By Su Jing

(Clearwisdom.net) Around 8:30 p.m. June 28, 2004, Australian Falun Gong practitioners were shot at while leaving the Johannesburg International Airport. Falun Gong practitioner David Liang, the driver of the car, was shot in both feet. X-rays showed that the bones in one foot were fractured. He was immediately taken to the nearby Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital for emergency treatment. This apparent targeted attack by hit men once again highlights the Jiang group's persecution of overseas Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong practitioners plan to a file lawsuit against persecutors; shooting ensues

Mr. Wei, an Australian citizen and a Falun Gong practitioner, had this to say: after learning that Zeng Qinghong and Bo Xilai, Jiang Zemin's active followers in the persecution of Falun Gong, would be visiting South Africa from June 27 to June 29, nine Australian Falun Gong practitioners, including Mr. Wei, decided to go to South Africa to assist the local practitioners in their effort to bring about an end to the persecution through legal means. They arrived at Johannesburg International Airport on the afternoon of June 28 and some local practitioners went to pick them up.

Later, the practitioners set out in two cars for the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, to hold a peaceful appeal. On their way, at approximately 8:30 p.m., a person in a white car suddenly opened fire from the side, slightly behind the second vehicle driven by the practitioners, targeting the tires and the driver. The car was hit at least five times. Australian Falun Gong practitioner David Liang was shot. He was the driver and the only person wearing a blue jacket that said, "Falun Dafa" in both Chinese and English. The tire was shot and punctured, and the car came to a stop, severely damaged. Seeing this, the gunmen quickly fled the scene. Practitioners in the first car were notified of the shooting through a phone call and parked at a safe area near the road and were not attacked.

After the attack, passersby assisted the practitioners to send the injured practitioner to the hospital and call the police. A local resident said after learning about the persecution and the incident, that this was not an ordinary robbery attempt but obviously something more sinister.

Perpetrators resort to all means to persecute Falun Gong, yet fail to silence the voices of justice

Since July 1999, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin unilaterally enacted the genocidal policies of "destroying them physically, defaming their reputations, and bankrupting them financially," "beating to death is nothing and can be counted as suicide" against Falun Gong practitioners. This led to at least 996 documented and confirmed cases of Falun Gong practitioners being killed under the persecution in China. In the past few years, Jiang's regime has also tried to spread the persecution to foreign countries. The Chinese National Security Bureau, police forces, Internet police and customs officers were ordered to collect personal information of Falun Gong practitioners abroad and to make up an overseas blacklist.

In addition to exporting lies and inciting hatred in overseas Chinese communities, Jiang and his followers have never ceased their violent attacks on Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Wang, one of the practitioners in the car that was attacked, said Jiang's group has resorted to all means to persecute Falun Gong practitioners overseas, from terrorist acts of beating Falun Gong practitioners in Australia, California, New York and Chicago in the US, to this shooting in South Africa--all of which show that Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong's gang is desperate to silence the voices of justice and escape due punishment. However, their malicious attacks will absolutely not deter Falun Gong practitioners.

On his way to take the injured Falun Gong practitioner to the hospital, Mr. Wang kept telling the local residents the facts about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners have suffered. He said, "We came to South Africa to seek legal action against the active persecutors of Falun Gong, including Zeng Qinghong and Bo Xilai. Here, they used gunmen to dissuade us, but in China they resort to far worse methods to torture Falun Gong practitioners! We will not back off in the face of terror and intimidation. If we fear the evildoers, they will grow even more rampant."

Falun Gong is currently being practiced in over 60 countries around the world and welcomed by foreign governments and people. Only Jiang's regime in China suppresses peaceful cultivators of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. In an effort to end the persecution, overseas Falun Gong practitioners have filed lawsuits against the head perpetrators in the past few years. Bo Xilai, who was accompanying Zeng Qinghong on this visit, was served with lawsuits in the US, the United Kingdom, Poland and other countries. Wang Xudong, the Minister of China's Information Industry, was also charged with torture and severe violation of human rights when he was participating the Third Sino-US Telecommunication Trade Summit in Chicago. Wang stands accused of actively participating in the persecution of Falun Gong while serving as Communist Party Secretary for Hebei Province from June of 2000 through November of 2002. As a result, Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing, is one of five provinces that are the most notorious for persecuting Falun Gong and its practitioners.

Right now, lawless Chinese government officials who have actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong are extremely fearful of being served with lawsuits abroad, because they have committed serious crimes during the persecution. The persecution Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to exceeds many people's imagination. Overseas Falun Gong practitioners have recently staged exhibits to demonstrate the torture methods used on Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China, and many observers were shocked by what they saw. Some cried or grew angry at the extent of such brutality and said they hoped the perpetrators could be brought to justice. The demonstrations, though, fall far short of the extent of suffering Falun Gong practitioners have been through and are still going through in China. When the truth comes to light in courts of law, they will undoubtedly face due punishment, which is why they resort to extreme methods to duck lawsuits.

Terrorism shows the Jiang group is at the end of its wits

Jiang and his followers use torture, rape, "guilt by association", and even murder in order to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief. They also extend their terrorist claws to foreign countries in order to stifle Falun Gong practitioners' call for justice and to escape the punishment of the law.

When he learned the shocking news of the shooting incident, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu in the US said, "This incident shows Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong's gang has exhausted its ways of attacking Falun Gong. The lies and facades they habitually use have lost their foothold in the international community."

Mr. Wu said, "In 2002 when Jiang Zemin visited Germany and Iceland, he made democratic governments suppress peaceful appeal activities by Falun Gong by exporting lies and using financial incentives, but more governments and people have learned the facts about Falun Gong and the Jiang group's tricks through Falun Gong practitioners' persistent truth clarification efforts. They have positively understood Falun Gong practitioners and seen the wonder of Falun Dafa. After verification with multiple parties and through investigations, the Berlin Ministry of Interior issued a formal written apology to Falun Gong practitioners in December 2002. In April 2004, a spokesman for the German Federal Department of Domestic Affairs (GFDDA) officially admitted that the restrictive measures they took against Falun Gong practitioners who stayed at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin when former Chinese president Jiang Zemin visited Germany in April 2002 were against German laws. Icelandic residents took to the streets in large-scale protests demanding the Icelandic government apologize to Falun Gong practitioners while Jiang was visiting Iceland."

Mr. Wu continued, "Falun Dafa has spread around the world and Falun Gong practitioners are everywhere. Jiang and his followers have committed so many crimes that they will be sued no matter where they go. They have also realized this. After lies and financial enticements fail, they resort to such low gangster-like method as this; however, such behavior only further exposes their atrocities and also helps people realize their brutality and the lengths they will go to escape justice. Any delay in sending Jiang and his followers to court threatens the safety of the people of the entire world."

It was learned that the concerned Falun Gong practitioners held a press conference at 9:00 a.m. June 29, 2004 (South Africa time). Falun Gong practitioners around the world also held peaceful protests to condemn the Jiang group's persecution of overseas Falun Gong practitioners, and they called on foreign governments, media and people around the world to condemn the Jiang group's persecution and terrorist acts against Falun Gong.

Posting date: 6/30/2004
Original article date: 6/30/2004
Category: Open Forum
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/29/78272.html

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