(Clearwisdom.net) Minghui Correspondent Shu Jing reports from Houston - Recently, it was learned from China that a number of Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of the persecution. More practitioners were arrested and tortured. This caused the confirmed death cases to rapidly rise to 884, among which, 350 were from Heilongjiang, Jilin and Shandong Provinces, almost half of the death toll.

In response to the recent escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong in China, Falun Gong practitioners in Houston, Texas, held a peaceful appeal in front of the Chinese Consulate. Despite the cold wind, practitioners unfurled banners imprinted with both Chinese and English words, "Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice," "Bring Luo Gan to Justice," "Bring Liu Jing to Justice," and "Bring Zhou Yongkang to Justice." Practitioners exposed the atrocities committed by Jiang's regime and drew great attention from passersby. An American especially brought a camera to shoot the scene.

One Falun Gong practitioner voiced all fellow practitioners' heartfelt wishes: The reason why we persistently come to the Chinese Consulate to appeal is to allow more people from both China and other countries to learn about the crimes committed by Jiang and his followers and expose their atrocities. At the same time, fellow practitioners in China and we are of one body. We are concerned about the persecution in China and we constantly support our fellow practitioners. Houston practitioners call upon the entire society to bring murderers to justice, "bring Jiang Zemin to justice", "bring Luo Gan to justice", "bring Liu Jing to justice" and "bring Zhou Yongkang to justice", and work together to stop this persecution.

Jiang Zemin, (President of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China, former Secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, former President of the People's Republic of China) is the chief perpetrator of this persecution. Over the past more than four years, he has adopted all kinds of tortures and contemptible means to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance". Through threat or economic interests, he coerced government officials and the police to betray their conscience and commit crimes together with him. He even trades off China's territory and the vast market of China in exchange for the international community's silence towards the genocide he is committing. Jiang has manipulated the state media to fabricate lies to instigate hatred against Falun Gong among domestic and overseas Chinese people. He has forced people, including government officials, the judiciary system, Chinese Embassies and Consulates, other institutions as well as practitioners' family members participate in the persecution knowingly or unknowingly.

Luo Gan (member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Commission of Politics and Law of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Committee) is the major commander of the 610 Office, an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong. Luo directed those people to arrest hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners with the intention to eradicate practitioners. Liu Jing (Deputy Minister of Public Security, Vice Director of the 610 Office of the CCP Central Committee) and Zhou Yongkang (Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China) are also Jiang's accomplices in the persecution of Falun Gong.

At present, lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and some of his accomplices have been filed in courts in six countries, including the U.S and Belgium, charging them with genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. Jiang and his accomplices will eventually be brought to justice.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/2/16/67556.html