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Several Scandinavian Newspapers Reprint and Cite News Issued by the Swedish Falun Gong Information Centre
(Clearwisdom.net) In September and October, forty-four Falun Gong
practitioners died from torture and abuse in China. A press release regarding
this news was sent to the largest news agency in Sweden and Norway, via the
Swedish Falun Gong Information Centre, which was reprinted by the agency.
Several Scandinavian media outlets also reprinted or quoted the news that
exposed the facts of the brutal persecution launched by Jiang and Luo. This
aroused more condemnation for the persecution throughout Scandinavia. 846 deaths have been verified since the persecution began in July 1999.
However at present much of the specific details are unavailable. Deaths from
torture and abuse have been reported from all areas of China, from the remote
provincial areas to large cities, from autonomous regions to Beijing. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll
was well over 1,600 by the end of October 2001. Expert sources estimate that more than 6,000 have been sentenced to prison by
illegal trials, while hundreds of thousands have been detained and more than
100,000 have been detained in forced labor camps, usually without any trial. Hundreds of practitioners have been forced into mental hospitals, where they
have been injected with unknown drugs [usually psychotropic drugs to confuse
practitioners or drugs that damage the internal nervous system]. Millions
have been kidnapped to brainwashing or re-education classes in an attempt to
have them renouncing their faith. Those who do not renounce Falun Gong continue
to be tortured and abused, or die in the process. Although those who renounce
Falun Gong are often released, some are only released after a high ransom is
paid, thereafter they are monitored and frequently forced to assist the
authorities in coercing others to renounce their faith. Hundreds of thousands of family lives have been turned upside down from the
brutal persecution and harassment by Jiang's reign of terror over the past four
years. |