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FDI: Lawsuit Against Jiang -- Western Media Pay Attention, Chinese Media Reaction Low-key
(Clearwisdom.net) August 24th report from Falun Dafa
Information Center August 22nd. Overseas Falun Gong practitioners in
several countries have recently charged Jiang Zemin with genocide. The latest of
these proceedings was a criminal suit filed against Jiang Zemin with prosecutors
in Belgium.
The media in Western countries have paid a great deal of attention to these
lawsuits, while some Chinese media remain low-key on these developments.
International media focus on the Belgian lawsuit
AFP reports: Renowned Belgian lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier who represents
those Falun Gong practitioners filing in Belgium said in a statement that the
plaintiffs accuse Jiang Zemin - who remains China's military head - of torture,
crimes against humanity and genocide. "Jiang's horrific form of genocide
... is a terror that does not only destroy lives, but destroys faith. It is a
terror that should not be allowed to exist in the modern world," said
Beauthier.
Belgium's largest French newspaper, Evening News, reported on August
21st that a new international lawsuit was delivered in Belgium. This
was a new challenge to the controversial "universal competence" law in
Belgium.
Evening News reported that plaintiffs include a Belgian, Matthias Slaats,
who was arrested and deported from China in February 2002 as part of the
persecution of Falun Gong; a Chinese woman who had lived in Belgium for six
years and was not allowed to stay in China because her name was on a blacklist,
and a woman from Australia whose husband was killed by representatives of the
Chinese government [for practicing Falun Gong ]. Other plaintiffs include
a man from Dublin, Ireland, an American resident and an Australian resident. If
the courts accept the lawsuit and the suit enters the preliminary hearing stage,
more people will join as plaintiffs as the case progresses.
British Reuters August 20th report: Australian citizen Ms.
Dai Zhizhen went to Belgium with her three-year-old daughter to charge Jiang
Zemin with her husband's murder. She said, "The last time my daughter saw
her father, she was only nine months old. What saddens me the most is when she
asks me where daddy is, I don't know how to answer her."
The report points out that lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier had brought the
first successful case under the human rights law, in which two Rwandan nuns were
sentenced to between 12 and 20 years for their part in the country's 1994
genocide.
Epoch Times journalists in France said, "the nature of this lawsuit
against Jiang in Belgium is not civil, it's criminal. In other words, if the
charges against Jiang stand, he will face prison and not merely financial or
nominal consequences."
CNN Report
The report quotes the words of the plaintiff's attorney, "If you lodge a
lawsuit and take on the responsibility and safety of so many people, it's
because my clients and I consider there is a great possibility the suit will be
accepted."
British Guardian August 21st report: lawyer Georges-Henri
Beauthier said he was confident the public prosecutor would not throw out the
case. He is expecting to hear in September if the case will proceed.
Hong Kong South China Morning Post reports that one of the plaintiffs
in this new case, 33-year-old Belgian computer programmer Matthias Slaats, said
that the suit would be brought under new legislation adopted by Belgian
lawmakers; the lawsuit fulfilled the required criteria.
Free Asia, VOA, BBC, Reuters, ABC (Australia), RTBF and other
media reported this piece of news. Many overseas newspapers reprinted news
articles by Reuters, AFP and other major media.
Numerous Lawsuits
Belgium Evening News reports: If the court accepts the lawsuit and
enters the preliminary hearing stage, more people will join as plaintiffs as the
case progresses. Similar action is also being taken in other countries. In
December 2002 in France, a lawsuit against Li Lanqing was filed when he passed
through the city of Nice. It seems this lawsuit received active response from
the Parisian prosecutor, but the Brussels lawsuit uses a different strategy. In
the US, the plaintiffs first considered a civil lawsuit and it seems they have
had some successful outcomes.
Besides the suit against Jiang in Belgium and the suit against Li Lanqing in
France, in March of this year, some Falun Gong practitioners in Switzerland also
announced that they would sue Jiang Zemin.
In the U.S. in October 2002, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against
Jiang at a federal district court in Chicago for the first time. The charges
include torture, crimes against humanity and genocide.
During the past six months, Falun Gong practitioners in other countries have
also announced planned lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, including practitioners
from the UK, Australia and Canada. People who were and are Jiang's accomplices
were also sued in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Germany and other countries. A U.S.
court pronounced Zhao Zhifei, head of Hubei Province's Department of Public
Security guilty.
How the Chinese government is dealing with these lawsuits
When the media around the world focused on the Belgian lawsuit, the Chinese
government was not at all happy. The Chinese Embassy in Brussels claimed the
lawsuit has hurt China-Belgium relations.
This reaction is not unusual. When the lawsuit against Jiang was filed in a
U.S. district court last October, the Chinese government never responded to
court subpoena(s); instead, they tried through diplomatic channels to pressure
the U.S. government to stop the lawsuit. The plaintiffs' attorney Terry Marsh
said, "The defendant has not responded to the lawsuit through legal means;
instead, they tried to reject it through diplomatic means."
A Falun Gong spokesman in Washington, D.C. said, "They are very afraid
of this case. If Jiang leaves China, he would be taking great risks. In fact, in
the court of people's hearts and morality, these plaintiffs have already
won."
The media in Mainland China does not dare to report the suits against Jiang.
It was reported recently, though, that the SinoSat satellite was tapped into and
had broadcast a program called "Jiang Zemin facing lawsuits." The
state-run Xinhua News Agency published a long article accusing Falun Gong
of the tapping incident, but it didn't mention the content of the program.
Some Chinese media are low-key
It is interesting to note that among overseas Chinese media, other than the BBC
Chinese, VOA Chinese, Free Asia, and NTDTV that filed detailed reports on
the Jiang lawsuit in Belgium, some Chinese media have remained low key.
The reason behind the different approaches among the Chinese media boils down
to Party control. A researcher from the Jamestown Foundation wrote
an article analyzing the Chinese government's control over Chinese media in the
U.S., in which he states that the Chinese government made great efforts to
influence the Chinese media. Some of its main strategies include investments and
stock control; business interests in Mainland China, and putting Party workers
inside the media. The Party has either total or partial financial control over
many Chinese media outlets abroad. These do not dare to "ruffle the Party's
feathers."
Taiwan's The Liberty Times reports on April 23 that 17 media outlets
in Taiwan are suspected of receiving large investments from the Chinese
Communist Party.
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