Update on Lawsuit Filed Against Jiang: The Conference Between the Attorney for the Plaintiffs and the Judge Concluded Smoothly

On January 13, 2003, the scheduling conference for the lawsuit being filed against Jiang Zemin by persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and their family members with the charge of genocide was held in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The conference between the judge and the attorney for the plaintiffs proceeded smoothly and concluded at noon.

The attorney for the plaintiffs requested 60 days to prepare materials for the trial and received approval from the judge. The next meeting between the judge and the attorney for the plaintiffs has been scheduled for March 13.

When the dictator Jiang visited the United States in October 2002, Falun Gong practitioners and family members subjected to his persecution filed a lawsuit against him in the United States Federal District Court.

According to the plaintiffs' lawyer, the goal of the lawsuit is to stop the persecution in China and to use the legal system in the United States to alert the world to the holocaust that is occurring at this point in China, so as to mobilise more people to help us stop the persecution through means other than legal action as well. This is a class action. The Defendants in the lawsuit are Jiang Zemin and Office 610, which was actually created by Jiang Zemin specifically to persecute and torture Falun Gong practitioners. The Plaintiffs are individuals who have suffered enormous degrees of torture and brutality at the hands of Jiang Zemin and Office 610, and they also stand for all the persons who have visited China and been tortured because they embrace Falun Gong; or the people who live in China, and the relatives of the people who live in China, who have suffered at the hand of Jiang Zemin because they practise Falun Gong; or those who have been put on the Chinese government's blacklist because of their belief in Falun Gong.

As defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." No one, including heads of state, can be above the law when they commit such crimes against humanity.

In October of 2002, a group of Falun Gong practitioners brought a lawsuit against Jiang under the charge of "genocide." This lawsuit encapsulates and defines the Jiang regime's brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in the past three plus years. One could read about Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted to death on the Internet on a nearly daily basis, and there are many death cases that have not yet been exposed outside of China due to the regime's information blockade. Brutal torture is commonplace, including subjecting practitioners to electric shocks, water dungeons and sleep deprivation; branding and burning them; exposing them to the heat and cold for long periods of time; forcing them to perform heavy physical labour; and other forms of torture such as the tiger bench, where practitioners are forced to sit motionless on a tiny stool just inches off the ground. There have been countless such victims. Furthermore, the Jiang regime has sent large numbers of perfectly healthy practitioners to mental hospitals, injecting them with mind-altering drugs and causing severe psychological damage. The above acts have violated the first two classifications of the genocide law.

In addition, the Jiang regime has systematically used the state-controlled media such as television, radio, and newspapers to viciously slander and defame Falun Gong. They have forced schools, government agencies, and enterprises to institute their policies to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. This has caused Falun Gong practitioners to be unable to attend school, to have jobs, or to lead normal lives in society. Countless families have been broken apart and individuals forced to abandon their homes. Many Falun Gong practitioners have very few ways to survive on a daily basis. This is in direct violation of the third classification of the genocide law.

This campaign of attempting to eliminate Falun Gong is targeted at the system of beliefs taught by Falun Gong. All of their acts are aimed at forcing all Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs, thereby eliminating the existence of Falun Gong. They are attempting to turn around the Falun Gong practitioners' thoughts and beliefs, sending the steadfast practitioners to be brainwashed. The whole purpose of the brainwashing is to destroy this belief spiritually. This campaign of persecution is being systematically carried out by Jiang's "610 Office" with an unmistakable intent, using the most wicked methods in its implementation, and indeed committing genocide.

Meanwhile, the Jiang regime has exhausted huge resources and spared no means in strictly blockading information both in and out of China. While doing everything possible to keep information about the persecution from being exposed, the Jiang regime is claiming now to be the "best period for human rights in China," putting up a façade to deceive the public. The regime has intensified its efforts to arrest, torture, defame, and imprison those Falun Gong practitioners who have courageously exposed and publicised the truth about the persecution.

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/1/13/30860.html