Chinese police seized Zhao Meiyu at her home, confiscated her letter to the
US Court filing a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, and imprisoned her in a labor
camp
In response to the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the former head of China, on
charges of genocide against Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese Security
Bureau established a nationwide "Special Felony Investigation Network"
to investigate and eliminate all activities involving the development of the
lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Throughout China, the "Special Felony
Investigation Network" treats all probable plaintiffs and those who seek
justice in the lawsuit as felons. It spies, monitors, controls, and arrests all
probable Chinese plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit against Jiang. In fact,
recently the organization allegedly already arrested people suspected of being
plaintiffs or assisting in the collection of evidence of persecution against
Falun Gong practitioners. In mid-May, an American resident's younger sister Zhao
Meiyu was suddenly taken from home, as she is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Ms. Zhao Langxiang is a Chinese American resident in Maryland. This year she
called her younger sister Zhao Meiyu in China and told her that the US District
Court is now processing the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Being a torture victim,
who survived being detained in a forced labor camp run by the "610
Office"* for one and half years, Ms. Zhao Meiyu decided to become a
plaintiff in the lawsuit against Jiang. One day in mid-May, the police of Zhao
Meiyu's hometown Huizhou, Guangdong Province traveled over 100 miles to the city
of Shenzhen to ransack her home. They confiscated her draft of charges against
Jiang and took her away to the Huizhou police station. While ransacking the
home, the local policemen from Huizhou, a mid-size town near Shenzhen, showed a
search warrant issued by the Chinese Customs Headquarters. At first, Ms. Zhao
Langxiang could not understand why a high-level jurisdiction unit such as the
Chinese Customs Headquarter would go through the trouble of issuing the police
station in a city like Huizhou a search warrant, until she recalled her recent
conversations with her sister on the sensitive topic of the lawsuit against
Jiang. That must have triggered the alarm and alerted top-level management of
the Chinese Security Bureau.
Ms. Zhao Langxiang said, "Zhao Meiyu is my youngest sister. She has been
practicing Falun Gong since 1998. She is now 25 years old. She lived with one of
my brothers in Shenzhen before the police took her away. One day in mid-May...I
don't know which day because my family is afraid to talk about her case over the
phone...a group of Chinese policemen broke into my brother's home, took all the
valuables and a draft of charges against Jiang, and then kidnapped her. She has
not come back since."
According to Ms. Zhao Langxiang, her sister Zhao Meiyu visited the National
Appeals Bureau in Beijing to explain the facts about Falun Gong in December 1999
and January of 2000, but on both occasions the National Appeal Bureau called the
police in Huizhou to take her immediately to jail. In 1999 Meiyu was locked up
for 15 days before her family paid 10,000 Yuan for her release. In 2000 Meiyu
was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor at the Sanshui Women's
Forced Labor Camp in Guangdong Province. Ms. Zhao Langxiang added, "My
sister was made to perform forced labor in jail for long hours until May 2002,
simply because she chooses to practice Falun Gong. She has lost her job and her
home."
Ms. Zhao Langxiang recalled her sister's days at the forced labor camp:
"When Meiyu was at Sanshui, she experienced all kinds of torture. To make
her renounce Falun Gong, the '610 Office' would hold her in a narrow solitary
confinement with no light, like the one shown in the movie Green Mile
except in horrific sanitary condition. When she was not confined in solitary
confinement, my sister was forced to perform hard labor for 12 hours a
day." Therefore, Ms. Zhao Langxiang felt very encouraged when she heard
that American Falun Gong practitioners had filed a lawsuit in Chicago against
Jiang. Langxiang telephoned her newly released sister immediately to share the
good news. The two sisters discussed over the phone about reporting Meiyu's
story to bring Jiang to justice. Ms. Zhao Langxiang recalled their conversations
that might have been subject to scrutiny by the Chinese intelligence: "In
January I started to suspect that my calls to my sister might be
monitored."
Subsequent developments confirmed her suspicion. After May 20, Ms. Zhao
Langxiang could no longer reach her sister. She became increasingly worried.
Finally Langxiang's family in China reluctantly admitted to Langxiang that the
police had arrested Meiyu several days ago. The police suddenly broke into her
brother's home in Shenzhen, and they searched everywhere for the draft of the
lawsuit against Jiang that Meiyu had planned to send to the United States. The
police also took away many valuables, and the family was terrified. They are
afraid of calling the police station, much less demand the return of Meiyu.
Naturally they are now afraid of discussing Meiyu's case over the phone with
Langxiang, worried about police reprisals. Ms. Zhao Langxiang explained,
"My family is overcome with fear. They are very nervous and afraid of
talking about my sister. The police has declared this a 'major case.'"
The Chinese regime is allegedly trying to prevent at all costs the
continuance of the lawsuit against Jiang. They are under orders to arrests all
probable plaintiffs in the case, as well as everyone who helped collecting the
evidence for the proceedings against Jiang. According to a Washington DC federal
government official, the Chinese government has contacted the US government more
frequently than ever through diplomatic, military and economic channels,
demanding the US court to stop proceedings under the "head of state
immunity" clause. All signs point to Jiang Zemin sparing no expense or
national resources in attempting to stop the lawsuit against him.
On April 14, 2003, the plaintiffs' attorney, Terri Marsh, delivered documents
citing evidence of crimes by defendant Jiang and the "610 Office", and
other evidence required under legal procedures. The U.S. Justice Department,
representing the U.S. government, which has received diplomatic pressure from
Jiang, delivered by the May 8 deadline, as ordered by the judge, documents that
support the government's viewpoint to the court. About four to six weeks after
May 8th, the judge will decide whether the case has probable cause to
either proceed or be dismissed. His decision will be based on the documents
provided by the plaintiff's attorney and U.S. government officials.
Terri Marsh, a human rights attorney from Washington DC, said, "In
today's international community, crimes committed in a region or a country that
are against humanity will meet the opposition of the world's people. After WWII,
Nazi war criminals were tried in Nuremberg, and many Nazis who participated in
the persecution of Jews were pursued and tried since that time. After genocide
took place in Rwanda, the United Nations established a court to try those
responsible for the atrocities. Jiang's good friend, the former leader of
Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, is currently being tried in that same court. In
China, the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to give up
Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is taking place, and it is the world's
responsibility to put Jiang on trial."
Terri Marsh also reminded us of the founding principles of the United States
as declared in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness." She emphasized that the United States' global
mission has always been safeguarding the spirit of this Declaration of
Independence. She continued that the United States is now given the chance to
uphold its fundamental principles in the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in the
Chicago courtroom.
*The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong,
with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other
political or judicial systems.
Fearing the genocide lawsuit, Jiang Zemin has sent diplomats
to the United States, ordered a "Special Felony Investigation Network"
and imprisoned probable plaintiffs in Chinese jails
Posting date: 5/30/2003
Original article date: 5/29/2003
Category: News & Media Reports
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/5/29/51206.html