Press Release: Falun Gong Remains Determined to Resolve Open Issues in Iceland

Reykjavik, Iceland, September 11, 2002--Falun Gong representatives from Europe and North America began the dialogue process in a meeting with high-level Icelandic officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice on Thursday, September 5, 2002. The dialogue aims to resolve the issues remaining from the banning of Falun Gong practitioners in June during Jiang Zemin's visit.

Although little outward progress was made in the first dialogue meeting, Falun Gong practitioners noted and appreciated the efforts by the Icelandic government to participate. The dialogue process holds great potential to speed the repairing of the damage to all parties.

At the same time that Jiang Zemin escalates persecution in China, he also extends the defamation of Falun Gong overseas. Falun Gong practitioners repeat the call for Jiang Zemin's regime to stop slandering Falun Gong in every country. In Iceland, the false propaganda against Falun Gong has caused damage to Iceland as a nation and the company Icelandair, as well as to Falun Gong practitioners.

As to the much-discussed blacklist issue, Icelandic authorities would neither confirm nor deny that the Chinese government is the source. They also officially cleared that the source of the list was not Interpol. Since it is sensitive and personal information about individuals, Falun Gong practitioners are determined to find out the sources and distribution channels of the list and will continue to require Iceland to destroy every copy.

FDIC (Falun Gong-Iceland Dialogue Committee) will continue to work on resolving the issues through various available channels. We hope to work with Iceland to solve the issue that has damaged the reputation of all parties. This is a matter of moral principle. It is about the justice and peace in the world, in which every human being and every government share responsibility. Falun Gong practitioners came to Iceland in June of 2002 during Jiang Zemin's visit to call for the end of the persecution in China that has killed over 1600 practitioners and jailed over 20,000 people in labour camps, with over 1000 in mental hospital. Unfortunately, over 200 practitioners were barred from entering Iceland. Iceland has thus become the only country that has barred Falun Gong practitioners from entry.