Condemning the Russian Authorities’ Illegal Deportation of Professor Gao Chunman

On May 13th, 2007, Professor Gao Chunman, who is a Falun Gong practitioner with UN refugee status, was forcibly carried away from his home by agents of the Russian Federal Immigration Service’s St. Petersburg branch. He was taken to Moscow and deported back to China by a flight of the Moscow Airline that same day. This was the second vicious act Russian authorities have done after Falun Gong practitioner Ma Hui and her eight-year-old daughter were deported to China. The Chairman of the Moscow Falun Dafa Association, Mr. Ivan Shikaqiuk, thereby strongly condemned the Russian authorities and protested against their despicable decision. In addition, he also talked to some senior officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other human right organizations in this regard. These officials expressed that they were really shocked to learn that recently the Russian authorities have illegally deported two Falun Gong practitioners in a row, which is obviously against Russian national laws and international human right conventions.

Professor Gao Chunman arrested by despicable means

Professor Gao’s wife, Mira said: “The agents of the Russian Federal Immigration Service St. Petersburg branch cheated us in order to get into our home.” She added: “Since we were planning to trade our old house for a new one, a real estate dealer called us at about 11 a.m. on May 11th, saying that one of their customers by the name of Gary Hsieh wanted to see our house. As expected, a man who identified himself as Gary Hssieh, together with a lady, came to our place about half an hour later. Shortly, four other strangers opened the door themselves and entered our house forcibly. One of them said: “You should have known who we are. Since professor Gao has violated Russian laws, he shall be deported back to China. Mira thus said: “Why did you lie to me by saying that you wanted to see our house?” The agents replied: “Why not. Otherwise, it would not be possible for you to let us get in here. ”

Mira added: “There were six immigration agents altogether. Upon entering my home, they first pulled out our telephone cord, and then tried to steal my mobile phone. As I held my mobile phone tightly, their attempt was not successful. During the process of arresting my husband, one of the agents exclusively took pictures of the Falun Gong books and Master Li’s portrait in my home. They seemed to search for any evidence relating to Falun Gong. I wonder if they wanted to flatter high ranking officials of Russia or the Chinese Communist regime.”

Mira recalled: “When professor Gao was taken away, I asked the agents where he would be sent to. They said that I should ask the local police. I also requested them to let Gao have lunch before being taken away, but they didn’t listen to me whatsoever and forcibly took him away immediately. It was actually a robbery.”

The decision of deportation was made by the Russia’s highest authorities.

May the 13th, 2007 was World Falun Gong Day, which fell on a Sunday. The fact that the Immigration Service chose that day to arrest Professor Gao made it very difficult for people to proceed with the rescue work. Professor Gao’s wife and friends tried their best to find someone to help out, but to no avail. All the answers were the same “Today is a holiday, and we couldn’t do anything.”

When Professor Gao’s wife and the Chairman of the Moscow Falun Gong Association, Mr. Ivan Shikaqiuk made it to the local police department and made phone calls to the local branch of the Immigration Service as well as the Security Bureau, but the only answer they could got was “I have no idea.” Gao’s wife had no choice but to file a missing person report with the police station. The police station recorded the case and sent a police officer to her home for a criminal investigation. But all these seemed to be a premeditated show to delay the process. At about 7 p.m., the police station called her and said: “It is clear that the Immigration Service has arrested Professor Gao, and he was in Moscow to wait deportation.” In reality, Professor Gao was deported by an Air China’s direct flight from Moscow to Beijing at 8:10 p.m. that day, which made it impossible for other practitioners to rescue him before his departure. Apparently, this was a well planned tactic.

When the Chairman of the Moscow Falun Dafa Association, Mr. Ivan Shikaqiuk appealed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Russia for help, a Deputy Director told Mr. Shikaqiuk, “The director of the Russian Immigration Service said that the decision of the deportation was made by the highest authority and we were simply an enforcer.” That was confirmed by other channels.

A scheme to cover up the persecution

These two kidnapping and deportation cases were carried out by the same group of personnel from the same department. When Ma Hui and her e daughter were deported, they were escorted to Beijing by two police officers with uniforms and picked up by a wicked female agent who forcibly separated the hands of the mother and her daughter. This was the real situation happening on the scene. When professor Gao was deported, as he was disabled, he was not exclusively escorted or picked up by any agents, so as to create a false impression that his deportation had nothing to do with others. In fact, no matter how they disguised the truth, as long as practitioners were deported to China, they would definitely be caught by Chinese national security agents. Only those special agents are entitled to decide whether the deported practitioners shall be detained or released. It is ridiculous to employ a false image to cover up the atrocities that Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted in China in the past eight years.

Being a practitioner in Russia, I was sorry to see the Russian highest authority, due to short-term political and economic interests, betraying their moral consciences and being pushed to the dismal abyss gradually. We would like to call on the Russian highest authority to get back on the righteous track at this critical and historic juncture. As the Chinese Communist regime is going to be eliminated by heaven, we thus urge the Russian authorities not to become the Chinese regime’s accomplices persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

The U.N. officials supported the appeal to the European human right court against the Russian authority’ inhuman act.

On the morning of May 14th, the Chairman of the Moscow Falun Gong Association, Mr. Shikaqiuk met with a senior manager of the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees Office in Russia. The U.N. official expressed that they were against the Russian Immigration Service’s decision of deporting someone with U.N. refugee status and that they would ask the Russian authorities to give an explicit explanation in these regards according to relevant regulations.

The deportation of professor Gao has shocked human right organisations in Russia. They commented that when the fall out of the case of deporting Ms. Ma and her daughter back to China was still around, the deportation of professor Gao clearly signified that the Russian authority policies were apparently against the principles of democracy and sided with the Chinese Communist regime, which was very stupid. They added that it was very inhuman and cruel to deport the mother and her eight-month-old daughter as well as the seventy three year-old disabled former professor to China and handed them to the Chinese authorities for persecution. In these regards, they supported the local Falun Gong Association’s appeal to the European human right court against the Russian authorities’ inhuman act, so as to rescue those who have been deported back to China. To this end, they provided the practitioners with quite a lot concrete assistance. The St. Petersburg branch of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Russia and some lawyers are in the process of preparing relevant material and offering some legal assistance to the practitioners.