Malaysia: Falun Dafa Practitioners Appeal to Human Rights Committee After Repeated Discrimination

On the morning of August 11th, the Malaysian Falun Dafa Association submitted a memorandum to the Malaysian Human Rights Committee, calling for attention to the persistent discrimination against the Association since its establishment. The Malaysian human rights organisation, "Voice of the People" and the human rights committee have both stressed that the Malaysian government should not violate the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners in order to maintain relations with the Chinese regime.

This is the second time that practitioners have contacted the Malaysian Human Rights Committee, as their freedom of association has been severely violated by the government.

Malaysian practitioners call upon Human Rights Committee to pay close attention to persistent interference with the Falun Dafa Association

When submitting the memorandum, Cai Weiqiang [phonetic], spokesman for Malaysian practitioners, said that the freedom of association of Falun Gong has been repeatedly violated. For example, the practitioners' application to form an association has been turned down three times. The practitioners then applied to the Company Registration Bureau to form the Falun Dafa Association; however, this process also met with a lot of interference.

A former Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs warned practitioners of potential interference upon learning of the establishment of the Falun Dafa Association. Later on, the Chinese Embassy unreasonably requested the Bureau to terminate the Falun Dafa Association. Thereafter, practitioners received a letter from the Bureau claiming that they had the authority to terminate the association on the basis of "National Security." Then, this May, the Company Registration Bureau sued Malaysian Falun Dafa Association for six minor technical errors in organisational operation.

Cai said that they had sufficient reason to believe that this lawsuit is just one of many efforts to sabotage the Falun Dafa Association in order to prevent practitioners from establishing legal registration.

Zhen Likang [phonetic], a representative of "Voice of the People," said that the government should not put foreign policy above human rights, and just because another country requests it to violate a groups' basic rights, it can't do so. He believed that the Malaysian government must take a clear stand on the Falun Gong issue.

A representative of the Malaysian Human Rights Committee said that the committee would pay close attention to the violation of practitioners' freedom of association. He also said that Malaysian government should not violate practitioners' rights in order to maintain relations with China.