Letter to Mary Robinson from the Belgian Falun Gong Association

We are writing to you today to bring to your attention new developments and tactics deployed by the president of China, Jiang Zemin, in his campaign of terror against Falun Gong. We believe these recent developments are serious enough to catch the attention of the United Nations and all democratic countries because many of these are beyond the Chinese border and affect citizens of western democracies.

As you already know that the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been launched by the president of China, Jiang Zemin for three years, which results in more than 1000 death of innocent people, and millions , the most dangerous is that this human right violations have been extended to the other countries, including Australia, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Cambodia.

On August 2, 2002, Cambodian police, under pressure and direction from the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, arrested a Chinese couple who escaped from China to Phnom Penh after Jiang launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in July, 1999 and were living and working in the city with U.N. Refugee Certificates. This Chinese couple, Mr. Li, Guojun and his wife Zhang Xinyi were sent back to Changsha Cityon August 9. Their current condition is unknown.

Please see attached report #2 for detail on this case. We appeal to you to ask Chinese government to release this couple and we believe they are in immediate danger right now.

You are doubtless already aware that in the past three years, there has been a systematic escalation of horrific attacks launched by Jiang against Falun Gong practitioners. Less well known are just how much this bloody campaign dominates Jiang’s agenda, both foreign and domestic, and the extremes to which he will go to carry it out. One by one, Jiang has brought under attack the freedoms and constitutional rights as well as the morality of the entire world, including Australia, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Cambodia.

China: The death toll of practitioners who are persecuted to death in the hands of Chinese police and detention centers has rise sharply in recent months.

Ms. High Commissioner, it is our hope that the above facts will be brought to your attention, and through your moral authority, brought to the attention of the entire UN body. It is our hope that you will urge these countries and areas come to realize what they have done wrong and to rectify it.

Wish you successful trip.

Sincerely,

Belgian Falun Gong Association

Report #2: Cambodia

(From Sister Denise Coghlan, JRS Cambodia, 14 August 2002)

CAMBODIA DEPORTS CHINESE ASYLUM SEEKERS IN VIOLATION OF REFUGEE CONVENTION

Two Chinese asylum seekers , Li Guo Jun, 46, and Zhang Xinyi, 39, were deported by the Cambodian authorities on 9 August 2002 and are now held in detention in China's Hunan Province, according to New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center. The Chinese couple were Falun Gong practitioners and were persons of concern under the protection of the UNHCR in Cambodia. Their deportation is a gross violation of Cambodia's international obligation of
non-refoulement under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Cambodia is a signatory.

The couple were arrested by Cambodian police on 2 August 2002, a Friday. Unconfirmed reports say that the couple showed to their arresting officers their UNHCR protection letters, but that these were ignored and torn into pieces. The UNHCR sought the couple's immediate release, but Cambodian authorities officially denied that the couple was in their custody. Last Friday, 9 August 2002, the UNHCR Regional Office in Bangkok sent a letter to Cambodian authorities asking for the immediate release of the couple, but it was revealed today that the Chinese had been deported that same day.

Li Guo Jun and Zhang Xinyi have been under UNHCR protection since January 2000 as persons of concern pending their official recognition as refugees. They left China in 1998 before the July 1999 Chinese government crackdown on the Falun Gong. Since 1998 they have been teaching in a Chinese school in Phnom Penh and have apparently had no trouble with the local Chinese authorities. In fact, the two have visited the Chinese mainland separately on several occasions since their first arrival in Cambodia and have had no problems with immigration authorities of both countries.

In June 2002, however, Zhang Xinyi received a package in the mail from Taiwan containing Falun Gong materials. Soon thereafter, on 3 July 2002, they were summoned by the Cambodian Department of Foreigners and informed that "Cambodia and China enjoy friendly relations" and that the couple was damaging these relations. In late July, when Zhang Xinyi went to the Chinese embassy to have her passport renewed, Chinese authorities took her old passport and refused to give her a new one. By the end of July, she and her husband were dismissed from the Chinese school. On 2 August, witnesses reported the couple's arrest. The UNHCR was unsuccessful in convincing the Cambodian authorities to honor their country's international obligation and release the asylum seekers.

The earlier disappearance of Thich Tri Luch, a dissident Vietnamese Buddhist monk, last 25 July 2002 remains unsolved. He was a recognised refugee and signatory to this convention.