Video: FGM TV News - 02/11/2003

Script:

Hello, and welcome to the FGMtv weekly news review on February 11, 2003.

I'm Susan Mitchell.

In this week's update from China...

• 571 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have died from torture while in custody, with 2 death reports received in the last week. Reliable sources inside China, however, put the actual death count in the thousands.
• In the last 7 days, torture reports have come in from 12 provinces, and the city of Chongqing.
• 365 people declared as null and void, statements saying they will give up Falun Gong that were made while undergoing torture as they were the result of extreme coercion. They say they will continue practicing Falun Gong.

Our top story this week:

• Worldwide efforts to secure the release of Dr. Charles Li, a U.S. citizen and Falun Gong practitioner who has been imprisoned in China

And some of our other stories:

• A San Diego Falun Gong practitioner speaks to City Council after Mayor blocks resolution to urge sister city of Yantai, China to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners there
• Australian Nancy Chen returns to Sydney after being illegally detained in China for eight days
• Dafa practitioners in Indonesia receive an award after introducing the exercises and practice at a National Sports Day
• Accounts of savage torture in Chinese labor camps continue to pour in
• Chinese aeronautics engineer gains early release from labor camp through international rescue efforts
• People around the world are responding to China's arrest of American citizen Dr. Charles Li.
• Chinese police arrested Dr. Li, a resident of Menlo California, at Guangzhou airport on January 22, 2003.
• At a press conference, Zhang Qiyue, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave an explanation for the arrest saying, "I think this person that you are talking about (Charles Li) may be involved in tapping into a cable T.V. network, destroying public facilities and interfering with Chinese people's normal life. As for the details of this case, I think I do not have them."
• Dr. Li, who could be sentenced up to fifteen years in prison, vehemently denied all charges when meeting with the U.S. consular official, who is allowed only 30 minutes per month to visit him. He said he believes that he is being treated as a political prisoner because he practices Falun Gong.
• Senator Diane Feinstein of California wrote letters to the Governor of Jiangsu Province and to the Director of the Jiangsu Public Security Bureau, where Dr. Li is imprisoned. She requested that Dr. Li be accorded all rights under the laws of China, under China's Consular Convention with the United States, and under international law.
• Dr. Li's representative, Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo is inviting all members of Congress to jointly sign a letter to Chinese Ambassador, Mr. Yang Jiechi, to request that the Chinese government release Dr. Li immediately.
• Ms. Yeong-Ching Foo, Dr. Li's fiancée, a software engineer, and graduate of California University, said that Charles went back to China to visit his family and relatives. He operates an Import/Export Company dealing with traditional Chinese medicine in China. Ms. Foo has travelled to Washington DC seeking Congressional help to rescue him.
• Falun Gong practitioners from Houston, Texas, held a rally at noon on February 4^th in front of the Houston Chinese Consulate. They strongly requested that the Jiang Zemin regime immediately release Dr. Li so that he could return to the United States as soon as possible.
• Dr. Li's imprisonment has been broadcast in newscasts in the USA, Canada and Australia
• Clarifying the truth of the Falun Gong persecution to San Diego City Council
• The Mayor of San Diego recently blocked a resolution by a city council member asking that San Diego's sister city Yantai, in Shandong Province, stop violating the rights of its citizens, by refusing to put the resolution on the agenda. Here is one practitioner's speech to the San Diego City Council addressing this refusal.

Australian citizen detained in China is released.

• Nancy Chen, an Australian Falun Gong practitioner, and her six-year-old daughter arrived home in Sydney, Australia at 8:15a.m. on February 3, 2003 after being released from one week's detention in Chengdu City of Sichuan Province in China.
• Later that morning, Ms. Chen gave a speech at a press conference outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. She expressed her heartfelt thanks to those who worked so hard to secure her release, especially the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Embassy in Beijing, Western and Chinese media, the "Nancy Chen Urgent Rescue Team" and other organizations and kind-hearted people around the world.
• During her eight-day ordeal, Ms. Chen was held incommunicado in two different hotels where she was constantly interrogated and pressured to give up her belief in Falun Gong.
• Authorities also took her to see Falun Gong practitioners being tortured at the Nanmusi Female Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong City, Sichuan Province. Ms. Chen said that more than 500 female Falun Gong practitioners, most of whom are over 50 years old, are illegally detained there in horrendous conditions.
• Falun Gong practitioners are presently suing the Sing Tao newspaper in Toronto for printing Chinese government propaganda in their newspaper. Joe Wang recently met with one of the plaintiffs.

Torture continues at Labor Camps throughout China

• The Jiang regime calls this a golden age of human rights in China, but accounts of the torture of innocent people are sent daily to Minghui Net, the official Chinese-language Falun Dafa Web site.
• This week, a mother told some of the things seen by her daughter, who had been illegally detained at the Masanjia Labor Camp.
• In one part of the account, she said, "Both of the practitioner's hands are cuffed over the head, attached to window bars, with only toes touching the ground. Some practitioners have been hung in this position and deprived of sleep continuously for 2 weeks."
• Dafa Practitioners Demonstrate Falun Gong Exercises at National Sports Day in North Sumatra and Receive an Award
• Practitioners in Indonesia were invited by the head of the Youth and Sports Department to participate in the National Sports Day to be held in Lapangan Merdeka in North Sumatra.
• More than 1,000 people watched the exhibition of the exercises and introduction to the practice of Falun Dafa.
• Afterwards, the head of the Youth and Sports Department presented the practitioners with an award recognizing with "Highest Praise" the contribution of Falun Dafa to society.

Falun Gong Family Rescue Effort Succeeds in Gaining Early Release for Aeronautics Scientist Ms. Yang Yueli

• Mr. Zhendong Yang, a Toronto resident and Falun Gong practitioner, has sought the release of his mother, Ms. Yang Yueli, from illegal detention in a Beijing Forced Labour Camp, and he has recently succeeded.
• On February 6, 2003, she was released four months ahead of her term. However she still remains under surveillance.
• His mother, is a former senior engineer from China's Aeronautics Ministry who was involved in the launch of China's first satellite, and who had been recognized for her outstanding contribution in the launch of the "Long March 3" rocket.
• FGMtv spoke with Mr. Yang.

(Televised interview)

Mysteries of the Universe... on film!

The shorter and often very gray days of winter are here in Canada, and many of us long for something more colorful. This image, looking rather like a giant taiji, is actually our world hurtling through space! It was taken by the Cosmic Background Explorere satellite, which was developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It measures the diffuse infrared and microwave radiation from the early universe.

Thanks for watching the FGMtv weekly news review. See you next week!

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