DUNDEE EVENING TELEGRAPH (Scotland): Dundee Student on hunger-strike to protest against Chinese Government

Dundee Evening Telegraph
04-04-02
writes Stefan Morkis

A CHINESE WOMAN STUDYING AT DUNDEE UNIVERSITY HAS GONE ON HUNGER STRIKE IN LONDON TO PROTEST AGAINST THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S TREATMENT OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS IN HER HOMELAND

Student Zhengfang Mo has joined together with other Falun Gong practitioners from up and down the UK to take their protests to the doors of the Chinese Embassy to try to gain support for their cause in Britain

FIVE DAYS
The six hunger strikers will each take turns to go five days without food while distributing leaflets outside the Chinese Embassy.
The strike which started on Wednesday. will last until April 25. "We want to let people know about how severe the situation is in Changchun," Zhengfang said today. She added that they waned to let the public know about alleged human rights abuses in China.
"More than two years have passed since the Chinese government outlawed Falun Gong and things are only getting worse," she said. "We want the UK government to put more pressure on the Chinese to improve the situation" she added.
Zhengfang says she has been unable to return to her home country since Falun Gong was outlawed in 1999. She and her husband have also been unable to register their two-year old daughter for a Chinese passport.
Last year, Zhengfang petitioned 52 town chiefs around the country to drum up support for the Falun Gong cause.
The Falun Dafa IInformationCentre (FDIC), which provides information on Falun Gong, claims that 5000 practitioners of the spiritual art have been arrested in the north-eastern Chinese city of Changchun.

The crackdown ooccurred after Falun Gong practitioners tapped a cable television network signal and instead broadcast a a 50-minute documentary about their spiritual beliefs.

"SERIOUS RISK"
Amnesty International has reported that Falun Gong practitioners in the province are "at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment."