World News
Dafa practitioners of various nationalities are planning to file lawsuits during the coming days against the German states of Lower Saxonia, Brandenburg and Saxonia Proper. Their goal is to establish the facts of human rights violations against their persons during Jiang’s visit in April 2002 in the hope that these lawsuits will prevent such acts in the future.
Regarding demands made by Jiang during his state visit in Germany last year, on the evening of April 12 2002, German state TV station Channel One (ARD) ran a special report entitled, “Wild Arrogance: Jiang Zemin’s Dictatorship On the Soil of Germany.”
The UK Parliament Foreign Affair Committee published its 2002 annual human rights report on March 18 2003.
On 27 March 2003, the UK government issued a formal statement on the draft bill of the Article-23 legislation in Hong Kong.
The Government continued its crackdown against the Falun Gong (FLG) spiritual movement. Thousands of practitioners were incarcerated in prisons, extrajudicial reeducation-through-labor camps, psychiatric facilities or special deprogramming centers.
On March 27th, the organisers placed an advertisement in the newspaper “Romania libera”. Very soon after the paper came out, at around 10:00 am on March 27th, the organisers received a phone call from a Mr. Chen (or Chan) who introduced himself as a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest and who told them that “the Chinese government does not allow such an activity” and told them to cancel the event.
Between March 21 and 27 2003, Mrs. Zhang Cuiying’s painting exhibition was successfully held in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Many spectators appreciated Mrs. Zhang’s outstanding traditional Chinese paintings and came to understand her experiences of practising Falun Gong.
On March 20, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (“WOIPFG”) issued a statement, “Jiang Zemin’s Regime Draws Upon Massive National Financial Resources In Its Persecution of Falun Gong”
“This show trial of an American makes a mockery of the so-called ‘rule of law’ in China,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesman Erping Zhang. “In fact, it is, in essence, a trial for the Communist legal system in China, which can prosecute any innocent citizen including an American doctor for its political interests.”
According to an August 24, 1999 AFP report: “The Chinese Government has ordered Chinese lawyers not to plead for Falun Gong practitioners. This order comes from the notices of Bureau of Justice to attorney offices in major cities.”
