Austria: Practitioners File a Lawsuit Against Jiang's Accomplice Jia Qinglin During His Visit to Austria

On August the 30th 2004, organisations including the Austrian Falun Dafa Association, the International Human Rights Association, and the human rights group ‘Organisation for Threatened People’ filed a lawsuit against Jia Qinglin for crimes of torture in the Vienna Procuratorate.

Jia Qinglin, now the tenth Chairman of the Political Consultation, was the secretary of Beijing Municipal Party committee from 1999 to 2002. He took vigorous action to push forward the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The period of his working in Beijing is the period when the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners was the most insane and brutal. 27 Dafa practitioners, including Beijing Industrial and Commercial University youth teacher Zhao Xin, were persecuted to death in this period. The government-staged self-immolation in Tiananmen Square also took place in this period.

As soon as Austrian Falun Gong practitioners learned of Jia Qinglin’s visit to Austria, they began to prepare the lawsuit, and at the same time they made use of all opportunities to expose Jia’s crimes of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners to Austrian political circles by doing interviews, phoning people and sending letters.

August the 31st 2004 was the first day of Jia Qinglin’s visit to Austria. The weather in Austria these days is always fine, but on this day, the temperature dropped dramatically, dark clouds covered the sky and it started to rain early in the morning. On the first stop of Jia’s visit Falun Gong practitioners held an information day, unfurling banners reading ‘A Lawsuit has been Filed Against Jia Qinglin for Torture and Persecution’ and ‘Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice’. Jia’s delegation went right past the banners.

Tourists from all over the world saw our display boards, as well as Falun Gong practitioners peacefully doing the exercises, and learned the truth. Many Chinese touring groups passed our site and lots of people accepted our flyers. After seeing persecuted practitioner from Shenyang Rongrong Gao’s burned face on the display board, a tourist who speaks English asked practitioners if this shocking thing is really happening now. Hearing the explanation, she sympathised with the suffering Falun Gong practitioners and felt angry about the persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners explained the facts and sent righteous thought for a whole day. In the afternoon, sunshine and blue sky broke through the dark clouds.

In the evening, Jia arrived at the Austrian Prime Minister’s government office in Vienna. Falun Gong practitioners unfurled banners, and sent righteous thoughts in front of the office. The banners were held very high, so that the Austrian officials and the Chinese delegacy inside the Prime Minister’s government office building could see them clearly. Some Chinese officials told Austrian Police to force Falun Gong practitioners to hold the banners lower. Austrian police refused the unreasonable request by telling them that there is no height limit for banners.