Germany: Falun Dafa Practitioners Held a News Conference Regarding the Lawsuit Against German Police's Manhandling During Jiang’s State Visit

A lawsuit has been filed barely one year after the maligned police intervention during Jiang’s state visit to Germany in 2002. On April 3 2003, Falun Dafa practitioners held a press conference in the cities of Berlin, Dresden and Hanover to declare that practitioners from different countries are filing lawsuits against the German Federal officials in the administrative courts of Brandenburg, Niedersachen and Sachsen. The goal of the lawsuits is to establish facts on human rights transgressions against Falun Gong practitioners during Jiang's state visit in Germany in April 2002, so as to prevent such acts in the future.

The first time that Jiang ever posed a problem to the German police is after his visit in 1995. The police faced many complaints from Amnesty International protesters because they placed several vans in front of the protesters to keep them far from Jiang’s motorcade, and the police band were instructed to play loud music so as to hide the chant of the protesters in Munich. Amnesty International in Munich took the lawsuit against the Ministry of Home affairs in the Bavarian Administrative Court and the Court ruled later that the police tactics had been unlawful. It was also pointed out in the judgement that safeguarding economic cooperation with other countries should not lead to the undermining of the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of its own citizens and the basic human rights in a democratic country.

This is the second time that German officials were brought to court due to a state visit from Jiang. Many people protested against China’s human rights abuses during Jiang’s visit last year. The handling of the protesters by police was criticised by local papers. Pictures of a protester being pounced on by Jiang’s body guards were shown in many newspapers.

This is the third time that Jiang’s visit has provoked the need for a lawsuit which had a strong impact on the police in Europe. The two previous lawsuits were because he was afraid of seeing protesters and infringed upon people's rights through the actions of local police, drawing indignation from the local people, the media and government officials. The lawsuit in 1995 with Amnesty International as the plaintiffs, and the lawsuit in 1999 which involved several organisations, ended with rulings in favour of the plaintiffs. The United Kingdom police apologised publicly to the plaintiffs. The Bavaria Administrative Court in Germany pointed out in their judgement, "No political or economical interests shall be above the Constitution."

During Jiang’s visit to UK in 1999, the Metropolitan police force were strongly attacked by the media and opposition parties because the police snatched banners away from protesters and used vans to hide Tibetan protesters so as to leave the Chinese leader only able to see his supporters. Later, the high court ruled the police actions at the Tibet rally unlawful. During Hu Jintao’s visit in 2001, the police were keen to avoid public relations disasters by carefully arranging the demonstrators within the sight of Hu; cooperated with them closely to make sure they were satisfied, and this was highly appraised by the local media and people.

When Jiang Zemin, the chief instigator of the brutal persecution against Falun Gong, visited Germany in April 2002, Falun Gong practitioners attempted to appeal to stop the persecution and their constitutional rights were infringed upon by German Federal agents and police. Falun Gong practitioners and other Asian ethnic groups were forced to vacate their booked rooms in the Hotel Adlon where Jiang was staying in Berlin under extensive security. A 40-year-old woman was almost suffocated by a Chinese secret agent in public and was manhandled by police as she shouted the name of Falun Gong outside the Taschenberg Palais Hotel Kempinski.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/4/47734.html