Vice Consul General of the Chinese Embassy in Russia Coerces a Russian Inhabitant to Denounce his Belief by taking his Relatives in China Hostage

On February the 12th 2004, Falun Gong practitioner Li Dan, an inhabitant of Irkutsk City in Russia, received news that his forty one year-old sister Li Xia, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was kidnapped at home in Shenyang City. Over ten security guards got involved in the kidnapping of Li Xia, who is now imprisoned in a detention centre in Shenyang City.

In October 2003, He Guoan, the Vice Consul General of the Chinese Embassy in Habarovsk City, came to Irkutsk City and invited Li Dan to meet him. Li Dan has been living in Russia for over ten years; his wife and three children are Russian citizens. The Vice Consul inquired in detail about his relatives in China, as well as the situations of his life and work in Russia. All of Li Dan’s answers were recorded by the embassy staff. In their conversation, He Guoan threatened that his relatives in China might be in a dangerous situation if he continued to practise Falun Gong, and he himself might face an unpleasant outcome if he returned to China.

Three other Falun Gong practitioners in Irkutsk accompanied Li Dan to see the Vice Consul General. The practitioners told the Vice Consul General the facts about the brutal persecution against Falun Gong, but the Vice Consul General said that he knew nothing about the persecution. The practitioners explained to He Guoan that the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin (the criminal who initiated the unlawful persecution of Falun Gong) and his accomplices have already been sued in many countries for their crimes of Torture, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, in the hope that He Guoan could stop aiding the tyrant in his tyranny. The practitioners also suggested he read the related information that they had supplied, but he just paid no attention to the suggestion.

According to informed sources, Li Dan had been unlawfully detained three times in China because he practises Falun Gong. In 1999 he was detained by China’s border officials just because he brought with him a Falun Gong book and refused to hand in the book. In December 2001, when Li Dan went back to China to visit his relatives in Shenyang City, he was unlawfully kidnapped on the street by local security guards and detained for seven days. When he was released, the security guards confiscated his passport. In January, 2002, he was deceived by the security guards into going to the police station to collect his passport, and was unlawfully arrested and detained in Zhangshi labour camp in Shenyang City. During the unlawful detention Li Dan underwent forced feeding (a kind of torture method) and brainwashing (the persecution of free speech and the spirit.)

Russian Falun Gong practitioners call on the international community to help release Li Xia.