United Nations Pays Attention to the Situation of Falun Gong Practitioners who have Disappeared

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong, many Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured and killed, and a lot of families have been destroyed. Equally horrifying is that many Falun Gong practitioners have disappeared. People have started paying more attention to the situation of those practitioners with whom they had lost contact during the seven-year-long persecution, especially after the CCP's crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in concentration camps was exposed to the international society.

In the last several years, people have systematically provided evidence of disappeared Falun Gong practitioners. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group also submitted many disappearance case reports to the United Nations. Many of the practitioners who have disappeared are relatives of Falun Gong practitioners living outside of China. Practitioners believe that they have been abducted by CCP officials.

Recently, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances published information on the disappearance cases in China that they have handled over the last year. A major portion of the disappearance cases in the last several years involve Falun Gong practitioners. The working group paid special attention to the disappearances of children. They dealt with one case in which the four-year-old child of a Falun Gong practitioner disappeared after being taken away by policemen.

The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group hopes that people in China will provide more detailed information about the disappearances of Falun Gong practitioners. The working group also hopes that the family members of those practitioners who have disappeared will get more actively involved in looking for them, and provide more first-hand materials to human right organisations.

Summary

In the past, most of the disappearance cases that the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances handled were cases between 1988 and 1990, and between 1995 and 1996. Most of them were about Tibetan people, and 19 of them were monks. It is said that these monks were arrested in Nepal, and transferred to China later.

Between 2000 and 2001, 13 of the cases were about Falun Gong practitioners. It is said that they were kidnapped by the public security department or local government. In one of the cases, a boy disappeared after being interviewed by an immigration officer in Hong Kong. In another case, a Chinese citizen, who has an American green card, was kidnapped by a policeman in 2002. In a case submitted in 2004, a four-year-old boy was taken away by a local policeman from his house in Tongnan County. His parents are both Falun Gong practitioners.

Cases under Investigation

Within the last year, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances submitted 110 disappearance cases reports to the Chinese government. Ten cases were verified by the submitters, including the case of Falun Gong practitioner Jiang Renzheng, who was deported from Germany to China. Sixty-nine cases were verified by information provided by the Chinese government. Thirty-one cases are still under investigation.

Concerns

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is concerned with a new phenomenon. Among those who are discriminated against in China, the number of the disappearance cases of children and others who have been persecuted by the government is increasing. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances hopes to find those people as soon as possible. The working group also hopes that the family members of those who have disappeared can provide more detailed information, so that the working group can negotiate with the Chinese government.