Article from Danish Newspaper ’Information’: Falun Gong in International Struggle for Justice against China’s Regime

By Dorrit Saietz

On one side of the street, several hundred public prosecutors are meeting behind Scandic Hotel’s dark-glazed windows for a conference on witnesses, experts and victims in criminal cases. Right across the road, on the grass hill by the Copenhagen lakes, a handful of Danish and Chinese Falun Gong practitioners stand with their banners. Some sit in the lotus position and meditate. Others pass out flyers in the sunshine.

For two years they have waited and prepared to strike at the right moment. Falun Gong filed a torture lawsuit this weekend against the visiting Chinese Procurator General Jia Chunwang. This became lawsuit number 49 against Chinese Government leaders and officials abroad.

"Everybody in there can see the signs and know that they have a human rights criminal in their midst," says Marco Hsu, spokesperson for Falun Gong in Denmark. "They represent law and order, and we would like to know what they have to say about this."

Among the participants is State Prosecutor for Special International Criminal Cases Birgitte Vestberg. She does not have much to say, except that her office is making an all-out effort to examine the complaint. "We have given the complaint the highest priority, but otherwise we treat it as all other cases. And no, I do not find it strange that I participate here — should I leave it because someone has been sued?" she asks.

An evil regime

For the demonstrating Falun Gong people, this is their chance to set the spotlight on the persecution they are going through, and which has been so difficult to tell the world about. Maybe because no one really understands why these people, who only want to cultivate their belief in ”Truth, Compassion and Tolerance”, are so hated by China’s authorities. In fact, they do not even understand themselves why they are being persecuted.

"We are fighting an evil regime, which persecutes innocent people," says the Chinese refugee Zhao Ming, who labels himself a ”surviving torture victim” of the merciless persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Today he lives in Ireland, but serves as a witness in several of the international lawsuits.

"Western governments are silent about these crimes and not willing to arrest these criminals, but one day it will happen," he says.

Procurator General Jia Chunwang isn’t just anybody. China’s highest prosecutor was minister of public security in 1999, when China’s government decided to crush Falun Gong, and according to the complaint he was one of the main persons behind the brutal campaign against the movement’s practitioners. From one day to another, the peaceful and apolitical meditation-movement was banned, and millions of its practitioners became hunted victims both inside and outside China. Since then, the reports have been piling up at the UN, Amnesty International and in the international media about imprisonments, torture, persecution and murder.

Both Denmark and China have signed and ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. The convention transcends borders and therefore gives Denmark the right — in fact the duty — to act if there is suspicion of crimes against the convention.

The Danish human rights lawyer Tyge Trier has filed the complaint on behalf of Falun Gong. "There exists an informal network of lawyers helping Falun Gong from, among other countries, France, Germany, England, Sweden and USA," he confirms. He himself has advised the movement in Denmark since 2003, and helped them collect the necessary documents. On Sunday came the chance, when Jia Chunwang landed in Kastrup.

"We also tried to raise a case when China’s Vice-Premier visited Ireland," tells Zhao Ming. "But is was a state visit, and he was covered by his diplomatic immunity."

Electric shocks were the worst

His personal story is that he studied IT-science in Ireland but was arrested by the secret police during a visit to his home country in May of 2003. "I had done nothing illegal. Still I was imprisoned for a year and ten months. I was in two different labour-camps in Beijing and a prison in my home-province. I was tortured with electric shocks, sleep-deprivation for weeks and severe beatings. Torture by electric shocks is especially horrible. You become senseless," he says about his experiences.

Jia Chunwang is not head of state and he is not on official visit but is participating in a conference arranged by an NGO, Marco Hsu points out.

"He does not enjoy diplomatic immunity, so there is nothing to stop them from arresting," he says.

The 49 attempts to bring Chinese Government leaders to justice have not yet lead to concrete results. There are some victories — a few courts in the USA have judged sentences on Chinese officials who did not meet in court, and therefore automatically lost. In Zambia, an arrest order was sent out on a Chinese provincial leader, who later went underground and escaped the country.

"It is shocking for Chinese officials, that they risk arrest and imprisonment abroad," says Marco Hsu. And that is part of the reason why the lawsuits are being filed – to bring awareness and make the responsible people in the Chinese system think twice.

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"We are trying to send out a message to the Chinese leaders: We are watching what you are doing, and we know about your crimes," says Marco.