Victims of South Africa Shooting Return to Australia and Recount More Crime Details

According to an Epoch Times report, nine Falun Gong practitioners from Australia who had gone to South Africa safely returned to Sydney on July the 5th 2004 and further revealed the details of the shooting incident.

Injured Practitioner David Liang being interviewed at Sydney Airport

Before the nine practitioners took off for South Africa, they had been planning to take legal actions against responsible individuals Zeng Qinghong and Bo Xilai for their persecution of Falun Gong. Before they left Australia, practitioner Li received a threatening phone call.

They said that around 6:00 p.m. on June 28, the nine practitioners arrived at the Johannesburg International Airport in South Africa. It took them about two hours to rent two cars at the airport and then set out for Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa. After half an hour of driving at the speed of about 120 km per hour, a light-coloured car pulled up beside their second car and a passenger started shooting.

Falun Gong practitioner David Liang's feet seriously injured

The gunman's bullets punctured the tires from behind and broke the cooling radiator. The engine overheated because of the water leaking, it slowed down and eventually stopped running. The practitioners' car slowed down, the gunmen's car overtook the practitioners' car and shot at them as they were driving parallel. The gunmen tried to force the practitioners' car off the road with their car. Bullets went through driver Mr. David Liang's feet and shattered the heel bones in his left foot. Given that he could no longer step on the brakes, his car went off the road. The car went over a water channel about 1.5 feet wide and 1 foot deep, and passed through knee-high grass at a still high speed. The car stopped after about 100 feet. The gunman stopped his car and watched the practitioners' car for a few seconds after the practitioners' car drove off the highway, and then the gunman took off.

Afterwards, the practitioners saw a huge pit about 30 feet from where the car had stopped. A disaster would have taken place if the car continued to go forward and had fallen into the pit.

Around 8:30 p.m. on June 28 South Africa time, the gunman in a white car shot the practitioners' car from behind. The picture shows bullet holes and punctured tires.

The practitioners who were interviewed emphasized three points:

According to weapons experts, the recoil force of an AK47 rifle, which the gunman used in the shooting, is quite large, so it's difficult for amateurs to use. When it is on automatic mode, if the triggering force is slightly greater than needed, all 30 bullets would have been fired in one burst. Only trained shooters can use an automatic AK47 and fire only three to five bullets at one time. The picture taken from the scene clearly shows five bullet holes on the car at a low position, almost in a straight line. It would have been difficult for an untrained gunman to do that.

Secondly, the gunman tried to force the practitioners' car off the highway instead of just shooting them directly. This did not seem like a random attempt at robbery.

Lastly, the attacker's car stopped and the gunman observed the practitioners for a few seconds before taking off, without getting out of his car. Again, the purpose was evidently not a robbery.

Practitioner Mr. Wang, who was involved in the incident at the time, said the gunman was clearly professionally trained and had a specific, clear purpose in mind.

This shooting represents the most serious incident in the past five years of the persecution of Falun Gong outside of China. Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Hong Kong and other regions in the world gathered in front of Chinese consulates and embassies. They strongly condemned the Jiang regime's hiring of a gunman to murder Falun Gong practitioners. Many people, including some Australian government officials, said they would provide help for the practitioners and condemn this incident.