Toronto, Canada: Rally Held to Protest Hong Kong's Illegal Deportation of Falun Gong Practitioners (Photo)

By Ye Linghui

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 3, 2007, Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters held a rally outside the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto and protested the Hong Kong authorities' denying entry to Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan and deporting them violently, based on a CCP blacklist.

Falun Gong practitioners and supporters hold a rally outside of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto to protest Hong Kong's deportation of Taiwanese practitioners

As of July 1, more than 800 Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan were confirmed to have been repatriated, denied visas or not allowed to board planes to Hong Kong. The incident clearly showed that the Hong Kong government followed the CCP's blacklist.

One practitioner pointed out, "This is the largest scale and most violent infringement of human rights in Hong Kong during the last ten years."

She continued, "We strongly condemn the CCP for providing a blacklist to the Hong Kong government and forcing the Hong Kong government to deny entry to more than eight hundred Taiwanese citizens. This is a serious international incident that damages 'One country, two systems' and Hong Kong's image."

Ms. Dai, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1975, participated in the protest and said, "The freedom we enjoyed before is gone. Previously, the Hong Kong government could balance different voices from different groups, but nowadays it is more influenced by the CCP."

Holding a banner on the spot was a businessman from Hong Kong. He pointed out that the large scale deportation of Falun Gong practitioners suggests there are not really two systems in Hong Kong, because the CCP regime makes the final decisions.

Ms. Li from China pointed out that the violent deportation is a blow to Hong Kong's democracy and rule of law and reveals the true nature of the CCP's manipulation of the Hong Kong government.

"In the deportation incident, Hong Kong police mistreated the Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan. One can imagine that Falun Gong practitioners in China face more evil treatment." Ms. Li said, "More and more of the world's people have come to know about the CCP's atrocities of torturing Falun Gong practitioners and of organ removal from live practitioners for profit."

The eight hundred Falun Gong practitioners planned to go to Hong Kong to support a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan and Li Lanqing, the culprits of the persecution. They also planned to participate in a grand march on July 1 hosted by the Civil Human Rights Front.

A practitioner said that to avoid exposure of the deportation procedures, the Hong Kong Immigration Department isolated the Falun Gong practitioners in a designated area and prohibited media interviews. During the deportation, police pushed the ladies and children, detained them, deprived them of water and food and did not allow them to go to the restroom. The police did not even follow the rules with respect to not searching a person of a different gender. They used anti-riot blankets, tied practitioners tightly, put them on flat carts and forcefully carried them to airplanes. Two reporters who were also mistreated described the process in which police took practitioners from the customs entry gate to the detention room. Reporters' associations in Taiwan and Hong Kong expressed their strong protest to the Hong Kong government for its infringement on freedom of the press.

On June 30, the Hong Kong Falun Dafa Association filed an appeal with the Hong Kong High Court to conduct a judicial review.

In the end, a practitioner representative handed over the protest letter to the Hong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto. A staff member by the name of Su accepted the letter and offered to transfer it to director Su Chih-liang.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/5/158210.html

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