German Media: "People There Have No Rights"

On July 16th 2005, German newspaper Roding published an article entitled "People there have no rights". In the article, Falun Gong practitioner Min Teng-Schwaeger talked about the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners and Utz-Reiner Roemer discussed the autocracy of the Chinese Communist party.

Below is a translation of the main points of the report:
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The Luo Ding human rights convention consists of thirty articles and was written in December 1948. These articles include the rights enjoyed by individual persons of freedom, life and property, as well as the right to be free from torture and the country's autocratic rule.

However, in China people do not enjoy internationally acknowledged human rights. Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted an iron policy to suppress dissidents through persecution and torture. Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer and Ms. Min Teng-Schwaeger of an international human rights organisation told the students of the tenth grade at Konrad-Adenauer Middle School in Germany about this serious shortcoming of the most populous country in the world.

Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer is a representative of the International Human Rights Organisation and engages in human rights work in Kam and Ragsburg throughout the year. He has personal experience of the persecution of human rights in Tibet. Ms. Min Teng-Schwaeger came from Shanghai and has lived in Kam since 2002. She practises Falun Gong, a type of cultivation practice, whose practitioners are being persecuted and tortured in China.

"In China there is no free news agency like ours, no independent trade unions and no justice administration," Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer said as he introduced this topic to the students. “There are a lot of cultural heritage enthusiasts and industrious people in China. Yet, since 1949, the CCP has changed China into a place of terror. Until the end of the 1980s, people did not become aware of the limited right of owning private property. Even the justice, faith and religious systems have to be approved by the country's autocracy.

"Should we remove the embargo of weapons to such a country? Should the 2008 Olympic Games be held in such a country?" Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer asked. In Tibet, occupied by China in 1950, the CCP's desire for power was made particularly clear. Half of this stretch of land, including the capital Lhasa and a lot of historic sites, were guaranteed autonomy. However, all this has never been realised. The atmosphere for the Buddhists was lost in Lhasa, and it was filled with countless soldiers. The tyranny of the Chinese Government was all-pervasive, even the temples were installed with cameras and security devices.

The children suffer the most and Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer feels sorry about that. High tuition fees severed the path to education and a better life. The Tibetan people are allowed to have only two children. If a third child is born, he/she is essentially non-existent and has no identity no rights. In addition, the portrait of the Dalai Lama is forbidden to be distributed. All governments are obligated to support these innocent helpless people, Mr. Utz-Reiner Roemer concluded.

Ms. Min Teng-Schwaeger then explained the goal of Falun Gong. This kind of cultivation of both life and character is based on truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance. The middle school students some of the Falun Gong exercises. In China, this kind of totally harmless cultivation systemhas suffered persecution for six years. Falun Gong practitioners are submitted to torture varying from the electric baton to rape. Even pregnant women cannot escape torment by the Chinese government.

If one wants to understand more about the work of our international human rights organisation, please log on to the website: www.igfm.de.