Press Conference Held At Canada's Parliament Hill Regarding the Lawsuit Against Jiang (Photos)

By practitioners from Ottawa, Canada

(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of April 14, 2003, Falun Gong practitioners in Canada held a press conference at Parliament Hill to inform the Canadian government and media about the lawsuit charging Jiang with genocide that was filed in U.S. District Court. They also appealed to rescue Falun Gong practitioners' family members who are suffering persecution in China. Canadian MP Scott Reid spoke at the press conference.

Falun Gong practitioner Cathy	MP Scott Reid	Falun Gong practitioner Wang Yuzhi

Falun Gong practitioner Cathy enumerated cases of unprecedented and inhuman persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China. She said, "Jiang, during his tenure as the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and the President of China, is the chief perpetrator of this cruel persecution suffered by millions of people." She stated in her speech, "This systematic and massive persecution and the killing of large numbers of kind people has lasted for nearly four years. It must be stopped. Our lawsuit against the former Chinese president Jiang and his regime for their crimes is to uphold justice. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been suffering from persecution, we must have Jiang charged with the crimes he has committed against Falun Gong practitioners."

In October 2002, when Jiang visited the United States, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against Jiang in a US district court on the charge of genocide. The federal court has accepted this case and the legal procedures are in progress.

Cathy said, "On March 18, a Switzerland-based international organization, 'Track Impunity Always' and Swiss Falun Dafa Association announced in Geneva that they would file a lawsuit against Jiang. The three major charges are torture, crimes against humanity and genocide."

"In addition to the legal procedures taking place in Switzerland, the 'Track Impunity Always' organization will coordinate with Falun Dafa Associations across the world and ally with renowned human rights attorneys to form a coalition that will work together to bring Jiang to justice."

On October 21, 2002, citizens from Canada, the United States, France, Australia, Ireland and China jointly delivered documents citing evidence of crimes committed by Jiang and two other Chinese high-ranking officials who started and carried out the persecution against Falun Gong to the World Organization Against Torture, United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.

Lawsuits were filed against several other high-ranking officials, including Li Lanqing, the head of the 610 Office, an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, Liu Qi, the Mayor of Beijing, and Zhao Zhifei, head of Public Security for Hubei Province, when they went abroad to visit other countries. At the end of 2001, the United States Court in New York entered a default judgment against Zhao Zhifei and charged him with wrongful death, torture, false imprisonment, crimes against humanity and other violations carried out against Falun Gong practitioners.

At the press conference, Ms. Wang Yuzhi delivered a clear message, "Retaliation and threat will not keep me from exposing the persecution". She related the persecution she had suffered when she was imprisoned in a forced labor camp in China. She also recounted the persecution her three non-practitioner relatives endured after she exposed the facts of suppression to the international community. Ms. Wang said, "In December 2002, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit in France against the head of the 610 Office, Li Lanqing. I was one of the plaintiffs. On January 17, 2003, my younger brother, who is not a practitioner, was illegally abducted and his whereabouts still remain unknown."

Ms. Wang Yuzhi said, "On March 18, this year, during the convention of the United Nations Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, I continued to expose the persecution, and I was a witness in the lawsuit against Jiang, the one most responsible for persecuting Falun Gong. On March 19, my younger sister Wang Yuxiang and elder sister, Wang Chunyu, both non-practitioners, were simultaneously arrested."

MP Scott Reid said in his speech, "I have to say that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has reached a new extreme. Previously we only knew that in this persecution, Falun Gong practitioners were attacked, persecuted, illegally arrested, and imprisoned without trial. Now, we've found that Falun Gong practitioners' family members who do not practice Falun Gong were also unreasonably imprisoned. Obviously, the purpose is to threaten those people who left China to live abroad. Of course, this is completely wrong." In his speech, Mr. Reid called on the Chinese government to release Wang Yuzhi's family members.

A number of media, including the Canadian National TV Station, Multi-cultural TV station, and Central News Agency, attended the press conference.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/4/16/48472.html

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