(Clearwisdom.net) On February 22, 2003, a forum entitled Community Reports on Human Rights in China was held
in Vancouver. The forum was hosted by Friends of Falun Gong (B.C). Amnesty International Vancouver
Branch attended the forum at invitation and delivered a speech on the current situation of Human
Rights in China. The speech emphasized the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the
past three years. Three Falun Gong practitioners gave speeches at the forum. During the forum, Mr. Dan Wright, representative of Amnesty International, first introduced
evidence of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners over the past three years. This
evidence was gathered by Amnesty International during the course of its own investigations. He said
that death cases of Falun Gong practitioners are reported almost daily, and that practitioners are
tortured to death simply because they refuse to give up their belief in "Truth Compassion and
Tolerance." The Chinese government also mobilizes its entire propaganda machine against Falun
Gong. Mr. Wright pointed out that freedom of belief is a fundamental human right. The Chinese
government's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners constitutes infringement of human rights and
seriously violates international conventions and China's constitution. Member of Friends of Falun Gong (B.C) and Former director of British Columbia Human Rights
Committee, Ms. Mary Woo showed a movie Terror in China to attendees. The movie disclosed how
Jiang Zemin rose up the ranks to Party Secretary by controlling the media in Shanghai during the
Chinese government's suppression of the student democracy movement in 1989. In 1999, Jiang used the
same tactics to control media, flooding the country with fabrications and slander when he started
the persecution of Falun Gong. The movie that was shown demonstrated the police brutality in beating
and arresting Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealing on Tiananmen Square. With graphical
representation, the movie demonstrated all kinds of torture methods forced labor camps have been
using on Falun Gong practitioners. Through comparison, the movie exposed the Jiang regime's brutal
suppression. Ms. Wu said that the Chinese government's propaganda against Falun Gong is not limited to China,
but has already developed into an international propaganda campaign. It massively disseminates
misinformation about Falun Gong around the world and attempts to mislead the public. Falun Gong practitioners Wang Yuzhi, Zhang Tianxiao and Sophia Bronwen gave speeches at the forum
on the persecution they or their family members have experienced. Wang Yuzhi said in her speech that
the she had personally experienced torture when she was detained in a Chinese jail. The audience was
astonished to hear the torture, including forced feeding, that Wang Yuzhi suffered in Wanjia Force
Labor Camp because she went on hunger strike to demand her unconditional release. Human rights expert Mrs. Sadie Kuehn emphasized at the seminar that each individual has the right
of freedom of belief. Her life has been appealing and fighting for human rights. She expressed her
deep sympathy to Falun Gong practitioners suffering in the persecution She appealed to the people in
attendance to write letters to the Canadian government, related government agencies and their MPs,
appealing to them to take more action to help rescue Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese prisons.
She also suggested that people send letters to the Chinese consulate demanding that the Chinese
government immediately stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, to release Wang Yuzhi's younger
brother, Zhang, Tian Xiao's younger sister and tens of thousands of detained Falun Gong
practitioners, and to appeal to the United Nations and to the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) to stop financial aid to China until it stops the persecution. The organizations and persons attending the forum had an open discussion on the brutal
persecution of Falun Gong practitioners launched by the Jiang regime. After the forum, many
attendees signed their names to join the Friends of Falun Gong (BC)
Mr. Dan Wright, representative of Amnesty
International, delivered a report on the current situation of Human Rights in China.
Falun Gong practitioners Wang Yuzhi telling the
persecution she suffered in Wanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp.
Posting date: 2/28/2003
Original article date: 2/27/2003
Category: Open Forum
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/2/25/45217.html