(Clearwisdom.net) This article is a collection of discussions by Dafa practitioners in many different areas and in different truth-clarification work groups. We should ponder this issue from the perspective of the Fa, so please take the Fa as Teacher and do not take any of the content of this article as your guidelines. Please kindly point out anything erroneous to complement or complete our understandings on this subject.

During our efforts to sue Jiang Zemin, many members of the general public have not supported the lawsuits wholeheartedly. Why is this? Let us examine the feedback we have collected.

The Executive Branch of the United States government, the Bush Administration, is concerned about the possibility of its diplomats being sued in China in retaliation for the lawsuit in the United States. Out of concern that the current or any former President of the United States or of any other democratic countries might face similar lawsuits in China in retaliation, the State Department (part of the Executive Branch of the United States government) recommended in its Amicus Brief to the Northern District of Illinois that Jiang Zemin should be granted immunity as a head of state.

This is also why some non-government organizations (NGO's) in the United States are unwilling to touch this subject, and have given us the same answer: Please talk to the Executive Branch.

Many American government officials who are sympathetic toward Falun Gong, and are against the persecution share something along the lines of this mentality: "In our hearts, we completely support you for suing Jiang Zemin, but we cannot afford to support the lawsuit openly because we wish to avoid the possibility of a lawsuit in China against the current or any former President of the United States, or in any other democratic countries. We think your goal is no more than to win the support of the general public in the United States, and it appears that you have already attained this goal."

It has been over a year since Falun Gong practitioners in the United States filed the civil lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. In the past year, we have made substantial progress in the legal proceedings of the lawsuit.

We have successfully filed the lawsuit. We successfully persuaded Judge Hibbler of the Northern District of Illinois to issue a special order allowing us to serve the court order to the Houston police who were protecting the security of Jiang Zemin during his visit to Houston, instead of having to serve the court order directly to Jiang. Serving the court order directly to Jiang Zemin may well have been virtually impossible. On the other hand, the successful serving of the court order later led the Executive Branch to issue an Amicus Brief to the Northern District of Illinois recommending that Jiang should have immunity as head of state.

We persuaded many congressmen to issue Amicus Briefs to the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois recommending that "Heads of state who have committed crimes of genocide are not afforded Head-of-State Immunity." We are now in the process of appealing the case to the United States Supreme Court. During the past year, a large number of Dafa practitioners in the United States have been patiently communicating with attorneys, NGO's, and the three branches of the government, and have been continually expanding the scope of our audiences. Meanwhile, Dafa practitioners all over the world have filed similar lawsuits in their respective countries, collectively creating continuous waves of righteousness.

Generally speaking, Dafa practitioners have become increasingly mature and wise regarding the progress of legal proceedings, which has shocked and terrified Jiang Zemin's wicked gang. The attorneys and legal experts in all the countries where Dafa practitioners have filed lawsuits against Jiang all agree that Jiang Zemin should be sued for his acts of genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity in the suppression of Falun Gong. This is an indication that the general public worldwide shares a common understanding of Jiang Zemin's crimes.

Does this mean that we have attained our goal? Perhaps the only way to find this out is to ask ourselves: What is the fundamental goal of the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin?

Teacher said,

"when it comes to the world's people, we should try our best to save them and we should be kind to them. Not only should we be kind, we should also save sentient beings with compassion. In this persecution those who've been harmed the most are in fact the world's people. Actually, those evil beings want to use this persecution to destroy the lives of the future people. So we should be compassionate to the world's people, tell them the facts and save them, and not let them get weeded out the moment when the Fa rectifies the human world." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")

Teacher also said,

"When it comes to doing things, I consider the process most important, because during the process you can have people see the truth, during the process you can save the world's people, and during the process you can reveal the truth. Even if you eventually get them sentenced and stuff them into jails, you still need to see whether you've achieved the best effect in saving the world's people and exposing the evil, and whether you've allowed people to see the consequences of doing evil and have thereby shocked and frightened the evil beings. Of course, if they're found guilty by ordinary people then it proves to the world's people that we're right. And of course that's great. If you achieve that effect that's even better, Master agrees. But you often emphasize the results instead of fully explaining to them the facts that you should explain during that process. Only when all people know the truth that they should know are you really validating the Fa and clarifying the facts. Wherever a problem surfaces, go tell people the facts, and you shouldn't be doing it just to push the lawsuit forward but to tell them the facts. And if the lawsuit is stuck somewhere, then that must be where it needs you to clarify the facts, and then maybe the lawsuit will naturally go forward. If during the process everyone comes to realize the truth and the world's people are saved, and even those people have learned the consequences of being used and the evil nature of the ones that used them, and they're willing to admit their wrongdoing, then I think it's good even if we don't pursue the lawsuit any further--it's not that we have to punish them to some degree. If they come to realize their wrongdoing and make up for it, and the world's people know about it, then that's good enough. But that said, even though the main goal Dafa disciples have is to save the world's people, when it comes to those very evil ones you really can't let them off. I was talking about it from the angle of having compassion and saving sentient beings. The key is to stress doing well with what you should do during the process, and the result will be whatever it will be." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")

From studying the Fa, we have come to realize that the fundamental goal of all Fa-rectification work should be offering sentient beings salvation. The lawsuit against Jiang Zemin provides us with many opportunities to clarify the truth to sentient beings. In other words, we shouldn't clarify the truth only to push the lawsuit forward. Instead, we should be clarifying the truth for the sake of offering sentient beings salvation.

Since this should be the fundamental goal of our truth-clarification work, we now know that we are far from reaching this goal. There is still a lot of room for improvement.

The citizens in many countries have placed their Heads of State on the same level of importance as Jiang Zemin. The Heads of State in many countries have also placed themselves at the same level of importance as Jiang Zemin. By this I don't mean that they consider themselves to be as wicked as Jiang Zemin, or that they give consent to Jiang's crimes. I mean that they consider heads of state to share the same level of work status as Jiang. The old forces arranged for Jiang to be the head of state in China for a purpose. Out of their selfish attachment to protect themselves, many people, even including the heads of state in many countries other than China, have helped to protect Jiang Zemin.

Teacher said,

"[...] refers precisely to a few people with ulterior motives in the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party using their power to initiate a comprehensive, vicious suppression of Dafa and Dafa disciples. They have arrested people, beaten people, sent people to labor camps, sentenced people to jail, and destroyed the books; they have used the army, the police, secret agents, and diplomatic means; and they have used all radio stations, television stations, and the press to spread lies and carry out the persecution in a villainous fashion. Its overwhelming magnitude seems to threaten to bring down the heavens, while their evilness has spread throughout the entire world. With degenerate notions, the old forces arranged this for the purpose of ¡®examining' Dafa in a destructive manner." ("In Reference to a Prophecy," Essentials for Further Advancement II).

It is our responsibility to clarify the truth to sentient beings and explain that Jiang is different from anyone else in history. More specifically, we need to explain,

"Why Jiang Zemin's Persecution against Falun Gong is the most wicked ever in history."

We were able to use the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin as a good reason to host many open forums of a respectable scale where attorneys, legal experts, politicians, and many other influential people from various arenas were invited to hear the truth from Dafa practitioners, and to allow them to speak the truth from their own perspectives. But what caused us to become stuck on the legal issues instead of focusing on clarifying the truth in a broader sense?

Dafa practitioners who joined the open forums seemed to share a common feeling. What feeling? They felt that explaining why Jiang Zemin's persecution against Falun Gong is the most heinous ever in history was too large and too complicated a subject to cover. After all, we face an audience where many people have yet to decide their attitude toward the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin.

On the other hand, let's not forget that Dafa practitioners aren't the only actors in the biggest drama in history. All sentient beings in the world share the same stage with us in this drama. The lawsuit against Jiang Zemin has already created a very positive effect on people. An indisputable fact has already been branded into the memories of the general public: Jiang Zemin is a man who has been sued all over the world. The issues of whether the lawsuit will proceed, or how the lawsuit will proceed [with Jiang Zemin in China] are comparably less significant to the general public.

If practitioners around the world clarify the truth to sentient beings only through the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the range of sentient beings being affected and the progress of Fa-rectification work will be substantially undermined. If there weren't any lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, Dafa practitioners as a whole could still clarify the truth, and we could do so without any restriction, even though the laws can assist us in our truth-clarification work.

We sought legal advice from non-practitioner attorneys because we wanted to have more opportunities to clarify the truth to everyday people. Inviting in non-practitioner attorneys is a way of expanding the cast and crews of this large drama production. We consider it successful to just keep the legal proceedings going in the courts because all we need is to keep the drama running. A while ago, Dafa practitioners involved in the lawsuit became attached to the legal process. When we become attached to any tangible tool or specific type of technology, truth-clarification work becomes limited within the scope of these tools and technologies. Our wisdom was thus limited to these concepts. We must remember that all we are doing is presenting the truth about the persecution to sentient beings and letting them understand the nature of the persecution.

Take the charge of "crime of genocide" as an example. People naturally think about the number of victims when they hear the word "genocide." In addition, people in some of the countries where lawsuits have been filed felt the plaintiffs in their respective countries had not suffered from "severe persecution." Consequently, there was a time when we anxiously urged practitioners all over the world who had suffered from "severe torture" to come forward and become plaintiffs in the lawsuits. These are signs that we had difficulty pushing the lawsuits forward when we got stuck on the technical definition of "severe torture" or "genocide."

We must realize that all the difficulties we encounter in Fa-rectification work reflect our own limitations and barriers in our thoughts. What on earth qualifies as "severe torture?" How do we determine if someone has suffered from "severe torture?" When it comes to suing Jiang Zemin for "severe torture" of Falun Gong practitioners, why did we try to find practitioners who had been "physically" tortured? Could it be that we were attached to the superficial representations of "severe torture" and failed to understand its true meaning? In conclusion, we haven't had a very clear understanding on the meaning of "torture." It also means that our present understandings and levels of cultivation haven't reached what the Fa requires of us at this stage of Fa-rectification.

The thoughts shared here are of one more possible explanation. We hope that fellow practitioners can join the discussion and further improve our collective understandings.

To truly understand the nature of the persecution against Falun Gong, we need to go beyond the scope of law, and discuss the persecution from the moral and spiritual perspective. We must also take into consideration the meaning of mankind's existence when we touch on the subject of persecution.

Anti-humanity is the nature of this persecution. In the past decades, men in China have been reduced to animals. Moreover, people have been forced to become demonic. Those who have been forcefully "transformed" (forced to renounce Falun Gong) in turn persecute and torture other Dafa practitioners. During the persecution, one will be released from detention once he/she denounces Dafa. On the other hand, if one perseveres in one's belief in Falun Gong, he is brutally tortured. People are forced to betray their own souls, and humiliate others. It is a complete destruction of the most basic human dignity. Vast groups of people have been forced to participate in the persecution against their own will.

What is the essence of being? What is human dignity? How has human dignity been destroyed through the persecution?

The Chinese Communist Party has been reining China with terror. The human conscience has been persecuted for more than 50 years, beginning with the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party has used the "divide and conquer" strategy in every type of persecution it has launched [to ensure the target of each persecution is defeated].

The Chinese Communist Party refers to persecutions as "struggles." Every time the Chinese Communist Party announced that it was persecuting "a few" people, say only 5%, it motivated the rest of the population to squeeze into the other group, the 95%. In order to stay in this 95% group, one had to "draw a distinctive line" between oneself and the 5% of the target victims by persecuting the 5% along with the Chinese Communist Party. For example, in the Great Cultural Revolution, husbands denounced their wives against their own will. Adults and children humiliated their parents in public "criticism forums" while enduring the pain of betraying their own souls. Teacher has told us that more than half of the Chinese population has been persecuted by the evil regime. This process was in itself building up the capacities of the evil forces, establishing and developing the mechanisms of the persecution of conscience.

The division of "95%" majorities and "5%" enemies surrounds people with terror. Every persecution or "struggle" makes the next persecution easier. In such an environment where the only law is terror, the Chinese people have learned to survive and conduct themselves by betraying their own conscience. People have become increasingly indifferent to their own betrayal of conscience with each round of persecution. In fact, the Chinese people have become comfortable with committing crimes against their own good conscience.

It was when Jiang Zemin started to incite the Chinese people's hatred against a noble group of people who cultivate themselves with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance that the most wicked persecution had befallen the Chinese people. This is the most formidable attack upon human conscience ever in history, a persecution with the largest scope --- the persecution of the heart. Yet all the truth about the persecution has been covered with deception and lies, broadcast through the media in China, and people have almost no access to the truth. This is an unprecedented type of persecution.

Western governments work on the premise of conscience. Yet why have the western governments compromised their consciences for profits in some of the recent cases? Jiang Zemin has extended his terror outside China. For example, some government officials in California and in Seattle, Washington have rescinded their proclamations to Falun Gong practitioners. This was the work of Jiang Zemin's terror and persecution on U.S. soil. Another example is the economic threats and pressure Jiang Zemin has put on the United States and other countries. In normal situations, when people see kind people tortured, they will try to stop the persecution out of their kind nature. However, Jiang Zemin has now threatened to withdraw economic interests to western countries and capitalists to blackmail them into choosing profits over conscience.

Adolf Hitler began his wars to capture the land of other countries. As a result of his invasions, Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg and Holland surrendered to him. Jiang Zemin is undertaking a similar type of invasion except he isn't aiming at capturing anything physical, but instead directly destroying man's conscience and morality.

The nature of this persecution is to force people to betray their good conscience. This is the very nature of Jiang Zemin's persecution.

"Crimes against humanity" and "genocide" were defined during the war crime trials following the end of World War II. People have pondered and debated the application of these definitions and the foundation of human laws during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. The essence of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial was not the trials per se, because by the time the trial began in Nuremberg the principal criminals were already dead. Their significance was not the enactment and implementation of the criminal charges of "genocide" or "crimes against humanity." It was more of an opportunity for a deep reflection on the reason why man had allowed such a huge disaster to fall on humankind. Proposing and establishing the concept of "crimes of conscience" has left a lesson in history for mankind's future generations.

The persecution of the Jews was revealed after World War II. We need to remind people that the persecution of Falun Gong is still taking place. Because of the Chinese Communist Party's deception and cover-ups, the total damage of the persecution, as well as its severity, has not been completely revealed. On the other hand, even with the severe information barriers in China, the brutality of the persecution that has escaped is already shocking and appalling. Exactly because we know that the brutality of the persecution is far more severe than what we have learned, it is imperative for us to conduct immediate investigations. We need to fully understand the depth and scale of the persecution in order to mobilize all the allegiances of righteousness in order to stop this ongoing tragedy.

Then what did I mean when I said we shouldn't limit ourselves within the scope of law and thus hinder our progress in truth-clarification? According to current laws, "heads of state who have committed crimes of genocide are not afforded Head-of-State Immunity." The United States government doesn't fully understand the serious level of the persecution, so it has treated Jiang Zemin as the counterpart of an American President and blocked the lawsuit on a technical basis. However, it is what people think of the case that determines the interpretation of the law. If we had truly explained to people the inspirations that came from Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, we would have propelled the lawsuit forward smoothly. It is unfortunate that we have not been able to clarify the truth to this extent.

Working on the legal terms is not the fundamental solution. What we need to do is fully utilize the wisdom and compassion Teacher has bestowed upon us, clarify the truth to the fullest, and spread the truth to every corner in the world. Currently, not everyone recognizes the persecution as "genocide," so some countries have not allowed us to file a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin with the charge of genocide. When they truly understand the nature of the persecution, they will position themselves correctly. After all, in a country that honors human rights such as the United States, they will not choose economic benefits over conscience.

Should we abandon justice when the evil appears to be rampant and unstoppable? The most important part in the Declaration of Independence emphasizes that all men are born equal and that dignity is the foundation of being a human. Perhaps we should co-author the "Declaration of Conscience" with everyday people in order to emphasize that it is conscience and morality that differentiates men from animals.

Here we introduce "crimes against conscience" and "genocide of conscience" for your reference. Please also note that "genocide of conscience" is far from describing all the crimes Jiang Zemin has committed.

The persecution of Falun Gong is not an isolated incident. Because of the persecution against Falun Gong, 50 years of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution against the Chinese people has finally received some attention. Falun Gong practitioners follow their conscience and reveal the truth about the persecution to the public. The persecution against Falun Gong is the same as the persecution against the Chinese people which has been going on for the last 50 years; therefore, all people should try to clarify the truth about the persecution. They would be clarifying the truth not only for Falun Gong, but also for themselves.

We can start by exposing Jiang Zemin's crimes layer by layer all the way up to the core of his crimes. We need to help people see the nature of the persecution, expose each case of persecution and show sympathy to the victims. When people realize that the history of the Chinese Communist Party is literally the history of persecution against conscience, it will be easier for them to see the foundation of Jiang Zemin's personal determination in persecuting Falun Gong. Because Falun Gong is capable of restoring the human conscience, the very target of Jiang Zemin's persecution, Jiang Zemin felt he that he had to launch the persecution to wipe out this chance for the Chinese people to restore their conscience.

We can gather the support of legal professionals and people in various arenas, and inspire them to help with the lawsuit in a more profound way. We can clarify the truth to the United Nations and other important organizations in the world as individuals or as groups. We can spread the truth far and wide by organizing meaningful academic and moral discussions. We can clarify the truth in many different ways, such as public rallies, forums, keynote speeches, academic seminars, lawsuits, hearings, parades, press conferences, mock trials, submitting articles to the media, publishing theses, online mock trials, attending professional conferences, and so on. We should gather people to the side of truth and justice, clarify the truth around the world, and encourage people to act against this evil persecution in order to position themselves correctly once they become aware of the truth.

Posting date: 12/10/2003
Original article date: 12/9/2003
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 11/27/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/24/61152.html

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