A total of twenty UK parliamentarians have written to the Chinese communist regime
or the UK Foreign Office since Wenjian Liang, her husband Zhiyong Lin and six
other Falun Gong practitioners were detained in February, and sentenced to labor
camps without trial in March. Amnesty International issued an "urgent action"
and the UK media also reported on their plight.
The EU raised Ms. Liang’s case at the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue in Berlin
on May 14-15, 2007. The UK Foreign Office also raised the case of Ms. Wenjian
Liang and her husband with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing
in April.
Lord Avebury, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights,
wrote to the Foreign Office on May 2nd pointing out that the arrests of Wenjian
Liang and others "appear to be part of the state’s campaign of repression
against the Falun Gong, … I believe the UK did raise her case when she was
imprisoned before and I hope we will do so again now."
Other UK parliamentarians who took action to help Wenjian included the Shadow
Attorney General and Lord Howell of Guildford. Lord Howell said in his letter
on May 2nd: "I was very concerned to hear about this and have raised the
matter with our Foreign Ministers and urged them to take it up with the Chinese
authorities immediately."
Several members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on China discussed Wenjian’s
case with the Group’s Chairman Ben Chapman MP who very kindly wrote to the Foreign
Office.
During the past few weeks, several UK parliamentarians have written to the
Chinese Authorities about Wenjian’s labor camp sentence, including one of the
MPs in Nottingham where Wenjian’s sister lives.
Roger Helmer MEP wrote to the Chinese Ambassador to the EU to raise Wenjian’s
case in February. In his reply, the Ambassador didn’t bother to tell the MEP
the charges against Wenjian Liang and Zhiyong Lin nor their whereabouts, but
insisted that the rights of Wenjian and Zhiyong, who have been imprisoned without
trial, are upheld by the law. The ambassador apparently could not see the contradiction,
absurdity and cruel injustice in his statement, which reflects the nature of
the regime he represents.
Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200705/39560.html
Posting date: 25/May/2007
Original article date: 23/May/2007
Category: World News