Amnesty International Annual Report Exposes China’s Suppression of Falun Gong

Amnesty International released its annual report on human rights across the world on May the 26th 2004.

Concerning China, the report says, “Despite a few positive steps, no attempt was made to introduce the fundamental legal and institutional reforms necessary to bring an end to serious human rights violations. Tens of thousands of people continued to be detained or imprisoned in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association and were at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment.”

The report says that freedom of expression and religion continued to be severely restricted and China continued to use the international “war against terrorism” as a pretext for cracking down on peaceful dissent.

Regarding to the repression of spiritual and religious groups, the report summarised, “Members of unofficial spiritual or religious groups, including some Qi Gong groups and unregistered Christian groups, continued to be arbitrarily detained, tortured and ill-treated.”

The report continues, “Rhetoric intensified in the official media against the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which was banned as a ‘heretical organization’ in July 1999, apparently exacerbating the climate of violence and intolerance against the Falun Gong. Detained Falun Gong practitioners, including large numbers of women, were at risk of torture, including sexual abuse, particularly if they refused to renounce their beliefs. According to overseas Falun Gong sources, more than 800¹ people detained in connection with the Falun Gong had died since 1999, mostly as a result of torture or ill-treatment.”

The report also provides a death case of a Falun Gong practitioner. It says, “Deng Shiying reportedly died on 19 July, the day after her release from Jilin Women's Prison in Changchun City, Jilin Province, where she was serving a seven-year prison sentence in connection with producing and distributing information describing human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China. According to Falun Gong sources, she was beaten by other inmates, apparently prompted by prison officials, shortly before her release.”

Full text of the section on China can be found at:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/chn-summary-eng

¹ At present, it has been verified that at least 968 Falun Gong practitioners have died in the persecution in China. Due to the information blockade, actual death toll could be much higher than this.