By Dafa practitioner Theresa Chu from Taiwan

Shared at 2004 New York Falun Dafa Conference

Greetings, venerable Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

The following are some of my own personal experiences and understandings.

The lawsuit to bring Jiang to justice was filed in October 2002 in Chicago. It wasn't until last July during the Washington D.C. Experience Sharing Conference that I came to understand clearly from the Fa's viewpoint that the Chicago lawsuit has played a major Fa-rectification role in Chinese society, and practitioners all over the world should file similar lawsuits in their local areas if circumstances permit. Before last July, as a Dafa disciple who is also an attorney, I was limited by the legal education I had received and my experience as a practicing attorney for more than ten years. I couldn't find any relevant laws that could justify filing a lawsuit against Jiang in Taiwan. I had heard stories of how some Taiwanese Dafa practitioners were persecuted in Mainland China during their visits there. But I never organized the material in a systematic way. When we tried to expose the persecution that Taiwanese practitioners have experienced to the public in Taiwan, we mainly focused on how some practitioners were denied entry into Hong Kong and Iceland and were forcefully sent back to Taiwan. When I finally gained a clear understanding of the relevant Falun Dafa principles last July and decided to file a lawsuit against Jiang in Taiwan, I immediately felt heavy pressure from other dimensions. The pressure displayed in the human dimension was an intense pressure I felt to find applicable laws and plaintiffs against Jiang. Two fellow practitioners in North America saw how much pressure I was under. They told me separately that it could be a "grand pledge I made before history" and there should definitely be a wide-open, bright road ahead of me. They encouraged me to go ahead and start my research. I told myself that I needed to maintain a tranquil mind, position myself righteously and firmly believe in the wisdom that Dafa and Master have bestowed upon me. But at the beginning, I truly felt it was a very difficult task. On the plane back to Taiwan after the experience sharing conference ended, I wrote the following poem, which described the mixed emotions that I was feeling,

"Thousands of layers of waves going up and down in my mind,
Wave after wave bringing more and more suffering.
Looking at the vast land before me and asking what are human emotions,
Wielding a sharp sword to cut them down and yet finding no peace.
Opening my eyes wide to look at tens of thousands of rivers,
Asking myself how much longer I am going to stay deluded,
Pacing back and forth as time passes me by."

After I returned to my home in the city of Taipei, my husband, who is also an attorney and a Dafa practitioner, and I got together to share our understandings on how to file the lawsuit against Jiang. We opened up our thinking that night. We realized that practitioners filed the lawsuit in Chicago under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Even though the Taiwanese legal system doesn't recognize these international laws directly, it occurred to us that we could check to see if Taiwan had signed the UN convention. We found out that Taiwan did sign the UN Convention before it was forced by Mainland China to leave the UN. It even passed a domestic law for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide in 1953, which is nearly identical to the United Nations Convention. We were fully justified to file the lawsuit against Jiang in Taiwan under that law. Overnight we discovered this law, that we felt was intended to be used by Dafa. Over the past 50 years, it had never been used in Taiwan. 99.9% of legal professionals in Taiwan had not even heard of this law because it has never been used. Because of it, some people once suggested nullifying the law but their suggestion was not adopted. When we unearthed that particular law that night, we came to understand even more deeply that we should have steadfast belief in Falun Dafa and everything should be used by Dafa. Thank you, Master Li!

The course of preparing for the lawsuit and drafting the legal brief was a serious cultivation experience. In the beginning, I found several Dafa disciples who were legal professionals, divided up the tasks, and asked each person to do one piece. But we could never put things together. The four or five of us who were involved in the task had to each deal with our own separate forms of interference. As days passed by, I realized that I could no longer wait or rely upon others and I should start working. Dafa disciples who are attorneys in North America and other practitioners in North America provided me with excellent starting material. In addition, the process of gathering required legal material, and talking to Taiwanese practitioners who had been persecuted in Mainland China and asking them to be plaintiffs went fairly smoothly. But when I began to draft the legal brief, the interference intensified. During the initial dozen days or so, I could only manage to spend half an hour per day writing the brief. I was forced to spend 4 or 5 hours per day lying in bed, unable to move. I felt that my physical body was placed under a lot of duress. At the same time, other Dafa projects that I was involved in suddenly needed more time from me, with most of the needs being urgent. I knew that the Fa had raised its requirements on me and I must become even more diligent and more stable if I wanted to meet the requirement. When it comes to the three things that Dafa disciples must do well, I should make an even more serious effort to do them well.

After I came to realize these things, I gradually began to achieve breakthroughs. I went from being able to only spend half an hour per day writing the brief to an hour, two hours, or three hours. While writing the brief, I also came to understand that the process of writing the legal brief is also the process of clarifying the truth to the legal community. Here among the human realm, all legal lawsuits involve conflicts. But the basis of Dafa disciples is different, and that basis is immense benevolence. Even though I was writing a "legal complaint," my mind should be based on clarifying the truth and saving all beings. Therefore, the legal brief can be written in a very compassionate way, which is something that I had never experienced before in my legal career. Dafa is immensely benevolent and merciful. A lawsuit filed by Dafa disciples should also be benevolent and extraordinary. What's expressed in the legal brief should be our true desire to save all beings. As I wrote in the legal brief about human rights laws, how the evil Jiang set up and implemented a genocidal policy, how the plaintiffs, our Taiwanese practitioners, were persecuted, how the Taiwanese court must take jurisdiction over the case, and how Jiang is being sued all over the world, the brief tried to inspire the benevolent thoughts of people reading it from beginning to end. Sometimes as I was writing the brief, I couldn't hold back my tears. I hope that human beings and gods would judge the lawsuit and the beings named in the lawsuit at the same time.

When I was almost finished with the legal brief, I suddenly woke up one morning with horrible headaches. I felt my head was about to explode and I began to breathe very rapidly. The only way I could move around was to put a hand against the wall. I knew that I was being interfered with quite severely. When I tried to send righteous thoughts, I felt very weak too. But when I used my last remaining trace of consciousness to listen to Master's Fa lecture, I actually gained new enlightenment. On the other hand, my physical condition deteriorated rapidly. I had one thought that I must not fall down. If my mind collapsed because of my physical condition, it was very likely the lawsuit would be delayed. I kneeled down in front of Master's picture. My body began to jerk uncontrollably and breathing became difficult. My husband held me by my shoulders, yelled my name out loud, and asked me what was wrong. I couldn't speak at all. I told Master Li in my heart, "Master, no matter what happens, I won't be moved. No matter what, I will follow you to the very end." With a great deal of difficulty, I crawled back to my computer and kept on writing the legal brief. My consciousness became more and more alert, and I slowly finished the last piece of the legal brief. Within three days, my health completely recovered. Thank you, Master Li. From this experience, I also became aware that whether we can keep on cultivating and deal with things well while we endure tests is very serious and important. All beings in the cosmos are watching our righteous thoughts and righteous actions. As I finished up the legal brief, our legal team was also gradually formed. The brief was finalized under the joint efforts of practitioners who are judges and attorneys, as well as our friends who are magistrates.

While we prepared the lawsuit against Jiang, because the relationship between the two sides of the Strait is quite sensitive, we tried to avoid interference before the lawsuit was filed. Therefore, we remained low key as we prepared to file the lawsuit. After we finalized the legal brief at the end of last October, we entered the next stage, which meant that we needed to generate more "publicity" in the Taiwanese society so that the evil wouldn't be able to keep up and more people would be able to learn the truth. How the Taiwanese government supports Dafa and how the head of the evil used the Mainland Chinese regime to persecute Dafa is the best contrast. When more than ten thousand practitioners gathered in Zhongnanhai, the Chinese central government compound, on April 25, 1999, to legally hold a group appeal, it became one of the excuses that the head of the evil later used to persecute Dafa. It made us decide to hold an event in contrast to it. On November 15, 2003, thousands of Taiwanese practitioners gathered in front of the President's Office to support Jiang going on trial around the world and also the effort in Taiwan. In contrast to the illegal persecution of millions of Falun Gong practitioners' lives, physical bodies, personal possessions, freedoms and right of belief, the Taiwanese government protected Falun Gong practitioner's freedom of assembly in an open, just and legal manner. Taiwanese officials from every political party came to support the practitioners' appeal for their human rights. It was the best contrast. On that day, close to 7,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in front of the President's Office to practice the exercises in a quiet and peaceful manner, send righteous thoughts, and support the global trial and the Taiwanese lawsuit against Jiang. It was the biggest outdoor gathering that practitioners have held in Taiwan thus far.

Two days later, on November 17, we formally filed the lawsuit with Taiwan's High Court. It was the first criminal lawsuit a Taiwanese person has ever filed against the former Chinese head-of-state, and it was also the first time that a Taiwanese court accepted a lawsuit under the Taiwan law for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. Even though Mainland China and Taiwan have different governments, the Taiwanese court should make its rulings based on its own laws. The majority of legal professionals in Taiwan feel that a Taiwan court has jurisdiction over the case. In January of this year, Taiwan's High Court reached a verdict of "jurisdictional error." The general consensus of the Taiwanese legal community was that the reasons that the court gave for the verdict was weak. We appealed the case to the Taiwan Supreme Court in February 2004, so that the Supreme Court judges would have the chance to learn the truth behind the persecution through reading the legal brief and listening to the evidence. The Taiwan Supreme Court is still examining the case at this time. We know that filing the lawsuit against Jiang and urging the court to listen to the lawsuit is secondary. The most important thing is that we clarify the truth to all kinds of people who are involved in the lawsuit along the way.

Before last July's Washington D.C. Experience sharing conference, when Taiwanese practitioners gathered to share their understandings of the lawsuit against Jiang filed by practitioners in Chicago, practitioners everywhere in Taiwan from the southern to the northern part of the island felt that we hadn't done enough in this aspect. We began our effort to clarify the truth to the legal community after we decided to file a lawsuit against Jiang in Taiwan in July of last year. At that time, we formed a legal team and prepared to clarify the truth to the legal community before the lawsuit was filed.

While sharing experiences, we came to understand that we shouldn't approach the legal professionals just to tell them about the lawsuit. Instead we should use the global lawsuits against Jiang to clarify the truth to them. When it comes to matters of the law, practitioners who are not legal professionals naturally feel that their lack knowledge in this area might make their efforts more difficult. But when we look at it from the basis of the Fa, we see that the lawyers and judges also came for the Fa and are also beings that should hear the truth and be saved. Since it is about clarifying the truth, every practitioner is qualified to participate in the effort. Therefore, when the practitioners in the legal team meet with the lawyers and judges to clarify the truth, they only provide a brief introduction to the lawsuit. They put their emphasis on the magnificence of Dafa and the truth behind the persecution. If they meet lawyers who are interested in the legal aspect of the lawsuit, they ask practitioners who are also lawyers to follow up with those lawyers. This way, practitioners no longer need to worry about the legal aspect of the lawsuit and don't have any mental barrier when approaching members of the legal community. They concentrate their efforts on clarifying the truth.

Members of the legal team range from young students to practitioners who are in their 60s and 70s. Once the local coordinator of the legal team gathered the names of people who want to volunteer their time, two or three practitioners got together and called an attorney to set up an appointment so they can clarify the truth to the attorney. Up till now, we have met with several hundred attorneys in Taiwan. Not a single one of them asked the practitioners to pay legal fees for their time. There are many moving stories. One famous attorney we contacted is especially busy. When a couple of elderly practitioners went his office, once he realized that they weren't there as potential clients, originally he didn't want to talk to the practitioners. The practitioners truly wanted to save him and clarify the truth to him. So they demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises to the attorney. The attorney saw how beautiful the movements were and gave the practitioners 10 minutes of his time. The practitioners were able to help him understand the facts clearly within that short amount of time.

A practitioner who is a full-time housewife went to visit an attorney. At the beginning, she was afraid. As she was ringing the doorbell, she secretly hoped that the attorney wouldn't come out. But the attorney indeed came out and listened to her as she tried to clarify the truth. Some practitioners were so nervous that their faces turned red, and yet the attorneys praised their excellent complexion and thought it was a benefit from practicing Falun Gong. Some practitioners were so nervous that they couldn't help from shaking slightly, and yet the attorneys thought they were giving out their gong. There was one attorney who originally only gave one hour to practitioners. But he ended up listening to the practitioners for six hours and even bought them lunch.

For those attorneys who were interested in supporting the lawsuit against Jiang, we asked them to sign a statement of support that we had put together, which says that they support the global lawsuits against Jiang and our efforts to try Jiang at the International Criminal Court. Almost all the legal professionals that we met in person expressed their understanding and support toward our quest for human rights. More than 300 attorneys in Taiwan have signed the statement of support. After they listened to the truth, many attorneys immediately agreed to sign the statement of support. The two or three practitioners in each team divide up their work. One practitioner acts as the main speaker while others sit quietly to send righteous thoughts. Practitioners generally feel that as long as they coordinate with each other well, the effect of truth clarification is very good. After we shared our signature drive with practitioners in other area, 120 practitioners in Korea quickly joined in. They spent 5 days contacting attorneys, assistants to attorneys and NGOs in Korea and obtained more than 1,000 signed copies of the statement of support.

When we clarified the truth to Taiwan's highest officials in the legal branch--the head of the Department of Justice and the deputy head, we had another amazing experience. One day after a fellow practitioner and I clarified the truth to a judge, the fellow practitioner said that as long as we were in the building, why didn't we go explain the facts of the persecution of Falun Dafa to the head of the Department of Justice? After we reached a common understanding, we went to the office of the deputy head of the Justice Department without an appointment. The deputy head didn't really pay much attention to us at first, and just wanted to talk about the hard qigong that he practiced. He wasn't interested in something that was "gentle, slow, curved." As we talked to him, we sent righteous thoughts, and later on he became excited and wanted to test us. He said that he wanted a test of strength with the fellow practitioner in a tug of war. The fellow practitioner asked me softly, should we do it? I agreed, thinking that after all it's to save him, so let's do it. So right there in the deputy head's office, those two began a test of strength. The first time, the deputy head couldn't budge the practitioner, and with great surprise he said that there were very few people he could not beat. He tried again, but still failed on his second and third try, and he was quite tired. The fellow practitioner, on the other hand, didn't look worn out at all. The deputy head asked again with a whole new look on his face, you're Falun Gong practitioners? He tried again, and finally on the fourth try he was able to budge the practitioner. After this, he immediately wanted to learn the exercises from us on the spot. We showed him the second set of exercises, and very quickly he had some good experiences. We agreed that we would come back later to give him the Falun Gong books. Afterwards, the fellow practitioner breathed a sigh of relief. He told me that right before the test of strength, he asked Master in his heart for help, to please let him win so as to save this person. When it was the fourth time, he wanted to let the other person save some face, so he thought in his mind to let him win. After we left the deputy head's office, we were quite encouraged, and went to the head of the department's office. Amazingly, we got an audience with him. In the beginning he was very serious, stating right at the beginning that all of the judges have received official documents that they cannot express a stance on any religious or political issues. We knew in our hearts that we were there to clarify the truth and remained unmoved. We continued to send righteous thoughts as we clarified the truth, and the head of the department's expression turned softer and even joyous. After we were finished he thanked us for bringing to his attention the lawsuits all over the world against Jiang Zemin, and he personally saw us to the door in a very friendly, courteous way.

The duty of those in the legal profession is to protect human rights and they should stand on the side of justice. However, in the international community, no association of lawyers had stepped forward as a group to help stop the persecution, a clear sign that we have not clarified the truth to the legal community enough. I heard that Taiwan's largest lawyer association would have a conference on Lawyer Day in September, so a few fellow practitioners and I went to visit the head of the association to clarify the truth to him, and we requested the association to pass a resolution in support of the lawsuits against Jiang. After we clarified the truth to him, the head of the association immediately expressed his support, and said that how could any lawyer say that he does not support human rights or see human rights as unimportant? It's impossible for your request to be turned down. He gave us a list of the delegates to the conference on the spot. Because we started too late, about a week before the conference, we could only send a draft resolution and truth-clarifying materials to more than one hundred delegates, and made phone calls as much as we could. On the day of the conference, they could only agree to table the resolution for more discussion by the board of directors. We felt that we did not do a solid enough job of clarifying the truth, and after sharing experiences with fellow practitioners, we decided that we should clarify the truth face to face, as that is the most effective method. So, we began to make efforts to clarify the truth to those lawyers.

My experiences of clarifying the truth to a member of the human rights task force of the Taiwanese President's office and the Chair of the Human Rights Committee for the lawyer association made me experience the importance of clarifying the truth thoroughly. When I went to visit this leading human rights lawyer, I kept the thought in my mind that the primary thing was to clarify the truth, and it was secondary whether or not he supported the resolution. After he finished listening to me, he immediately agreed to speak for us during their next board meeting and support our resolution. I was very happy for his decision and left with a sense of happiness. Right after I stepped out the door, I heard a voice telling me: wherever you go, don't forget to give people Dafa. I immediately realized that my intention was not quite right, so I hurried back to give him Falun Gong books and videotapes. That lawyer was quite moved by my thinking of him and kindness, and he told me that passing the resolution wasn't enough, and Taiwan should join the court systems around the world to support the lawsuits themselves. I realized then that it was the limitations in my own mind that caused me to think of only clarifying the truth to him to have him support the resolution. However, when it comes to a being who truly understood the truth, in the process of positioning himself correctly for the future, he would naturally make use of his skills to think of more and better ways to support Dafa -- the key is whether or not we have done what we should to clarify the truth and have the people understand the truth. Later, this same lawyer, on his own initiative, wrote an article in a Taiwanese newspaper to support our lawsuits around to the world. When he attended an international human rights conference, he spoke up to make everyone aware of the Falun Gong practitioners' lawsuits against Jiang.

Through the practitioners' diligently clarifying the truth, in October 25 of last year, the biggest lawyer association in Taiwan passed the first resolution to publicly support the lawsuits against Jiang Zemin.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court's first provision is genocide, the crime that Jiang Zemin has committed. Our fellow practitioners who are lawyers and handling the lawsuits against Jiang have realized the key historic importance of the Rome Statute and its function in bring the head of the evil to justice in the international society. Because China and the United States both are not signatories, there are legal obstacles in terms of jurisdiction for the Internal Criminal Court to carry out its function, but these are not insurmountable obstacles. From the perspective of the Fa-rectification, we can definitely use this to clarify the truth to the international legal community.

At the end of this January after attending the genocide conference in Sweden, a few of our lawyer practitioners went to The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is located, to clarify the truth. The seven of us, including four lawyers and three others, brought more than a thousand documents from lawyers, prosecutors, and law professors from all over the world supporting bringing Jiang to justice and calling on the International Criminal Court to accept the lawsuit against Jiang.

On the day that we planned to visit the ICC, there was continuous interference. The morning transport to the courthouse went to the wrong place. There was a huge thunderstorm in front of the courthouse, including hail at times. The appointment that we had made the day before for a meeting with the aide to the chief prosecutor at eight a.m. disappeared. While we waited at the counter, all of us continually sent righteous thoughts and patiently clarified the truth. Gazing at this enormous building, I felt that my body was incomparably grand. As I felt Master's continual strengthening, I could not help but shed tears. Later, a staff member at the court told us that England had submitted an extremely urgent case that morning, and all of the prosecutors and their aides had gone to handle the case. It would be 10 a.m. before they knew if they could make an appointment. We continued to send righteous thoughts, and finally they said that we could meet with the Chief Prosecutor's aide at 5 p.m. So, we decided to take advantage of the time in between to go to Amsterdam to clarify the truth to some human rights lawyers there.

In the afternoon, we boarded a train to come back to The Hague. Shortly after departing, the train had mechanical problems and stopped running, and it was unknown when it would be repaired. No interference could be accepted, so we decided to switch to a taxi, we all continually and quietly sent righteous thoughts. On the way back to The Hague, sometimes it would be sunny and sometimes there would be a rainstorm. When we arrived back at the courthouse and went to the information desk, they said that they closed at 4:30, yet our appointment was at 5:00. We were unmoved and continued to the send righteous thoughts. At five, the aide came out to meet with us, and we took advantage of this hard to come by chance and clarified the truth to the two legal aides for the chief prosecutor. They expressed that they could understand us and thanked us for discussing this with them. They also talked to us about some of the general legal issues that we'd have to overcome, and promised to arrange a meeting with the chief prosecutor. We still have to continue to do well.

The grand trial in the human world is progressing in the various countries, and there are currently six lawsuits against Jiang in progress, with four in the process of being presented to the court and with the case yet to be opened. Throughout the process, we should continually rectify ourselves, assimilate to Dafa, coordinate as a whole, and find our shortcomings so that we can do better. We need to minimize the amount of losses brought about by the evil, and with pure hearts, clarify the truth thoroughly to the people of the world and those involved in the legal community.

As Master said, "Once the human minds are rectified, the court will stand on the side of justice." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference") It is inevitable that the head of the evil will walk towards complete destruction. Using legal means to clarify the truth and bring the head of the evil to justice is a way to expose, shock, and eliminate the evil and save people of the world. At the same time, it's leaving behind a righteous spirit and path for the world and the beings of the future. We treasure the time we share with Master and Fa-rectification in the human world and will surely do even better. Helping people to see the head of the evil and its minions meet their fate in karmic retribution for their crimes is an act of kindness for all beings. We firmly believe that it will also be a sacred, benevolent, and magnificent page in the chronicle of the Fa rectifying the human world.

Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference",

"Everything that Dafa disciples are doing today and everything in society you encounter, I can tell you, you are saving all beings. So no matter what kind of person you meet, what strata of society he's from, or what profession he's in, don't think that you're just going to him to explain the truth merely because evil is persecuting Dafa disciples. I'll tell you, saving all beings is first and foremost, and clarifying the truth is the way to save people. When people understand the facts and find out how wicked the persecution is, people will naturally know what to do. And if afterwards you ask him to lend support and do something about it, that's him choosing a future. So with those people who've been deceived in the persecution, all the more so, how could you not give them a chance? If you don't tell them the facts they will lose their futures forever.

"Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections. Actually, a lot of Dafa disciples say when they're clarifying the truth, "I'm going to go clarify the truth now," as if at that moment they're going to clarify the truth, but they don't clarify the truth normally. Saving beings should permeate every single aspect of your daily lives at this time. If you can all understand and really see its importance, I think you'll probably save more beings. Now the world's people are gradually becoming more clearheaded, and the impact of clarifying the truth right now is even greater. The audience those evil beings have is getting smaller and smaller, so you must understand this issue clearheadedly."

These are my personal understandings, I respectfully ask for my fellow practitioners to kindly correct me.

Thank you Master, thank you everyone.

Posting date: 4/30/2004
Original article date: 4/29/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/4/13/72198.html