Macao: Police Step Up Their Illegal Surveillance of Practitioners

Macao is a small island next to Hong Kong. In the past three years, representatives of Macao's police department have been following Falun Gong practitioners, seriously violating Macao's laws and human rights guidelines. Falun Gong practitioners have appealed to the procurator and sued the police for abuse of police power and infringement of human rights, but have received no official response. Practitioners also went to the police department to complain about being tracked illegally. A policeman on duty replied, "You could also track them." This kind of absurd response can do nothing but damage the police's image.

The surveillance has escalated of late. On February 8th 2003, while Falun Gong practitioners were practising the exercises, plainclothes police began videotaping them. When the practise finished and practitioners started to leave the park, the police followed them. Some practitioners were followed to their home, videotaped all the way, even upon entering the building and getting into the elevator.

In the afternoon, practitioners distributed truth clarification materials at tourist attractions. The police department added yet another police officer and videotaped each practitioner at close distance while they were sending forth righteous thoughts [thinking upright thoughts to purify oneself and one's surroundings].

On February 9th, Sunday morning, practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts at 5, 6 and 7 am, and studied the Fa [principles and teachings of Falun Gong] and practised the exercises across from the Chinese government Liaison Office until 9:30. The police came early in the morning and videotaped nearly the entire process. After that they followed a female student home. They recorded details of her whole environment, including her entrance to the building and her climbing the staircase, as if they were shooting a documentary film.

Judging from the events over these two days, it seems that the police are documenting individual cases of Falun Gong practitioners who come out in public to reveal the truth and are trying to keep abreast of each practitioner's situation. But the police are trying to hide their behaviour. A practitioner photographed him when he was videotaping, and the policeman evaded and tried to hide.

From the police's behaviour, we can see that under the pressure of Jiang regime, some help the tyrant do evil in persecuting Dafa and practitioners. Some police one time threatened: "You are Falun Gong. We may take you to the police station anytime." Hong Kong is pushing Article 23, which has drawn the attention of people around the world. Macao is also implementing Article 23, but little is known of this in the outside world. From the outside it looks quite peaceful, but inside Macao, the government is pushing forward the legislation. It seems they were competing with Hong Kong to see who could implement the subversion law first. Macao's Article 23 has not yet emerged, yet the persecution has suddenly escalated. We admonish those with evil intentions to awaken! We hope you can treat Falun Gong with benevolence, conscience and fairness. Be responsible to yourselves and be responsible to society.