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Guardian: Chinese whispers surround Falun Gong trial By John Gittings Tuesday August 21, 2001 Chinese justice is a secretive affair. The proceedings
in Beijing against a group of alleged Falun Gong
followers had been going on for a month but we only
heard about it on the final day - when the official
Xinhua news agency said that it had been a "public
trial."
The four sentences that were handed out ranged in
length from seven years to life: all were convicted of
"intentional homicide" in connection with the suicide
attempt staged by supposed [group] members in January. The proceedings on this last "public" day moved very
fast. By mid morning the agency was putting out a full
report of the verdicts; by late afternoon the official
People's Daily had produced its own verdict in the
shape of a fierce commentary denouncing the "[Jiang's slanderous term omitted]." By the evening, filmed extracts from the trial were
being shown on the country's main TV channel. The
camera focused on the burn marks on the face of
50-year-old Wang Jindong - the only one of the four
who attempted suicide - and then panned to the other
defendants. There were shots of the plastic bottles in which Liu
and six other suspected believers carried petrol to
Tiananmen Square last January, on the eve of Chinese
new year. A fifth conspirator, who had suggested using Sprite
bottles, was "exempted from sentence": the court said
she had "acknowledged her crime". The main organiser,
Liu Yunfang, received a life sentence; Mr Wang was
given 15 years; the other two lesser sentences. In the brief filmed excerpt, Liu Xiuqin (seven years)
smiled slightly as she answered questions. The others
looked calm. Mr Wang, we know from earlier reports,
went on hunger strike in hospital and said he had no
regrets. (His wife and daughter were taken to a reform
camp, where after two months they repudiated what he
had done.) Was that a smile of defiance from Ms Liu? Did the
defendants refuse to enter a plea and why did the
trial take a month? The defence lawyers were appointed
by the court. No one is expecting to be briefed by
them. Eight months after the event, the tragic affair, in
which a mother and her 12-year-old daughter died,
remains as obscure as ever. The trial, unsurprisingly,
has clarified nothing. The Falun Gong abroad continues to insist that the
seven who attempted suicide were not genuine members
and suggests that it was some kind of set-up job. It has produced a video that analyses, in slow motion,
film released by the Chinese authorities of the
incident. Some of it is clearly shot from a rooftop
surveillance camera, but there are also close-ups
taken by a cameraman on the ground. The Falun Gong regards this as suspicious, yet it is
common practice (not just in China) for police camera
operators to be on hand when a public disturbance is
anticipated. It looks from the video as if one of those who set
herself on fire (and later died) was hit with some
object by a plain-clothes man. This may be true: the
police are notoriously heavy-handed, but the fact
remains that she had deliberately burned herself. Is it possible that the authorities had advance
warning of the self-immolation plan and let it go
ahead, anticipating (correctly) that it would rebound
against the Falun Gong? Perhaps, though the fact that the police were armed
with fire extinguishers is not conclusive. Those which
were used were small-scale canisters of the type
carried in public vehicles - such as the police vans
routinely to be seen on the square. [...] What is clear is that the Chinese government will use
the trial to reinforce the message that it
communicated to its own people very effectively after
the self-immolation. [...] In a bizarre attempt to illustrate the point, the
Xinhua news agency accompanied its report on the trial
with a file picture of Falun Gong supporters allegedly
"disturbing public order". It showed a peaceful demonstration held last month in
the city of Taiyuan. Several dozen people are seen
sitting quietly on the road in meditative posture,
while pedestrians walked freely along the adjacent
pavement. It is hardly the most appropriate picture
with which to prove the point. On the contrary, it shows the great courage with which
Falun Gong supporters continue to profess their
beliefs, knowing they may face brutal treatment, even
torture and death, in the reform camps. Beijing could be in danger of overselling the
one-dimensional message which it tries too hard to
hammer home.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,540215,00.html Posting date: 8/22/2001 |