Press Statement: Falun Gong Holds Vigil in Front of PRC Consulate in New York City

Falun Gong Practitioners in New York

We are here today in front of the Chinese Consulate because the situation we are facing is a desperate one. One hundred and thirty Falun Gong practitioners, mostly women, in the Masanjia Labor Camp in China are now into their fourth week of a hunger strike, and their current condition is unclear. If the hunger strike continues, many could die. If they are being brutally force-fed, many could die. With our 130-hour vigil, we hope to draw attention to the plight of these 130 Falun Gong practitioners.

These 130 Falun Gong practitioners have been on hunger strike in the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp of Liaoning Province, China, for about 22 days, protesting the refusal of the camp authorities to release them at the end of their "terms." The terms are arbitrarily decided upon as Chinese citizens can be held under this kind of so-called "administrative detention" for up to three years without trial. A spokeswoman for Falun Gong has said that all of the hunger strikers appear to have been in the camp for at least a year.

To call a Chinese labor reeducation camp, or laogai, a place of detention is like calling a hurricane just another weather pattern. Words can hardly describe the horrors that occur behind the gray walls and the barbed wire -- the beatings, the humiliation, the constant struggle to remember that one has any sort of identity. For women, the danger of sexual abuse, including rape, is always present. For Falun Gong practitioners, things are particularly difficult because the ultimate goal of the authorities is to break them, which means to force them to renounce their practice. Thus, brainwashing sessions are frequently held in which, from all accounts, the pressure is relentless and torture is an accepted way to extract the desired response.

If Falun Gong practitioners refuse to renounce their practice, experts say the authorities now simply don't dare to release them from the labor camps, whether their "terms" are up or not, because they don't want anyone to reveal what really goes on there. So can one blame these 130 hunger strikers for doing all they can to be released from Masanjia? These women are respectable members of society -- office workers, housewives, and teachers who suddenly found themselves in what is now known in China as the 'Pit of Hell.' They had done nothing wrong. As far as we are concerned, they should never have been there in the first place.

These 130 women are exhibiting tremendous courage as a hunger strike holds great risks. Prison guards often attempt force-feeding, which entails a thick plastic tube shoved down the nose into the stomach. This procedure is usually done by criminal inmates or police officers with no medical training, so many practitioners have suffered damage to the lungs and other organs as the tubes are inserted. What they are fed with is often a crude mixture of salt and water. Needless to say, the procedure is excruciating.

Are these women still alive? How are they faring? Chinese authorities have sealed off all information to the outside world, so there are few channels available to us. There is little we can do except to ask the media to expose the atrocities, and that is why we are here today.

It is time the world stood up and held Chinese president Jiang Zemin accountable for the crimes that are being committed against innocent people.

Are we going to stand by and let a U.S. permanent resident, Dr. Teng Chunyan, suffer the traumas of a labor camp like Masanjia?

Right here in front of the Chinese consulate, there are a number of different things going on because different people have spontaneously decided to take action. There is the 130-hour vigil for the hunger strikers in Masanjia and this past weekend there was a 48-hour hunger strike to raise awareness for Dr. Teng. Now, a couple of practitioners who knew Dr. Teng well have extended the hunger strike into its third day, and more practitioners will continue the vigil to 265 hours in tribute to the 265 practitioners who have died under this senseless persecution.

Some say this will dilute our message to the world, but the truth is, we can also see it as a testament to how much the Falun Dafa practitioners here in the New York and New Jersey area care about their compatriots in China. We do not suffer as they do in the labor camps, but we as individuals with different schedules and different resources will each dedicate our time and everything we can to make sure that the practitioners are released so that they can be safe. Our sincerity is our strength.

We want the Chinese regime to sit up and take note -- it will never crush Falun Gong because for every will that is broken, there is another that stands up to defend the best of the human spirit. We hope the Chinese authorities and the staff of this Chinese Consulate here on US soil will recognize that every action they take against Falun Gong is, in essence, a crime against humanity and against all human decency.

Thank you all.

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