LONDON (EFIC)– 71-year-old Mr. Chan stands quietly by the side of a Burmese road. He unfolds a little yellow banner that reads “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” as he patiently waits for Jiang Zemin’s motorcade to drive by.
Within seconds he is pounced upon by local police. Under the gaze of the Chinese Embassy, and with presence of neither lawyer nor family, the elderly man is secretly sentenced to 7 years in prison and taken away.
Mr. Chan’s case was exposed publicly for the first time yesterday. A permanent resident of Hong Kong who practices Falun Gong, he was visiting his family during the holiday season of 2001-2002 when he learned that Jiang Zemin was scheduled to visit the country.
Since launching his campaign against Falun Gong in 1999 (about), Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin has become known for pressuring foreign governments to act illegally, particularly during his visits. While Jiang was in Germany last April, his secret service assaulted Falun Gong practitioners (report); in Iceland last June, Jiang pressured authorities to use an illicit blacklist and barred practitioners from entering the country during his visit (report 1 and report 2).
South East Asian countries, like Burma, have been particularly susceptible to the duress. Last August, in nearby Cambodia, an elderly couple was abducted by Chinese Embassy agents and clandestinely taken to a labour camp in China.
When Mr. Chan was first arrested for displaying the principles of Falun Gong in public, he was held for over a month. While in detention, officials from the Chinese Embassy supervised as local Burmese police repeatedly demanded that Mr. Chan present a written promise to forsake practicing Falun Gong, a demand commonly imposed on practitioners in China. In exchange for acting against his conscience, they offered him personal freedom.
Mr. Chan refused.
On January 31, 2002, 71 year-old Mr. Chan was secretly sentenced to 7 years in prison and warned his family against contacting Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong.
The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 557 deaths (reports / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600, while expert sources estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE
Peter Jauhal 44 (0) 7739 172 452.
More contacts. http://www.falungonginfo.net/europe.htm
Email: [email protected]
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