(Clearwisdom.net)

February 13, 2003, Falun Dafa Information Center --- Husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons are missing, are arrested, tortured, and even are tortured to death. Families are broken up. On the other side of the world, countless families are living in this kind of grief every day, simply because their family members practice Falun Gong.

Over the past more than three years, it is well known that Falun Gong has encountered cruel persecution in China. While overseas Falun Gong practitioners' persist in their peaceful appeals, more and more people and governments are moved to help them and to protect the freedom of belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Since July 2002, the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners has been formed in 16 countries and areas. The rescue activities gained great support from many human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, and from many governments and non-governmental organizations as well as kind-hearted people from different countries. Several dozen Falun Gong practitioners who had suffered persecution in China have been successfully rescued to Europe, Australia and North America. They regained their freedom.

According to Mr. He Haiying, the spokesperson of the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners in China, among the 20 persecution cases of Australian residents' family members, four practitioners have been successfully rescued and one is now taking medical treatment under bail. A recent successful rescue case was the release of practitioner Mr. Chen Ruichang on January 15. Mr. Chen was the former deputy chief of the Editor-in-Chief's office at Guangdong Province Television Station.

In Canada, among 24 persecution cases, 9 practitioners have been successfully rescued and 4 of them came to live in Canada. The most recent success story was the release of Ms. Yang Yueli, a retired senior engineer from China's Aeronautics Ministry, who had participated in the research and launch of China's first satellite. Ms. Yang Yueli, mother of Mr. Yang Zhendong, a Toronto resident, was released on February 6, 2003, four months ahead of her term.

Among 37 cases in the United States, one was successfully rescued. The current rescue effort is focused on US citizen and medical doctor, Mr. Charles Li. On January 22, 2003, Charles flew from San Francisco and arrived at Guangzhou airport, where he was immediately arrested by Chinese security personnel and has been wrongfully imprisoned up to the present.

Rescue effort feedback from Asia, Europe and other areas shows that overseas voices of justice and international consensus exert great pressure on the Chinese authorities, which allow many jailed Falun Gong practitioners to have their living conditions improved. Some are now allowed to be visited by their families. Some have the intensity of their forced labor reduced.

Although the effect of the rescue effort has been good, Mr. He Haiying expressed, the entire rescue work has just begun and there is much more to do. Only a tiny number of practitioners have been rescued. In fact, in China, a few hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners are currently suffering brutal torture in forced labor camps, psychiatric hospitals and jails. At least 572 and possibly as many as several thousand practitioners have been murdered.

Mr. He Haiying said, this is a tragedy in the human world that should not have happened. Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted is simply because of their peaceful self-improvement cultivation, which the Jiang regime considers a threat to its power. We hope that our rescue efforts will bring the light of hope to those who are living in this perilous situation.

It is reported that a database regarding family rescue has been constructed. For details, please go to: http://www.foflg.net/rescue.

Among Falun Gong practitioners who are suffering from persecution, there is a special group of people, people in the intellectual circle. According to information provided by the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is very serious in academic institutes such as Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Jiao Tong University. A good number of faculty members, students, masters and Ph.D degree holders, professors and alumni are suffering severe torture and persecution. Some of them have been tortured to death.

Students and faculty members from Tsinghua University doing group practice in the morning in Tsinghua campus.

Global Mission to Rescue Tsinghua Falun Gong practitioners took the lead and started on January 31, 2003. According to incomplete statistics, up to now, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at Tsinghua University has resulted in one death, at least 18 people unlawfully sentenced to jails, at least 18 imprisoned in forced labor camps, countless students, faculty members and staff expelled from the university, detained or subjected to brainwashing, and some even forced to leave home to avoid being arrested. Typical cases include:

In March 2000, Mr. Zhang Mengye, instructor from Guangdong Electric Power University and classmate of President Hu Jintao, was sent to a forced labor camp.

From May 2000 to March 2002, Mr. Zhao Ming, a graduate from Computer Science Department of Tsinghua was imprisoned in a forced labor camp and suffered all kinds of tortures when he went back to China from Ireland to visit his family and appealed for Falun Gong.

In November 2001, Tsinghua alumnus, Mr. Yuan Jiang, 29 years old, former deputy general manager of Information and Technology Company affiliated with Lanzhou Municipal Telecommunication Bureau in Gansu Province, was brutally tortured to death.

For details, please visit: http://www.rescuetsinghua.org

Efforts to rescue Jiao Tong University Falun Gong practitioners followed. The global rescue mission has called upon insiders from both Mainland China and overseas to help collect detailed information regarding the persecution that Jiang Tong University alumni have encountered, so as to bring about rescue. The rescue mission has started to investigate the detailed persecution facts and corresponding evidence of members of the 610 Office in Jiao Tong University, leaders of different levels, personnel of the public security department, staff members in charge of political and ideological education in each department as well as others who are involved in the persecution. Once verified, they would be posted on the list of evil people on the Net of Justice website for further investigation. Alumni from Shanghai, Xian and Taiwan Tsinchu Jiao Tong Universities are cooperating to help with the rescue.

For more information, please visit: http://www.rescuejiaoda.org/home.html

The global rescue mission also revealed that activities to rescue Fudan University Falun Gong practitioners will be announced in a few weeks.

The Global Rescue Mission called on all students and faculty members in all universities in China to reach out helping hands to help with the rescue, because voices of justice from alumni in both China and from overseas are needed to eliminate the persecution.

Over the past two months, one important activity of the Global Mission was to send New Year's Greeting cards to China.

Greeting card: Blessing from afar

Through sending greeting cards to jailed Falun Gong practitioners in China, we would like to tell the persecuted fellow practitioners that they are not alone. The details about the persecution they have encountered as well as information of the persecutors have been posted on internet. We would like to tell them that all kind-hearted people throughout the world will not tolerate the unjustifiable persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. We want to let our fellow practitioners know that the rescue effort will go into action more extensively, until all imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners gain their freedom.

We also sent cards to the police officers in forced labor camps and prisons who are directly involved in persecuting practitioners. We want to tell them that the names, address and phone numbers of all who have done evil deeds are recorded and can be seen by the entire world. We want to let them know that no persecution of Falun Gong practitioners should have existed. We would like to tell them that the guilty can never escape Heaven's justice. Those who participate in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners will eventually pay the consequences no matter where they are.

A Falun Gong practitioner from the US sent a greeting card to an imprisoned practitioner in the northeast part of China. Because this card was mailed from the US, the prison guards felt very shocked. They could not imagine that the entire world knew what they have done.

The urgent rescue mission is now unfolding throughout the world.

The Canadian government and people are paying a lot of attention to this campaign. The Canadian Foreign Minister wrote a letter and expressed the Canadian government's concern over the jailed family members of its citizens and permanent residents. Newspapers, radio and TV stations also conducted series reports on the rescue effort: "Rescue Our Family Members and Get Them Home" car parade went through all major, mid-size, and small cities. Practitioners visited city mayors, council members, and parliament members, who were deeply touched and expressed their support in helping the rescue. Kind-hearted people also went to the streets, or went into subway stations, holding in their hands the incarcerated family members' photos. They appealed for the public to support their efforts by signing the petition. Tens of thousands of signed cards supporting the rescue mission were mailed to the Canadian Prime Minister's office and other Parliament Members' offices. On October 24, 2002, the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed a resolution regarding rescuing the jailed family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

On January 22, 2003, ten Congressmen from New Jersey jointly wrote a letter to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell to urge the US government to call on the Chinese government to immediately release the 37 jailed Falun Gong practitioners who have relatives in the United States.

On January 31, 2003, at a press conference regarding rescuing imprisoned family members of Australian Falun Gong practitioners, Australian member of Parliament, Mr. Cameron Thompson said, "In Australia, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is a noble and lofty belief and should be recognized by everyone. Your actively introducing these principles is highly welcomed in Australia and the entire world should welcome you to do so. The Australian people are astonished to learn that Chinese people are imprisoned and tortured because they believe in and spread these principles."

City Council member Mr. Bailey expressed his deep sympathy towards those Falun Gong practitioners in Australia who have family members in China enduring the brutal persecution. He said, "My heart is filled with sympathy for Australian Falun Gong practitioners' family members and all practitioners who are imprisoned, murdered and persecuted in China. The Chinese government does not accept the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance; instead, it rejects and persecutes the people who follow these principles. It is really a pity!"

An Australian Senator from the Green Party said, "I wish you the greatest success in your effort to strive for justice!"