By Yvonne Marcotte
Mar 17, 2005 Falun Gong practitioners
appeal in Houston in pouring rain for an end to the persecution of Falun
Gong. The Homestead Hotel in Houston has been brought under scrutiny for
refusing admission to Falun Gong practitioners during the appeal. (Clearwisdom.net) The Department of Justice has decided to investigate Homestead Studio Suites
for civil rights violations in connection with revoking hotel reservations made
by Falun Gong practitioners. Despite booking reservations a month in advance of
an October 2002 visit to Houston by then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin, they
were denied accommodation and unable to hold peaceful appeals next door to
Jiang's hotel. Plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against the hotel applauded the DOJ action.
"The Chinese Communist Party's tentacles have reached deeply into the U.S.
and worldwide in its efforts to suppress practitioners of Falun Gong from
exposing the persecution in China, they said in a written statement. "We
believe the USDOJ's investigation will help expose Jiang and the CCP, preventing
even more serious incidents." The group continues to hold peaceful activities to increase awareness of the
brutal suppression of the spiritual practice's estimated 100 million
practitioners. Besides the persecution in China, there have been on-going
reports of Chinese Communist Party interference in Falun Gong activities in the
U.S. and other countries. The civil lawsuit alleges that the hotel cancelled their reservations at the
request of agents of the "Office 6/10," also known as the "Falun
Gong Control Office," an operative of the Chinese Communist Party. "Kowtowing to the Chinese government." A Falun Gong practitioner
braves the rain in Houston to display a poem asking for help in ending the
persecution. (Clearwisdom.net) Plaintiff attorney Richard Ellison said, "What we have in this case is a
big American corporation- the Homestead hotel chain owns about 150 hotels around
the country- kowtowing to the Chinese government." The lawsuit contends
that Homestead violated the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination
against accommodation due to race, nationality, ethnicity or religion. "There's no question in my mind that Homestead violated that
statute," said Ellison. The Justice Department action was announced by the Liberty Legal Institute, a
Plano, TX-based religious liberties watchdog organization. The Institute noted
in a statement that the fact that a preliminary investigation will be conducted
does not necessarily mean that violations will be found. However, the
Institute's Director of Litigation, Hiram Sasser, welcomed the investigation:
"It is all the more refreshing to see the Department of Justice ignore
international politics and place as a priority the religious freedom of its
citizens." Those who practice Falun Gong say it is a traditional Chinese practice of
self-cultivation and a form of belief. While they don't call it a religion, they
recognize that it falls under the category of religion for purposes of legal
definition.
