From the International Conference on "Genocide in the New Era": State Terrorism and Genocide (Excerpt)
By Peter Müller, Far East Desk, International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Germany
Ladies and Gentlemen, As a Human Rights Fighter it is my duty to inform you about the cruel, ugly,
and inexcusable treatment which the People's Republic of China ("PRC") exercises
against many of its own people, against the Falun Gong, the Uighurs, the
Tibetans, and many different religious groups. These people are -- it can fairly
be said - terrorized by their own national government. It must be said again and again: The People's Republic of China exercises brutal state terrorism against many
of its own people We normally think of terrorists as a group of individuals who use violent
methods to terrorize a state into submitting to their demands. State terrorism
is when a whole nation's resources are harnessed to terrorize its individuals
into submitting to the will of the ruling party or leader. This is standard
dictatorial and especially Communist practice, not only in China. The
description fits the brutal persecution exceptionally well which the former
Chinese President Jiang Zemin unleashed against Falun Gong practitioners in
China. Falun Gong, Falun Dafa as it also known, is a practice of meditation and
exercises to the personal well being of the individual practitioner. A very
private affair indeed. The guiding principles are Truthfulness, Compassion, and
Forbearance -- to me as a non-practitioner this is an admirably peaceful motto.
Falun Dafa went public in 1992, and their popularity increased rapidly. In 1999,
the Chinese government officially estimated the number of practitioners to be at
least 70 million in China alone. Falun Gong's fast growing popularity -- together with its ability to suddenly
appear in public in great numbers - aroused the suspicion and jealousy of Jiang
Zemin. He noticed the inner strength of Falun Gong practitioners and feared they
were immune against the propaganda of the Communist Party. Consequently he
ordered the elimination of Falun Gong. State terrorism against Falun Gong
started immediately. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is systematic, wide-scale, and
brutal. The PRC uses all means of state power and force, be it physiological or
psychological, usually both together. Once a person is known as a practitioner
there is no pardon or escape. The architect and motor of this terror campaign is the former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin. The great man himself formulated the policy of
"extinguishing the Falun Gong" and put the notorious -- very much Gestapo- and
Stasi-like - "Office 6-10" into operation. It uses a three-prong tactic
consisting of Violence - High-pressure propaganda -- Brainwashing Here are Jiang Zemin's directive for "Office 6-10": By issuing these orders, Jiang Zemin put himself above the law, above all
constitutional and legal jurisdiction --but then, above the law he was anyway
[...]. The retrospective introduction of an "anti-heretical" law to justify the
banning of Falun Dafa in October 1999 was only fodder for the blind. But it was
also a very clever move by Jiang Zemin because he thus tightened the already
melting grip of the Communist Party over the whole nation -- or at least he
tried to. There are sufficient signs now that it may not last. For the moment no method is considered too extreme or barbaric in achieving
Jiang's goal of eliminating Falun Gong. In addition Jiang Zemin has corrupted
the whole nation by forcing people to betray their own family members, friends,
and colleagues to save themselves from the fate of the Falun Gong. The threat of
being sent into one of the many forced labor camps is daily reality and enough
to make most people succumb. Almost everybody is thus corrupted. The old methods
still work and have the usual willing helpers, civil servants, judges (if they
are involved at all), the police, security forces, labor camp wardens, the
military, Trade Unions, business, and above all and as always the Communist
Party and its affiliate organizations. Even other labor camp inmates are used to
torment Falun Gong people in the camps. We are now awaiting confirmation that
Falun Gong practitioners have been killed just because their organs were wanted
by the Organ Trade. Jiang Zemin's terrorist methods are no longer confined to China. In Sweden,
the Chinese Embassy recently tried to pressure a local radio station into
stopping their Falun Gong broadcasts. I do not recall similar incidents in
Germany, but it was bad enough to see how fast our civil servants changed into
servile servants during Jiang Zemin's state visit two years ago - despite our
experiences with such despicable German figureheads like Kaiser Willy-Nilly,
Hitler, Ulbricht, and Honecker. In summary: Every day the PRC commits an enormous number of Crimes against
Humanity plus Genocide against the Tibetans, the Uighurs. [...]But can we also
speak of genocide in the case of the Falun Gong? Human rights people will readily agree because the PRC's terror against the
Falun Gong seems to fit the conditions of Article 6 of the ICC resp. Rome
Statute perfectly. There it says, "Genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such A look at some of the definition also supports this view: Causing serious bodily or mental harm includes inflicting trauma on
members of the group through widespread torture, rape, sexual violence, forced
or coerced use of drugs, and mutilation. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group
includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group's physical
survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services.
Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of
harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or
expulsion into deserts. The Rome Statute protects four groups - national, ethnical, racial or
religious groups. Does Falun Gong fit into the definition of " A Religious group
is a set of individuals whose identity is defined by common religious creeds,
beliefs, doctrines, practices, or rituals"? It ought to. [...] Anyway, the prosecution of Jiang Zemin is a severe test for international law
because he is well hidden behind the Chinese Government, because the full scales
of his crimes are difficult to uncover and even more difficult to prove, and -
worst of all - he is well protected by the fact that the PRC has not signed the
Rome Statute of the ICC. But we have to bring this perpetrator and his helpers to justice. More than a
dozen lawsuits have already been issued in countries around the world against
Jiang Zemin and his accomplices for crimes against humanity, torture and
genocide. In Belgium, the lawsuit was led by the well-known human rights
attorney Georges-Henri Beauthier who has said that "the terror of genocide
committed by Jiang lies not only in the fact that practitioners were killed, but
also beliefs were destroyed. Such acts of terror should not exist in modern
society. Such acts must be punished according to law." The recent progress made internationally in bringing dictators and their
accomplices to justice for perpetrating hideous crimes against human beings, is
encouraging and we hope to add Jiang Zemin to this list soon. It is therefore imperative that the international community always speaks out
clearly against the crimes committed against Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang
Zemin and others. It is this very exposure that dictators fear most, and it is
this very exposure that can help to stop the genocide and save lives. In other
words, no government, the least the Chinese Communist dictators, like to lose
face in public. We must make sure they do. Publicity is our most effective tool.
IGFM will therefore say it again and again: The People's Republic of China exercises brutal state terrorism against many
of its own people
Yearly Archive
Printer Version
feedback@clearwisdom.net