Police
Department explaining that it was legal for practitioners to hand out flyers in
the Market, and it was illegal for the Market Management to make arrests and
confiscate materials. They also contacted a local lawyer and Human Rights
Information Center. The Center said right away that they were willing to file a
complaint with the Russian judiciary office on behalf of the Taiwanese
practitioners. Then the Russian practitioners advised major media including the
Tradesman Newspaper and Society Newspaper to expose the illegal activities of
Chinese Embassy personnel on Russian soil.
On November 27, the local Russian as well as all 15 Taiwanese practitioners
went to the Representative Office of Taiwan in Moscow to meet with Ambassador
Jin and Assistant Representative Zhan. A lawyer practitioner presented a
memorandum and testaments expressing formally that: Taiwan nationals were
legally handing out flyers on Russian soil, but they were insulted and
manhandled by the Market Management personnel without any public security
mandate. Their freedom was compromised; their passports and personal properties
were confiscated. These outrageous actions not only infringed upon Taiwanese
practitioners' personal freedom and rights, but also broke the local laws of
Russia. Since the Representative Office's duty is to protect local Taiwanese
residents and tourists, it must not take this incident lightly and should raise
concerns with the Russian government in order to make sure that foreign
nationals' legal activities are protected and the guilty parties punished.
Ambassador Jin said that he was ambassador in Germany before and knew Falun
Gong's (good) international reputation. He was impressed by the popularity of
Falun Gong around the world but could not understand why practitioners felt the
need to always clarify the truth. The practitioners explained the situation to
him. In the end, Ambassador Jin agreed to write to the Russian Foreign Affairs
Ministry to express his concern about the unfair illegal treatment of Taiwanese
practitioners, and would also give a copy of the letter to local Russian
practitioners to show the Office's sincerity and stress the importance of this
matter.
Posting date: 12/4/2001 |