Germany: Falun Gong Practitioners from the Ex-Soviet Union Protest against Russia’s Illegal Deportation of a UN Refugee

Large numbers of people living in Germany are from the ex-Soviet Union. With Falun Gong spreading, some of them have also started to practise Falun Gong. On May 15th, a group of German Falun Gong practitioners from the ex-Soviet Union submitted a letter of protest to the Russian Consulate in Berlin condemning the second case of forcibly deporting a Falun Gong practitioner with UN refugee status to China. They called on the Russian government not to submit to both economic and political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and not to serve as an accessory in persecuting Falun Gong. They demanded that the Russian Government try to rescue Ma Hui, her daughter and Professor Gao Cunman, all of whom have been illegally deported back to Russia. The Vice-Consul in Berlin talked with Falun Gong practitioners and said that he would forward the letter to the Russian Government.

On May 13th, 2007, in another case, Falun Gong practitioner Gao Cunman, who also had UN refugee status, was kidnapped i Russia and deported to China.

Seventy-three-year-old Gao Cunman used to be a professor at Tsinghua University. Mila, Gao’s wife, a Russian citizen said, "At that time, personnel in plain clothes from the Russian Federal Immigration Office told lies saying they wanted to hire a room and asked Gao to open the door for them. As soon as five people in plain clothes entered, without showing their identity cards, they first disconnected the telephone, then forcibly took Gao Cunman to Moscow and put Gao on a flight that directly flew to Beijing on that night".

Chinese police and state security personnel did not appear openly when Gao Cunman arrived at Beijing airport. So Gao himself went back to his son’ in Beijing.

It is reported that Gao was questioned by the Russian police about Chinese Falun Gong practitioners living in Russia after he was kidnapped. Gao Cunman estimates that the high ranking officers of Russian Government have a plan with the CCP. By means of deporting Chinese practitioners living in Russia, they express their cooperation with the CCP. The CCP does not openly arrest and monitor the Falun Gong practitioners who have been deported so that it can hoodwink the media and western society and conceal its movements of the persecution of Falun Gong which has lasted for eight years and is still going on right now.