Statement by Falun Gong International Committee for Human Rights to Human Rights Parallel Forum in Geneva

Related report: Falun Gong Practitioners Speak at Human Rights Parallel Forum in Geneva

April 3, 2002

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak on the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

According to various human rights groups, media reports, and government statements, it is clear that China's human rights record is unacceptable, and getting worse. After reading thousands of cases and hearing hundreds of testimonials, we know that the state-sponsored violence is massive in scope and extreme in character.

A majority of China's human rights violations are linked to freedom of belief. While it is true that the Christians, Catholics, Tibetans and various meditation schools are being persecuted, by far, the people that have been most viciously targeted are those who practice Falun Gong. In 1999, government statistics showed that there were between 70 and 100 million people in China practicing Falun Gong, a majority of them being women. The distribution of practitioners was of all ages, geographic areas, and socio-economic status. Although the Chinese government had supported and actually promoted Falun Gong since1992; in July of 1999, President Jiang Zemin declared Falun Gong "a threat social stability" and vowed to totally eliminate this peaceful, meditation practice as quickly as possible.

Even though China has "opened up" economically, and will even host the Olympics in 2008, we are, however, sad to report that in the year 2002, the repression against Falun Gong has only worsened. At last count, it has been confirmed that 390 practitioners have died in police custody since July of 1999, while the unofficial report is over 1,600 deaths. Chinese vice premier, Li Lanqing, said in a speech that in just three short months between July and October of 1999, over 35,000 people who appealed to the Beijing regime were arrested. According to human rights groups and media reports, at least 100,000 people have been sent to labor camps without a trial; some 600 people have been handed extended jail sentences up to 18 years; more than 1,000 have been sent to mental institutions where they are given forced injections and drugs.

On March 5, 2002, the signal of eight cable TV stations in the region of Changchun City, which is in Northeastern China, were interrupted by tapping into the broadcast line. The usual state-produced media channels were overridden, and in their place was broadcast between 40-50 minutes of footage revealing the state-sponsored persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. An estimated one million viewers saw the footage.

In response to this, Chinese President Jiang Zemin issued an order to kill Falun Gong practitioners "without mercy". Almost immediately, the area of Changchun was reduced to a near police state, with officers and plainclothes police stationed on each corner. Travelers were stopped and searched. Police conducted door-to-door searches, combing the city for Falun Gong practitioners, and occupying homes where practitioners were believed to have relatives. We have received reports that over 5,000 have been detained and possibly 100 have been killed by police. Police are given orders to cremate bodies immediately to avoid leaving any record.

The means that the Chinese government has used to crush Falun Gong are shocking and totally unacceptable. One disturbing case is that of Ms. Zhao Xin, a 32-year-old lecturer in economics at Beijing Business University. After she was rounded up in a park for doing her exercises with her friends, police beat her so viciously that they crushed three of the vertebrae in her spine. She was paralyzed from the neck down, and her vocal cords were damaged during surgery so she could no longer speak. Later, she died, and the police tried to interrupt her funeral procession organized by her university colleagues and students. We can imagine the despair of her family - all their efforts to appeal to the courts or to get some explanation from authorities about how their daughter could have been treated in this way have been dismissed.

Su Gang, a young software engineer from Shandong Province was injected with nerve-damaging drugs while he was kept in a mental hospital. Within a week, this healthy man became extremely weak and his motor functions were severely compromised. He was released only because a family member went on a hunger strike on his behalf, but it was too late - he died shortly thereafter.

For every case that we know about, there are many, many more, and there are cases of discrimination and harassment that, while less severe than torture, have nonetheless wreaked havoc throughout society. Thousands upon thousands of practitioners have lost their jobs, pensions, and even their homes. Students of all ages are required to sign statements saying that they will not practice Falun Gong, or otherwise they are expelled from School. In some towns, corrupt local police are demanding stiff 'fines' before they release Falun Gong practitioners from detention, and very often the amount is more than the life savings of entire families.

The list of abuses continues to grow. But counter to the Chinese Government's expectations, Falun Gong practitioners are growing stronger in their nonviolent struggle for freedoms. If there is one thing that the world is beginning to see is the sheer perseverance of the Falun Gong practitioners in China. They know that their cause is just.

As a spiritual practice with ancient cultural roots, Falun Gong is based on undeniably good and universal principles of Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance. In addition to the health benefits, Falun Gong has guided people to achieve greater inner peace and wisdom. Over the past two years, the practice has helped people develop strength of character that is not commonly seen. With all the beatings and mistreatment, the practitioners in China have only used non-violent means to stand up for their fundamental human rights.

Given the escalating persecution against other spiritual and religious faiths in China, Rabbi David Saperstein, former Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has said, "Falun Gong has almost become the symbol of religious freedom more broadly." These practitioners are showing the people of China that freedom of belief is so utterly basic to almost every other freedom. No matter what your faith may or may not be, what we as human beings believe in our souls must ultimately arise from free will. History tells us that anyone who tries to dictate otherwise is wrong.

Falun Gong is not just a China issue, but an international matter. Recently, groups of over 100 Western Falun Gong practitioners from 15 different countries went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to peacefully appeal to the Chinese regime to stop the killing and to end the ban. For their appeal, they were harshly treated and physically abused before being deported. It is hard to imagine that this apolitical meditation is being peacefully practiced in over 50 countries, and yet it is brutally suppressed in its homeland.

It is inconceivable that China would want to suppress a non-political meditation practice that improves the health and spiritual well being of its own people. Furthermore, China's own constitution guarantees freedom of belief, and China has signed the U.N. declaration of human Rights. Nevertheless, China scholars have speculated that there are three reasons for the Chinese regime's harsh actions against Falun Gong: 1) because of the massive number of practitioners, which was larger than that of the communist party, the top leadership feared losing its power; 2) the principles of Falun Gong are a revival of traditional Chinese culture, which is forbidden according to Communist ideology; 3) some scholars say that Jiang Zemin, fearing his decreasing popularity, used Falun Gong as a scapegoat to draw attention away from other socio-economic problems.

Given the extreme situation in China, we strongly urge the United Nations to take immediate action to (1) pressure the Beijing regime to release those detained and imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners; (2) hold hearings for victims of Falun Gong practitioners so that this largest modern-day atrocity in China is highlighted; (3) use every opportunity and tool the United Nations has to call for an end of Beijing's state-sponsored persecution and killing of Falun Gong practitioners.

Thank you for your consideration.

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