LONDON [EFGIC]– State Councillor and former Minister of Education Ms. Chen Zhili will face criminal proceedings before a Tanzanian High Court where she has been sued for torture and extra judicial killings.
The suit was filed on July 19 2004 against Chen while she was visiting several African nations. On Aug. 3, a Tanzanian judge gave the green light for a criminal trial to proceed against her.
During her term as Education Minister, Chen saturated the Chinese school system’s course materials and exams with anti-Falun Gong propaganda. She also used mandatory pledges to identify administrators, teachers and students who practise Falun Gong, most of whom were subsequently sent to brainwashing sessions or labour camps.
As of March 2004, the European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified the details of 61 Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country who are either students or teachers that have been killed for practising Falun Gong. Many others have been tortured, beaten or raped.
Chen has faced fierce opposition within the Chinese education community for her actions. In March 2002, she was impeached during the People’s National Congress.
Chen, however, apparently continues to receive support from Jiang Zemin – the former Chinese leader who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999 – and was appointed to the position of State Councillor in charge of education under Jiang’s influence.
Cultural Revolution Reborn
Under Chen’s direction, China’s schools serve as state propaganda organs. Course and exam materials have been modified to include communist propaganda against the practice of Falun Gong. National exams, for example, now include questions about Falun Gong that must be answered reiterating anti-Falun Gong propaganda or students will not be allowed to pass.
In 2001, Chen initiated the “million signature” campaign, which was designed to force everyone involved in the school system, from administrators, professors, principals, teachers and students, to sign a pledge not to practise Falun Gong and to declare that they agree with Jiang Zemin’s initiative to “eradicate Falun Gong.”
Coercion and threats were used against children as young as seven years old to sign this pledge or else be denied the right to participate in school activities, be expelled, or have their parents arrested.
Some of these signatures were later taken to Geneva and presented to delegates of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in an attempt to thwart condemnation of the persecution against Falun Gong.
Abandon Conscience or Face Violent “Re-education”
Teachers or students who refuse to sign their names in support of initiatives against Falun Gong often lose their jobs or are expelled from school, and some are sent directly to brainwashing classes, labour camps or prison. Some even require that you cannot have family members that practise.
Over three hundred people from China’s prestigious Tsinghua University have been detained in labour camps or sentenced to prison for practising Falun Gong.
Seventeen-year-old Ms. Wang Lin from Suileng County, Heilongjiang Province, refused to endorse the anti-Falun Gong propaganda in a high school entrance exam and instead wrote “Falun Gong is good.” Her parents were subsequently beaten by police and she was forced to flee home to escape being detained by the authorities.
Mr. Wang Zhe, a student at the No. 1 Senior High School in Changtu County, Liaoning Province, was expelled after openly discussing the persecution of Falun Gong. When his parents later appealed to the school authorities, Wang was taken away by police and held in a county detention centre.
“What we have learned from history is that a common component of genocide is the complete demonization of the class of victims and that includes indoctrinating youth with hate propaganda,” says European Falun Gong Information Centre spokesperson Mr Peter Jauhal. “What Chen has done through the Chinese school system is exactly that – indoctrinate the youth of China against Falun Gong – and this has served as a vital part of Jiang Zemin’s overall plan to ‘eradicate Falun Gong.’”
News – August 6, 2004
European Falun Gong Information Centre, www.clearharmony.net
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practise of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practised in over 50 countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practising Falun Gong, China's Communist leader Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practise in July 1999 (report). Since that time, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practise while imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practise it. The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 1014 deaths (reports / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. In October 2001, however, Government officials inside China reported that the actual death toll was well over 1,600. Expert sources now estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE
Peter Jauhal + 44 (0) 7719 508 268 Nicolas Schols +32 47 98 75 734
More contacts. http://www.falungonginfo.net/europe.htm
Email: [email protected]
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