China's Ambassador to Ireland indicates that Liu Feng can return to Ireland to Resume His Studies
(Clearwisdom.net) On May 11, 2004, the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland Sha
Hailin held a meeting with the Irish Students Union and indicated that Liu Feng,
a Falun Gong practitioner, can return to Ireland to resume his studies.
The Irish Student's Union and the Irish Prime Minister
appealed to the visiting Chinese Premier
During the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's state visit to
Ireland in May 2004, Falun Gong practitioners held peaceful appeals, calling to
"Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice" and for the return of two Falun Gong
practitioners, Liu Feng and Yang Fang from Liaoning province who have been
detained in China. In a meeting with Wen Jiabao, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern also raised the issue of Liu Feng and Yang Fang's incarceration, so that
they can return to Ireland and resume their studies at Dun Laoghaire College. On May 11, a week after Wen Jiabao's visit to Ireland, the
Chinese Ambassador to Ireland Sha Hailin held a meeting with the Irish Students
Union. According to the Union President Will Priestley, during the talks he
asked the Chinese Ambassador if Liu Feng and Yang Fang would be allowed to come
back to Ireland. Sha Hailin replied that Liu Feng can return to Ireland.
On May 22, 2004, The Irish Times reported the meeting between
the Irish Student's Union representative and the Chinese Ambassador in its
article entitled "The case of Falun Gong practitioners is raised."
Widespread concern in Irish society about the two Chinese
students
Irish Amnesty International delivered five thousand postcards
to the Foreign Minister Brian Cowen at the beginning of 2004, calling for the
Irish government to raise the issue of Liu Feng and Yang Fang with China. Tens
of thousands of Dublin residents signed the petition demanding the Chinese
Government to stop its human rights persecution against innocent students and to
allow Liu Feng and Yang Fang to return to Ireland and resume their studies.
Before that, student representatives from a few major Irish
Universities gathered and demanded China to stop persecuting the two students,
as well as allowing them to return to Ireland. The Irish Student's Union and
eight other Irish student associations jointly wrote to the Irish Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern, asking the Prime Minister to raise concerns about China's human
rights problem and Liu Feng and Yang Fang's circumstances.
Earlier this year, the Irish Students Union passed a
resolution during its student representative's conference, asking China to stop
persecuting Falun Gong, as well as allowing Liu Feng and Yang Fang to return to
Ireland.
About Liu Feng and Yang Fang
Liu Feng was arrested after he wrote a letter to the Chinese
Premier when he returned to China for Christmas break in 1999. He was rearrested
in June 2002 just before returning to Ireland whilst shopping and was
subsequently sent to a forced labor camp. Yang Fang was arrested in 2002 when
she was boarding a flight to Ireland to continue her studies and her passport
was confiscated.
About these unjustifiable detentions, the UN human rights
committee, in its report "about the working group of the arbitrary arrests" on
January 24, 2004, cited the case of Irish Trinity College student Zhao Ming.
This working group considered the case of Zhao Ming to be an example of freedom
being taken away arbitrarily and raised questions to the Chinese government. In
response to the answer and explanation from the Chinese government, this working
group concluded in its report that the "Chinese Government did not provide a
satisfactory explanation for the reason why Zhao Ming's passport was
confiscated, causing him to be unable to continue his studies. Aside from the
fact that he exercised his rights of belief and expression in a reasonable way,
the Chinese government did not provide any reason for his arrest."
Zhao Ming, who was persecuted in the Tuanhe and Xinan forced
labor camps for about two years and who has now returned to Ireland, pointed out
that "Liu Feng and Yang Fang did not do anything against the law. Their arrest
is illegal. As with many other Falun Gong practitioners who were unjustifiably
arrested, the Jiang regime used the so-called crime of "disrupting the social
order." Today the facts about the Jiang regime's persecution against Falun Gong
practitioners are well documented by independent organizations, various human
rights organizations and the United Nations.
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/11/76817.html
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