Ireland: Falun Dafa Association and Amnesty International Appeal to the Foreign Affairs Office to Support the Rescue of Liu Feng and Yang Fang

Representatives of the Irish Falun Dafa Association and the Irish branch of Amnesty International formally submitted five thousand postcards, with tens of thousands of signatures from Irish people, to Tom Kitt, Junior Minister of the Foreign Affairs Department. These postcards appealed for the rescue of Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated in China, including Liu Feng and Yang Fang, two Irish students who are not allowed to return to their studies in Ireland because they practise Falun Gong.

Amnesty International distributed twenty thousand postcards to the people of Ireland asking them to support the Falun Gong practitioners who are being persecuted in China. They received feedback from five thousand people, the highest return rate they have ever experienced. The front of the postcard contains a picture of three persecuted Falun Gong practitioners who are students in Ireland. The back of the postcard reads:

Dear Mr. Kitt

I thank the Irish government, yourself and Mr. Premier for your efforts to highlight the case of Zhao Ming to the Chinese government. In China, there are thousands of people who are imprisoned because they follow Falun Gong or other religious beliefs. Among those persecuted are the students Liu Feng and Yang Fang, and Lin Chung Tao whose health is severely deteriorating according to latest reports. Please highlight these cases to the Chinese government with your utmost efforts, and urge them to release all the innocently imprisoned people unconditionally.

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Later, the representatives of the Falun Dafa Association and Amnesty International talked with Minister Tom Kitt for thirty minutes. Through this activity, the Irish Government has been able to further understand the Irish people’s concerns for the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China. Mr. Kitt indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will highlight the cases of Liu Feng and Yang Fang in a joint meeting with China and also in the multilateral talks between the European Union and China.

Liu Feng and Yang Fang were students in an Irish college, who were illegally arrested when they went back to China on Christmas vacation in 1999. Although they were later released, they were illegitimately prevented from returning to Ireland to continue their studies. In 2002, when Liu Feng was about to return to Ireland, he was illegally kidnapped whilst out shopping and was arrested by police in Dalian. His whereabouts are now unknown. Yang Fang was illegally prohibited from boarding an aeroplane headed for Ireland and was forcefully taken back to her home in Shenyang province. Staff and pupils of their college in Ireland are paying close attention to this situation.

The illegal arrests of innocent overseas students from Ireland, and the prevention of their returning to continue their studies, have damaged the human rights record and international image of China. The authorities must release Yang Fang and Liu Feng immediately and unconditionally, and allow them to return to Ireland to continue their studies.

Chinese version available at http://www.yuanmingeurope.net/articles/200304/19239.html