Two Falun Dafa Associations write to the Japanese Goverment to Call for the Release of Yoko Kaneko

Falun Dafa Association of NSW, Australia Writes to the Prime Minister of Japan

28 September 2002

The Prime Minister of Japan The Honourable Junichiro Koizumi

Dear Prime Minister Koizumi

I write on behalf of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners in New South Wales, Australia.

We respectfully ask for your consideration to the plight of Yoko Kaneko, resident of Japan and wife of Atusi Kaneko of Niigata County as she is now suffering in a labour camp in China because of her belief in the principles of Falun Dafa - Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.

At your October meetings in China could you please help to assist in the safe return of Yoko Kaneko to her husband in Japan. She arrived in Beijing on May 23 2002 and the next day went out with two other Japanese practitioners to distribute leaflets asking for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. They were illegally detained by the police, forcibly searched, photographed and violently interrogated according to the two Japanese practitioners who were forcibly sent back to Japan on May 25.

As you may know, the persecution of Falun Gong has been going on for over three years. Please consider the many peaceful people like Yoko who have tried to let the truth be known and have suffered terribly at the hands of Jiang Zemin's regime. Daughters have been raped by prisoners or guards; children murdered by the local Authorities; elderly parents thrown into labour camps; loved ones force fed brutally even to death; sisters and brothers forced to leave their homes and wander around without income; nephews and nieces have lost their parents.

Yet there are many kind hearted voices in Japan calling for justice. A parade to rescue Yoko Kaneko was organized on July 6 2002 in Niigata County where a large number of people took part including her husband Atusi Kaneko and Abe Ayumi, her 31-year-old cousin. Also two Members of the House of Representatives of Japan, the Hon Nishimula Shingo and the Hon Yama Mula have endorsed a letter on 29 June 2002 in support of her release.

As the esteemed leader of Japan, dear Honourable Prime Minister, we trust in your convictions of honour, dignity and justice. We trust in the traditional wisdom and values of Confucius (Kung-tzu) who speaks of 'faith in their leaders' and Mencius (Meng-tzu) who speaks of 'benevolence and justice before benefit and profit' - and we trust in the spirit of the 'sacks of rice'- and the willingness to endure pain today for a better tomorrow.

Yoko Kaneko, like many peaceful Falun Gong practitioners in China has endured to let more people know the truth about Falun Dafa for a better tomorrow. She does not deserve to be beaten and tortured because she wishes to help the Chinese people know the value of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.

Please hear this message from our hearts and do whatever you can to ensure her safe return to Japan. In the knowledge that benevolence and righteousness bring true rewards we wish a bright future for you and Japan.

Respectfully yours
Chairman of the Falun Dafa Association of NSW, Australia

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Falun Dafa Association of New England, USA Writes to Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs

Date: September 23, 2002

Subject: Rescue Mrs. Yoko Kaneko, Stop the Persecution in China

Dear Honourable Yoriko Kawaguchi,

We are writing on behalf of a Japanese Falun Gong practitioner, Yoko Kaneko, who was arrested in China on May 24, 2002. Mrs. Kaneko, along with two of her friends, was distributing some Falun Gong materials at the time. As you may already know, Falun Gong is a peaceful practice of meditation and exercise that emphasizes high moral values. It was banned in China in 1999, although it is practiced and praised all over the world.

Mrs. Kaneko's two friends were deported to Japan, but Mrs. Kaneko was detained by Chinese officials because she is a permanent resident of Japan, not a citizen. She suffered horrible abuses while detained by the police. According to reports, she was shackled to a bed in a basement hospital, catheterised, force-fed through a nose tube, beaten and tortured often to the point where she lost consciousness.

On June 17, Mrs. Kaneko was sentenced without trial to 18 months in a forced-labour camp. Her husband, who is a Japanese businessman named Atsushi Kaneko, managed to go to China to visit her two months later in August. His visit was highly restricted and tightly controlled, however. He saw that she was extremely weak and had lost a lot of weight. Her wrists were badly bruised and she was "not in her right mind." Mr. Kaneko said his wife seemed to be an entirely different person and that the reports of the torture she suffered were true.

According to international law, as well as China's own constitution, the persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang regime is illegal. It is in direct violation of the United Nations Covenant on Human Rights, and the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights has condemned this persecution. According to incomplete statistics, within the past three years beginning in July 1999, more than 480 practitioners have been verified as being tortured to death. However, according to the government's official internal statistics, the actual number of practitioners who died while in custody had reached 1,600 by this time last year. In addition, there are at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally sentenced to prison and over 100,000 practitioners sentenced to forced labour camps. Thousands more have been sent to psychiatric hospitals and brainwashing classes. The World Psychiatric Association at its 2002 international congress in Yokohama voted to send a mission to China to investigate these reports of psychiatric abuse.

Mrs. Kaneko's imprisonment is symbolic of the regime's gross violations of human rights on all levels. The Chinese government does not abide by its own laws and rules, and this is dangerous not only to victims like Mrs. Kaneko but also to all who visit China or who want to establish business or trade relations.

We are grateful for all the Japanese government has done for Atsushi Kaneko and all that you are doing to get his wife released. We are asking you and the international community to please do everything in your power to save her, as her condition is deteriorating very rapidly. Such abuse of innocent, kind people by the Jiang regime -- and such blatant abuse of the rule of law -- should not be allowed to continue.

Sincerely,

The Falun Dafa Association of New England, USA