MEP Matti Wuori writes to President Chirac: "I deeply regret that the French government bowed to Chinese pressure"

President Jacques Chirac
Palais de l'Elysée
Paris, France

Strasbourg, 5. May 2004

Honourable President,

I am writing to urge you, dear President Chirac, to defend the French values of liberty, equality and fraternity.

From the grand parade on the Champs-Elysées, co-organised by Paris and Beijing, until the end of the official visit in France of Chinese president Hu Jintao (from 24 to 28 January 2004), about 70 Falun Gong practitioners from England, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Sweden were arrested and detained for many hours while distributing flyers or simply wearing yellow scarves with the words "Falun Gong" on them on the streets of Paris. Some practitioners were taken away simply for being with those wearing yellow scarves.

For more than four years, in China, Falun Gong practitioners have been the target of a campaign of terror and genocide led by the ex-Party chief Jiang Zemin – more than 900 have been tortured to death, more than 100,000 incarcerated in forced labour camps without trial, thousands have been forced into psychiatric hospitals; women, children and the elderly are not spared. Jiang Zemin is being sued for torture, genocide and crimes against humanity in North America, Asia and Europe.

I deeply regret that the French government bowed to Chinese pressure, acted against of the French values of liberty, equality, fraternity and arbitrarily arrested peaceful people who in no way had disturbed public order. I therefore request the French authorities to investigate these unjustifiable acts of discrimination and violence and to apologise to the victims unreservedly.

I thank you for your kind attention.

Yours sincerely,

Matti Wuori, MEP
EP Human Rights Rapporteur 2001
Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Human Rights, Common Security and Defence policy