PRESS RELEASE: Jiang Zemin Orders "Kill Them without Pardon" After Surprise TV Broadcast in China Supports Falun Gong

EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE

Jiang Zemin Orders "Kill Them without Pardon" After Surprise TV Broadcast in China Supports Falun Gong

LONDON, March 7, 2002. Following a March 5 evening broadcast of programmes supportive of Falun Gong in North Eastern China, a furious President Jiang Zemin has ordered a series of executions targeting all persons involved and other practitioners of Falun Gong throughout China. Jiang is said to have ordered, "Kill them without pardon" immediately following the event. Other cities and provinces across China have now reportedly compiled, following the President's command, lists of specific Falun Gong practitioners to execute.

The European Falun Gong Information Centre has learned that among those arrested in Changchun are three Falun Gong practitioners who were kidnapped immediately after the event. Neither the identities of those involved in the actual broadcast, nor their relation to Falun Gong are known at this time. Sources in China report, however, that the 610 Office of Jilin Province and Changchun City, where the broadcast took place on Tuesday, are acting on orders to compile lists of Falun Gong practitioners to be executed; several practitioners who were taken into custody before the broadcast are said to be on the list. Some others involved in the broadcast will allegedly be sentenced to heavy prison terms.

The surprise Changchun TV broadcast lasted between 40 and 50 minutes, sources in China say, and reached hundreds of thousands of viewers. The contents of the programmes are said to have documented the unlawful, violent nature of the persecution against Falun Gong, and clarified the true, positive nature of the practice. One of the key features was a segment entitled, Self-immolation or Deception? (click to view online version)which presented evidence that the January 2001 immolations in Beijing were staged by the government.

"Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong survives on an arsenal of lies and deceit, and the biggest weapon is the propaganda surrounding the self-immolation incident; it's the most potent and demonizing of the lies" said Peter Jauhal, spokesman for the European Falun Gong Information Centre.
"And this demonstrates exactly why Jiang has reacted with such fury: he's scared because the most terrifying thing for him is that people will find out the truth about the self-immolation, which the broadcasts revealed, as well as the truth about Falun Gong. He'll do anything to stop this, even if it means murdering his own people."

The programmes about Falun Gong were broadcast on eight cable channels in Changchun City, all run by the Changchun Cable TV Network, a government-owned company. The network's viewership is calculated at over one million. Unconfirmed reports indicate that similar broadcasts have recently taken place in other Chinese provinces.

The Changchun broadcast is completely without precedent in China, where only the State's voice may be heard in the media. For over two years Chinese authorities have waged a propaganda war against Falun Gong and its practitioners. All Falun Gong publications are banned; tens of millions of its books have been confiscated and destroyed; its Websites are banned; and the practice cannot even be mentioned in e-mails or in chat rooms. State media have run thousands of reports attacking Falun Gong; several million comic
books that demonise Falun Gong have been printed; and even children in elementary schools must recite poems denouncing Falun Gong.

The violence and torture of the persecution has led to 375 confirmed deaths in custody. Chinese government sources, however, say the actual number of deaths is well over 1,600.

The European Falun Gong Information Centre calls for the immediate release of all who are detained in connection with the Changchun broadcast, and for help from all international organizations to prevent the execution and extra-judicial sentencing of participants in the broadcast and Falun Gong practitioners across China.