Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY): Standing Up for Freedom--[Congressman] Walsh supports effort to protect Falun Gong in China

Sara Weisman Manlius

July 10, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net)

To the Editor:

I am writing to tell the true story of the struggle for human rights that our Rep. Jim Walsh has courageously supported.

I am a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Gong is a practice of meditation and exercises, with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, and was made public in 1992 by Nobel candidate Mr. Li Hongzhi.

Falun Gong quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in more than 50 countries. Although initially favored by the Chinese government, as Falun Gong began to touch the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party, a fearful former President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, the Communist regime intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice, while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it.

Outside China, the Communists also continue to slander Falun Gong, just as that government lied about and tried to cover up SARS. For example, last June, former president [Jiang] visited Iceland. Scores of practitioners who are U.S. citizens attempted to go to Iceland to clarify the truth. However, many of them were denied visas because they were on a watch list prepared and circulated by [Jiang's] regime to force other countries to bar practitioners from entering those countries while he visited.

The U.S. Department of State complained to Iceland after U.S. citizens who actually landed in Iceland were forcibly detained until [Jiang] left the country.

In October 2002, while visiting Chicago, [Jiang] was served with a lawsuit alleging that he perpetrated genocide and crimes against humanity because of his regime's brutal suppression of Falun Gong. Spearheaded by Congressman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., more than three dozen members of Congress signed a friend of the court brief suggesting that "the lawsuit was filed not to embarrass China, but to persuade the defendants to end their persecution of Falun Gong."

Mr. Walsh was one of the representatives who signed the brief. He also has assisted in trying to free Dr. Charles Li, a U.S. citizen arrested while visiting his parents in China on bogus charges, and who was convicted without the assistance of counsel and sentenced to three years. The congressman and his staff, especially Legislative Assistant Kristin Calabrese, have been truly supportive in the campaign to stop human rights violations, and I wish to thank them publicly.

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