Jiang Regime's Use of Psychiatric Hospitals to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners Draws Attention at International Meeting of Psychiatrists (Photo)

(Clearwisdom.net May 24, 2003) During the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2003 Annual Meeting, Mr. Robin J. Munro's speech regarding the Jiang regime's abuse of psychiatry to conduct political persecution against Falun Gong practitioners and dissidents drew serious attention from psychiatrists in attendance from all over the world.

On May 19, 2003, Mr. Robin J. Munro won the Patient Advocacy Award at the 2003 APA annual meeting for his research on China's abuses of psychiatry to carry out political persecution of dissidents.

Currently, Robin J. Munro is doing research at the University of London in England on the legal problems associated with psychiatric treatments. He has spent several years investigating China's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and dissidents through the abuse of psychiatry. He authored several books on this special topic, including one entitled, "Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and Its Origins in the Mao Era".

Mr. Munro came to San Francisco to attend the 2003 APA Annual Meeting (the 156^th annual meeting) and spoke on China's abusive policy to psychiatrists from all over the world, who attached great importance to the content of his speech. Afterwards, attendees enthusiastically discussed the issue and brought forward many suggestions about how to stop China from using psychiatry as a means of political persecution.

During an interview, Mr. Munro said, "The political use of psychiatry in China to persecute dissidents was prevalent during the Cultural Revolution. The abuses evidently subsided from the 1980s to 1990s. At the end of 1990s, however, just when I was about to close my research, the suppression of Falun Gong suddenly began in 1999. Many reports provide evidence that detained Falun Gong practitioners are forcibly locked in mental hospitals. They are obviously mentally healthy but are forced to receive psychiatric treatments and are mistreated or beaten. None of this is treatment; it is persecution. It is very clear that over the past nearly three years, there have been a few hundred of these kinds of cases, each of which has reliable evidence. This so-called 'treatment' actually tends to imperil, threaten and force Falun Gong practitioners to write 'guarantee' letters to give up their practice. Once they write this kind of statement under threats and pressure, they will be immediately released. From the medical science point of view, this has no standing at all, for if they indeed suffered from psychosis, how would it be possible for them to be cured simply by signing a piece of paper? This, on the other hand, allows us to clearly see through the nature of what actually has happened. Today, in China's psychiatric hospitals, most of these kinds of cases involve Falun Gong practitioners."

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