Falun Dafa Association of Canada

(Clearwisdom.net)

Yuzhi Wang and her family are among millions of people who are suffering the brutality and injustice of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The large-scale, systematic, and horrific persecution and killing of mainstream and innocent ordinary citizens have persisted for almost four years. It must stop. To restore justice to society, we are launching lawsuits against the former president of China, Jiang Zemin, and others in his group for genocide and crimes against humanity.

During Jiang's visit to the United States last year, Falun Gong practitioners and their families filed a lawsuit in the Northern District Court of Illinois against Jiang and China's "610 Office", the institution responsible for carrying out the campaign of terror to eradicate Falun Gong, for torture, genocide and other crimes against humanity. The case has been active since being accepted by the court.

As defined by the Convention Against Genocide, "genocide includes, but is not limited to, the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group's conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." No one, including heads of state, is exempt from the law if he has committed those acts that constitute genocide.

On March 18, Philip Grand, president of Switzerland-based international NGO Track Impunity Always and legal counsel representing Falun Gong practitioners and the Swiss Falun Dafa Association, made a joint announcement with the practitioners and the Association that they will file a lawsuit in Switzerland against the former president of China, Jiang Zemin, for torture, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. Jiang will face formal legal litigation if he enters Switzerland.

Track Impunity Always, together with reputable human rights attorneys worldwide, will cooperate with Falun Dafa Associations around the world to form a coalition to indict Jiang Zemin. Their aim is to tighten the net of justice around Jiang and to deliver justice to the victims.

On October 21, citizens and residents from Canada, the U.S., France, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong and China jointly submitted a legal case against Jiang Zemin and two other top Chinese officials to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in instigating and carrying out the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime adopted a nationwide policy of "defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically" against practitioners of Falun Gong. Jiang and the "610 Office" systematically make use of the state-controlled media, including TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers, to create widespread and relentless defamation against Falun Gong. Through methods such as imposing large fines, withholding pensions, and dismissing workers from their jobs, governmental entities deprive people of their economic means of living. Implication is used to intimidate people to "express their opinion" on Falun Gong and to participate in the persecution. The large-scale propaganda campaign to instigate fear of and hatred against Falun Gong both in and outside of China has relentlessly persisted for over three and a half years. During this time, internal policies such as "no law regulates the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners" and "death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide; the body shall be directly cremated" have become common knowledge among the police departments and the legal systems and related governmental agencies in China. To eradicate the practice of Falun Gong and to eliminate Falun Gong practitioners as a group from society, Jiang's regime has used iron-fisted dictatorial tactics to force the Party, political and military bodies, the police, government enterprises, the media, schools, research institutions, street committees, and even foreign investment companies to cooperate with the persecution. Countless families have been torn apart, practitioners have been forced to leave their homes to avoid arrest, and many have been illegally sent to detention centers, mental hospitals, prisons, and forced labour camps where they suffer physical and mental torture, are forced to perform heavy labour, and live under abominable living conditions.

The Jiang regime is using all conceivable methods to force the practitioners to give up their belief in Falun Gong. They have emphasized "reforming" Falun Gong practitioners' minds, sending the most determined practitioners to brainwashing classes. The purpose of this so-called "reform" is to destroy the belief itself.

Brutal tortures enacted by the police that are often seen in the persecution reports include subjecting Falun Gong practitioners to electric shocks, the "Tiger Bench*," water dungeons, long-term sleep deprivation, branding and burning, exposure to harsh conditions such as extreme heat and cold, heavy physical labor, hammering bamboo splinters into practitioners' fingers, physical abuse of the practitioners' private areas, forced abortions, hanging practitioners up for long periods of time, throwing practitioners into cages and other forms of torture. Furthermore, the Jiang regime has sent large numbers of perfectly healthy practitioners to mental hospitals, injecting them with mind-altering drugs and causing severe psychological damage. Many of these tortures were used on women, the elderly and juveniles.

In so doing, the Jiang regime has exhausted huge resources in terms of money and manpower. As reported by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, one quarter of China's financial resources has been used to persecute Falun Gong.

Jiang's regime spares no means to strictly block information both inside and outside of China. The regime's current cover-up of the SARS outbreak is another example of the problem. While doing everything possible to keep information about the persecution from being exposed, the regime puts up a facade to deceive the world about China's human rights situation. The regime has intensified its efforts to discredit, arrest, torture, and imprison those Falun Gong practitioners who have courageously exposed and publicized the truth about the persecution.

It is time to bring the world's attention to the crimes and atrocities committed by Jiang's communist regime. We hope people everywhere will awaken to the truth behind the cover up and stand up for justice.

Posting date: 4/19/2003
Original article date: 4/19/2003
Category: News & Media Reports

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