Falun Gong Practitioner Illegally Detained for Extended Period Before and After APEC Meeting

(Clearwisdom.net) October 23, 2003 report: Before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting took place in Bangkok, Thailand on October 20 and October 21, the Thai government used strict measures to drive away loafers and beggars in the cities. It also issued blacklists to block and turn away "unwanted people."

Human rights organizations strongly condemned this approach and accused the Thai government of violating international pact(s). Because of the APEC meeting, a Falun Gong practitioner was illegally detained in Thailand for an extended period of time.

During the morning of October 15, Thai police officers broke into the residence of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zou Wenbo, who was granted asylum via the United Nations. The police took Zou away with the excuse that his visa has expired, and Zou has been detained ever since. Local Falun Gong practitioners could not find out Zou's whereabouts. On October 22, for the first time since his arrest, Zou obtained an opportunity to call some local practitioners and tell them he is being held at the Immigration Bureau.

Mr. Zou Wenbo is a 35-year-old Dafa practitioner. Between January 2000 and March 2001, he was twice sent to a detention center and a "610" Office brainwashing class in China for practicing Falun Gong. Later, he managed to move to Thailand and became a refugee under a UN statute. In his telephone conversation on October 22, he said the police claimed his detention would continue until a UN refugee agency finishes the procedure of placing him in a third country.

This detention is against the law.

Thai government representatives had said before that they would not tolerate local or foreign activists to hold protest activities during the APEC meeting. According to a report by Nation Multimedia in Thailand, a high-ranking Thai official revealed that the Thai government has published a blacklist with names of people who will not be granted a visa to enter Thailand. Most organizations' followers who were denied entry were rejected due to requests by foreign governments.

Nevertheless, Zou Wenbo was taken away from home early in the morning. He had not planned to protest during the APEC meeting. Because he clarified the truth about the persecution to Chinese tourists in Thailand last year, the Thai police documented him. From then on, the local police have always known about his Chinese visa and UN refugee status. During the morning of October 15, the police broke in and arrested him, with the excuse that his residential visa had expired, which is obviously a pretense.

In another incident, the following took place: According to a report from Nation Multimedia, over one hundred police accosted about 30 Chinese employees of the provincial electricity bureau because they mistook the group as Falun Gong practitioners who were going to protest against Hu Jintao. The employees wore yellow T-shirts; they got off three minibuses at the exit of Silom Highway, preparing to welcome the Chinese leaders. Twenty minutes later, the tension in the air dispersed when the police determined these people were indeed a welcoming group.

In fact, since July 20, 1999 when the large-scale persecution against Falun Gong began in China, Falun Gong practitioners have held hundreds of peaceful gatherings around the world, including at APEC meetings in the past four years when Jiang, the head criminal responsible for the persecution, would attend. Falun Gong practitioners are known for being orderly and peaceful during large-scale international meetings.

What the Thai government did to a Falun Gong practitioner during the APEC meeting amounts to a violation of Falun Gong practitioners' basic human rights. Trampling these rights is the same as assisting Jiang's villainous group in their persecution of Falun Gong during this unique historical era.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/10/23/59382.html

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