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THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Chinese fasting to back Falun Gong By Matthew Cella August 20, 2001 Demonstrators outside the Chinese Embassy in
Northwest say they are in good shape after the first
two days of a hunger strike to protest the
imprisonment of 130 Falun Gong practitioners in China. The demonstrators, Chinese citizens and Falun
Gong practitioners themselves, began the hunger strike
Friday in a small park across the street from the
Chinese Embassy after their statement of protest,
slipped between the embassy's curtain-covered glass
doors, was hurled back at them moments after it was
delivered. "Falun Gong practitioners have peacefully
appealed in front of the Chinese Embassy in
Washington, D.C., for a year, yet the authorities have
repeatedly rejected our appeal letters," the statement
reads. "Therefore, we have decided to launch a hunger
strike as our strongest call to justice." Practitioners of Falun Gong say it is a form of
refining the body and mind through special exercises
and meditations. The Chinese government banned the
practice in 1999, calling practitioners, who often
gather in public places to perform its yoga-like
exercises, an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]. Dozens of Falun Gong leaders were arrested after
weeks of demonstrations throughout China after the
ban, and the demonstrators say 263 persons have been
tortured and killed since the ban began. The demonstrators outside the Chinese Embassy
number 17 -- ten participating in the hunger strike and
seven others who have come in support. They huddle
barefoot on small, yellow mats in the park across the
street from the embassy, which they call "Tiananmen
Garden." They wear blue sashes with the words "hunger
strike for justice" hand-painted in white letters.
When it rains, they put on yellow plastic hoods.
Mostly, they sit quietly, praying, reading under the
trees or talking among themselves, but not about food. "We try not to put our minds to that," said Shean
Lin, one of the organizers of the protest. Mr. Lin, 30, a virus researcher at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham, said the hunger strike was
inspired by the 130 practitioners imprisoned in the
Masanjia labor camp in China. Those detainees have
been on a hunger strike for three weeks. "When we saw in the news that 130 people had gone
on a hunger strike, we just felt we had to do
something," said Sam Lu. He said the hunger strike has
made him a little tired, but he quickly puts his in
perspective. "When I think about what they suffer, I
think it's really nothing." Mr. Lu, 33, is from Shenzhen, in the Guangdong
province of China. He knows firsthand about the
Chinese government's violent crackdown on Falun Gong
practitioners. A tax auditor who spent nine years
working for the Chinese government, he was forced to
give up his job in 1999 when he wouldn't renounce
Falun Gong and was jailed two months last year for
practicing the exercises. Mr. Lu has been in the United States only since
February. His wife, also a Falun Gong practitioner, is
being held in a Chinese labor camp, he said. Mr. Lin said the hunger strike was organized
quickly to show solidarity with those fasting in
China, so demonstrators didn't have time to prepare
their bodies. In fact, none of the demonstrators has
participated in a hunger strike before, and they are
more or less making up the rules as they go along. When a case of Pedialyte, a fruit juice-based
drink that contains sugar, was offered, demonstrators
declined, opting only for water. At night, the
demonstrators sleep in cars, similarly rejecting a
supporter's offer of a hotel room. [...] April Zhang, 31, of Atlanta said she decided to
join because she's been haunted by a January news
account of a woman and her 8-month-old child killed by
Chinese police because the mother practiced Falun
Gong. As she looked at their picture again yesterday,
she began to cry, thinking of her own 11-month-old
child back home. "I miss my baby, but I have no choice," she said.
"I should be here." http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20010820-30457888.htm
Posting date: 8/21/2001 |