Oct. 8, 2009: Falun Gong News Bulletin

News from Inside China

•    FDIC: “Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China”
•    Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group: “Psychiatric Torture in China”
•    Urgent Action Case Sent to the United Nations: Mr. Li Feng in Critical Condition
•    Epoch Times: “Mass Arrests of Falun Gong Prior to Communist Anniversary”

News from Outside China

•    FDIC: Press Statement for Rally in Front of United Nations Headquarters in New York City
•    Jerusalem Post & Ha’aretz: Israeli court rules Tel Aviv University bowed to Chinese pressure over Falun Gong art exhibition
•    NTDTV: “Falun Gong Founder Awarded for ‘Outstanding Spiritual Leadership’”

FDIC: “Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China”
Sept. 30: Ms. Chen Chunjun (???), a former accountant at the local railroad company, was arrested on May 10, 2008 in Huaihua city by agents of the 610 Office, an extra-legal task force created in 1999 and charged with wiping out Falun Gong. (6-10 Office) She was walking to a bus stop on her way home when she was detained. Chen was one of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners arbitrarily detained that month in Hunan, as part of a crackdown by local officials ahead of the passage of the Olympic Torch relay through the province from June 1-3, 2008. Sources inside China recently discovered that Chen died in March 2009 at Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital (a.k.a. Huaihua No. 4 People’s Hospital).

Since 1999, torture at psychiatric hospitals has been a well-documented feature of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief. It is an extension of a practice that has been used for decades against those who hold views that do not accord with those of the Party.

To read more: /article/914/?cid=84

Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group: “Psychiatric Torture in China”
“In December 2008, the U.N. Commission against Torture reported on China’s overall human rights situation, its’ first report on China in 8 years. In the report, “the Committee also notes with concern that this provision has been misused to detain some people in psychiatric hospitals for reasons other than medical… Research indicates that cases of psychiatric “treatment” have spread to 23 out of 33 provinces under the direct leadership of the central government in China. At least 100 psychiatric facilities have been used in the effort to wipe out Falun Gong practitioner’s belief…

The following accounts remind us of what takes place under China’s expanding economy: 1. Mr. Zhao Peijie, male, 32 years of age, from Xiaonigou Village, Datong Town, Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, was beaten, tortured, and forced to take drugs that destroyed his central nervous system. As a result, he became mentally ill. He died in the wilderness on June 28, 2008.”

To read more: http://www.falunhr.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1787

Urgent Action Case Sent to the United Nations: Mr. Li Feng in Critical Condition
Mr. Li Feng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Anguo City, Hebei Province, has been held at the Hebei No. 4 Prison (Shijiazhuang Beijiao Prison) for a long period of time and is now in critical condition. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group has sent the case to the United Nations through its urgent-action procedures.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sentenced Mr. Li Feng to 15 years in prison following an unfair trial. He was charged with intercepting cable television signals in 2002, a nonviolent act of resistance that a number of practitioners took in an effort to inform the public about the brutality of the persecution against Falun Gong and dispel hate incitement in the state-run media. Li has since been detained at Hebei Province’s No. 4. Prison. His health has been severely damaged as a result of abuse… His health condition is life threatening.

To read more: /article/916/?cid=12

Epoch Times: “Mass Arrests of Falun Gong Prior to Communist Anniversary”
Oct. 4: At least 70 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention were recorded by the mainland China section of Minghui.net, a Falun Gong Web site which receives extensive first-hand reports of persecution cases. Public Security Bureaus in many areas searched the homes of many practitioners, taking personal belongings and detaining many in labor camps. In one case, a three-year-old girl was detained along with her mother. The wave of arrests reported occurred between Sept. 23 and Sept. 28.

Ms. Li, a Falun Gong practitioner in Hebei Province, told The Epoch Times, ‘With the National Day approaching, the local National Security Bureau offices warned practitioners not to leave their residences. Some of them were arrested and sent to brainwashing classes or labor camps.’”

To read more: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/23372/

FDIC: Press Statement for Rally in Front of United Nations Headquarters in New York City
“Earlier this month, a 53-year-old woman from northeast China was taken from her home by police. Six days later, she was dead from torture. Her name was Wang Huilan. Ms. Wang is one of thousands of people – regular Chinese citizens – who have met similar, tragic fates over the past ten years. In fact, sixty years after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), millions of ordinary citizens across China remain in danger of arbitrary detention, torture, and death. For what? For doing nothing more than exercising the very basic rights to freedom of belief and expression…

… And so we are here today with the hope that people and government representatives the world over may join us in remembering the millions still suffering persecution in China; that they not accept the reality of injustice simply because of the Chinese Communist Party’s seemingly tight grip on power; that they strive to see through the veil of Party propaganda and understand for themselves what Falun Gong is; that they lend their support to our peaceful efforts to restore hope, dignity, and basic rights to tens of millions in China.”

To read more: /article/913/?cid=84

Jerusalem Post & Ha’aretz: Israeli court rules Tel Aviv University bowed to Chinese pressure over Falun Gong art exhibition
JP: Oct. 1: “A Tel Aviv District Court judge on Wednesday ruled that Tel Aviv University had ‘violated freedom of expression and succumbed to pressure from the Chinese Embassy’ when it took down a student exhibition last year that focused on the oppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement at the hands of the Communist Chinese government.”

Ha’aretz: “[The court] also found that Dean of Students Prof. Yoav Ariel acted extremely unreasonably by ordering the exhibit closed without even seeing it. It therefore ordered the university to host the exhibit for another full week during the upcoming semester, and to pay the two organizers – students Tamuz Itay and Yaniv Nitzan – NIS 45,000 in court costs.

Judge Amiram Benyamini said the plaintiffs proved that the Chinese Embassy finances various activities at the university, including scholarships for students who study in China, a campus Confucius Center where students can study Chinese, and conferences on Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. ‘It seems that Prof. Ariel feared endangering these activities,’ and therefore closed the exhibit, he wrote.”

To read more: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1254163554778&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118013.html

NTDTV: “Falun Gong Founder Awarded for ‘Outstanding Spiritual Leadership’”
Oct. 6: “A packed ballroom of over 200 human rights defenders and supporters joined the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation awards ceremony [in Los Angeles] to acknowledge the efforts of nine individuals Saturday evening. Among them was Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of the Falun Gong spiritual practice…Last year’s recipient was the Dalai Lama…[The foundation] found it noteworthy that throughout these past 10 years, Falun Gong practitioners have maintained a strictly peaceful approach to ending the persecution.

Christian Pastor Eddie Romero [also an award recipient, said]: “I’m excited to be able to stand there and also to receive along with the Falun Gong leader the awards, because again, we’re standing on the same side of this issue, and to me, it’s important that we stand shoulder to shoulder on this issue and not become fractured over it because I’m not a Falun Gong member and I know he’s not a Christian. But we share this together because we’re sisters and brothers whether they’re Falun Gong or House Christians.”

To read more: http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_na/2009-10-06/424033160194.html