Falun Gong practitioner Jennifer Zeng was arrested in Beijing in 2000, and was detained and tortured for twelve months in a labour camp. After her release, she fled to Australia. In October this year, Jennifer submitted a lawsuit in the UN and the International Criminal Court, charging Chinese President Jiang Zemin with implementing “state terrorism” against Falun Gong.
According to the legal summons served during former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin’s visit to Chicago in October, last Wednesday was the final day for Jiang to respond to the Genocide Lawsuit brought against him and the Gestapo-like office he established in June of 1999 to carry out the persecution of practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement throughout China.
The Hong Kong office of HRW as well as eight other local human rights groups
have called on authorities to scrap the law altogether. Rights activists say
the proposals as they stand now would, for example, be used to prosecute
spiritual or religious groups, such as Falun Gong (news – web sites), and
political dissidents whose activities have been outlawed in Beijing.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International is also urging Beijing to
release Yoko because she is “prisoner of conscience.”
The Roman Catholic Church and the spiritual group Falun Gong are joining
forces in Hong Kong to fight new anti-treason laws.
The recently-appointed Catholic Bishop for Hong Kong, Joseph Zen, has said
the regulations currently being drawn up threaten Falun Gong’s freedom to
practice in the territory.
She is a small, quiet woman from Australia and an internationally acclaimed
artist, whose paintbrush has caressed the face of Buddha and stroked the
hair of the goddess of mercy.
A member of the European Parliament, Mr Roger Helmer, raised a parliamentary question to the European Commission on 20 November 2002, entitled “Persecution of Falun Gong practitioners”.
The Falun Gong Information Centre in New York has received confirmation of the deaths of fifteen Falun Gong practitioners in the last month.
Audiences were shocked and dismayed by the stark contrast between the good of Dafa and the evil of the persecution. When they heard about the open letter to the Italian President being drafted by the Falun Gong practitioners, they offered round after round of applause showing their approval and support.
Many on the list are political activists and dissidents, including four
members of the China Democracy Party (CDP) and 14 members of Falun Gong, a
spiritual movement that is outlawed in China.
