International Society for Human Rights Press Release: People’s Republic of China (PRC) Five Years Since the Crackdown and Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong

China is human rights violator number one. We call for the freedom of Mrs. Xu Youling.

Today, Karl Hafen, Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) stated to the press in Frankfurt, “Now, also in Hong Kong, where until now Falun Gong practitioner were saved from the persecution, there are signs of mounting problems”.

On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the persecution, ISHR and Yan Chen, a student residing in Germany, appealed to the Beijing leadership to release Mrs Xu Youling from the forced labour camp. In April of 2003, Beijing police arrested the Falun Gong practitioner, because of distributing information material about the persecution of Falun Gong. She was sentenced to two years of re-education through hard labour. Mrs. Xu Youling is presently held at Beijing’s Daxing Forced Labour Camp. Her son, a student in Germany, announced, “Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners suffer from torture in the PRC and many have died from the most inhuman and cruelest of tortures. Even under the dictatorship, which scorns human rights, my mother had the courage to tell the truth of the Falun Gong persecution to the public. She deserves respect and under no circumstances torture. I will do everything in my power to save my mother’s life.”

During a foggy night in July 20th 1999, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. On June 4th 1999, just a short time earlier, the Chinese regime, on the tenth anniversary of the suppression of the Democracy Movement, maintained that they saw no reason to restrict Falun Gong. On July 22nd, two days after the unlawful arrests, Jiang Zemin, the former President, banned Falun Gong, citing a party decree. On October 1999, although freedom of belief is guaranteed under the Chinese Constitution, the Chinese Parliament enacted an amendment of the existing law under which the ban of Falun Gong is given the semblance of legality.

The ISHR asks the Federal Government and the governments of the EU countries to commit themselves to the immediate end of the persecution of Falun Gong. Karl Hafen referred to the most recent declaration by the President of the Federal Republic, Horst Koehler, during a reception for members of the resistance movement. He declared that the tribute to resistance obligates Germany to act according to the words in the German National Anthem, “For Constitutional Rights and Freedom.” Hafen continued, “This is especially true for the Peoples Republic of China, which is the world’s number one human rights violator.”