Faluninfo.net, New York—The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution Tuesday urging the Chinese Communist Party to end its decade-long campaign against Falun Gong and expressing solidarity with victims of persecution in China. 

Following a two-year investigation, Spanish National Court Judge Ismael Moreno last week notified attorney Carlos Iglesias of the Human Rights Law Foundation (HRLF) that the court had granted a petition to indict the defendants on charges of torture and genocide. According to the notice, for committing the crime of genocide, the defendants face imprisonment for up to 20 years and may be economically liable to the victims for damages.

The Judge’s notification also stated that the court had granted a petition to send rogatory letters (letter of request) to the five defendants in China with questions relating to each individual’s involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The decisions followed a series of submissions to the court by Iglesias and other HRLF staff.

The defendants have 4-6 weeks to reply and could subsequently face extradition if they travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with Spain. The decision was taken under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows domestic courts to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity regardless of where they occur.

“This historic decision by a Spanish judge means that Chinese Communist Party leaders responsible for brutal crimes are now one step closer to being brought to justice,” said Iglesias. “When one carries out the crime of genocide or torture, it is a crime against the international community as a whole and not only against Chinese citizens. Spain is emerging as a defender of human rights and universal justice.”

Among the accused are former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, widely acknowledged as the primary instigator of the campaign launched in 1999 to “eradicate” Falun Gong. Also facing charges is Luo Gan, who oversaw the 610 Office, a nationwide secret police task force that has led the violent campaign. Chinese lawyers have compared the 6-10 Office to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo in its brutality and extra-legal authority.

The other three accused are Bo Xilai, current Party Secretary for Chongqing and former Minister of Commerce; Jia Qinglin, the fourth-highest member of the Party hierarchy; and Wu Guanzheng, head of an internal Party disciplinary committee. The charges against them are based on their proactive advancement of the persecution against Falun Gong when they served as top officials in Liaoning, Beijing, and Shandong respectively. In a Pulitzer prize-winning article, The Wall Street Journal’s Ian Johnson describes how Wu imposed fines on his subordinates if they did not sufficiently crackdown on Falun Gong, leading officials to torture local residents, in some cases, to death. (news)

Other evidence considered by the judge during his investigation included written testimonies from fifteen Falun Gong practitioners and oral testimonies from seven practitioners, including torture victims and relatives of individuals who had been killed in Chinese custody. The judge also relied on reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the U.N. Human Rights Commission to reach his decision, HRLF attorney Iglesias said.

To arrange for an interview with attorney Iglesias or one of the witnesses, please contact the Falun Dafa Information Center or the Human Rights Law Foundation.

David Matas and David Kilgour, who co-wrote Bloody Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs, were joined by MPs Borys Wrzesnewskyj and James Lunney at a press conference on Parliament Hill Monday morning to release the new book.

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj and Mr. Lunney were representing the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong (PFOFG), an all-party group of MPs and senators lending support to the practitioners of the spiritual discipline who have suffered a decade of persecution in communist China.

“I would encourage the prime minister to bring up the issue,” said Mr. Matas, an international human rights lawyer and 2008 Order of Canada recipient.

“This is not just our concern. It’s also a concern of the United Nations.”

The investigation he conducted with Mr. Kilgour, a former crown prosecutor and former Secretary of State (Asia Pacific), concluded that after the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, the Chinese regime started an illicit organ trade that has killed tens of thousands of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in the process of extracting their organs for sale.

Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas had released two earlier reports on their findings, the first in July 2006 and the second in January 2007.

Since then, the U.N. rapporteurs on torture and on religious intolerance, as well as the U.N. Committee against Torture, have pressed China to explain the discrepancy between its large volumes of transplants and its sources of organs.

With negligible donations and no national organ donation system in place until as recently as August 2009, the regime says it sources its organs almost entirely from prisoners sentenced to death and executed.

“The trouble with that assertion is that the death penalty has been pretty constant before and after the persecution began, but the transplantation volume shot way up after the persecution began,” said Mr. Matas.

“There is an estimated 41,500 unexplained organ transplants between about 2001 and 2006. Falun Gong practitioners are providing a lot of these organs … involuntarily,” said Mr. Kilgour.

He noted that according to a U.S. government report, at least half of the inmates in China’s notorious forced labour camps are Falun Gong practitioners.

“Canada and other countries should ban forced labour exports by legislation which puts the onus on all importers to prove that goods are not made, in effect, by slaves,” he added.

As these prisoners are the source of the organs, Mr. Matas suggested that Mr. Harper ask China to enter into an agreement disallowing imports of forced labour products into Canada. In addition, there needs to be assurance that the agreement is enforceable by allowing inspection of the labour camps.

Mr. Matas said the U.S. already has such an agreement with China but it has not been enforced because the Americans have not been allowed to inspect the labour camps.

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj put the issue in context as a consumer.  “Knowing what I know, when I pick up a product and I see that ‘Made in China’ label, there’s an unease,” he said.

“You can’t keep these things hidden… Decent people everywhere, when they pick up those consumer products and they see that label, they’ll have that same sort of unease that will affect China in millions of ways that perhaps aren’t quantifiable.”

As much as Canada would like to do more trade and have a healthy relationship with China, “when these issues are outstanding, it calls all of those potential relationships into question,” Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said.

The Kilgour-Matas book includes recommendations for China as well as foreign states, medical professionals, and pharmaceutical companies on legislative and other defences to prevent forced organ harvesting.

One recommendation is to enact extra-territorial law making it illegal to travel to another country to purchase transplant organs obtained without consent.

This so-called “transplant tourism” is not currently a crime anywhere in the world, but Mr. Wrzesnewskyj has proposed a bill to the Canadian Parliament that would make it an extraterritorial crime.

Mr. Kilgour plans to propose this bill to the European Parliament as a model for the European Union.

The PFOFG held a book launch for the new Kilgour-Matas book on Monday afternoon on Parliament Hill, the group’s first event since it was founded last month.

Mr. Lunney likened the persecution and organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners to the Holocaust when despite indications, warnings, and alarms raised, “somehow that evil went on for some time before it was eventually revealed and understood.”

“We’re hopeful that this book launch will make a big impact and will help to spread the word that we can’t afford to be silent,” he said.

The book launch received a standing-room-only crowd. The event was hosted by MP Bill Siksay, chair of the PFOFG. In attendance were Mr. Wrzesnewskyj, vice-president of the group; directors MP Scott Reid and MP Rob Anders; and members Mr. Lunney and MP Irwin Cotler.

The book is in two parts. The first part presents current statistics and factual analyses that bring the previous report up to date. The second part tells of the responses the authors have received and their efforts to advocate an end to the abuse. As well, it contains a philosophical, analytical explanation of why and how the persecution of Falun Gong came about and what the authors envision for the future.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—San Jose resident Jianhua Lu returned home on Wednesday afternoon, having spent years being persecuted in China for her belief in the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

Upon her arrival at Terminal A of San Jose International Airport, she was given a warm welcome by several dozen friends and family members, including her sister Stephanie who embraced her, both in tears. The two hadn’t seen each other in 10 years.

“I am so glad to be back with my family. I missed them so much. The kids were so small when I last saw them,” Ms. Lu said happily, surrounded by her sister, niece, and nephew.

Ms. Lu is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline which became very popular in China in the 1990’s for its health benefits and teachings. The Chinese communist regime, alarmed at the large number of practitioners, started a brutal persecution in July 1999.

Concerned about the hardships endured by those in China, Ms. Lu returned to the mainland in December 1999 to appeal to the regime to stop the persecution. As a result, she was persecuted herself, being thrown into labor camps and prisons including the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp, which some have described as a “hell on earth.” She suffered through the same torture methods which have been inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country.

After several years of persecution, Ms. Lu went on the run, traveling thousands of miles to Tibet and later Thailand, where she spent the last three years.

Upon her arrival Wednesday afternoon, she was greeted by a very special supporter, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who came in person to welcome her.

Mayor Reed had been involved in the effort to rescue Falun Gong practitioners since his days in the City Council nine years ago when he wrote letters on their behalf and urged the U.S. Congress to pass resolutions for Falun Gong.

“It is ironic and wonderful to have her here on Veteran’s Day,” said Mayor Reed, a veteran himself.

“This demonstrates the difference between living in the USA where you have freedom of association, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, and China, where you don’t. It was a terrible thing to have a U.S. citizen and San Jose resident imprisoned in China for basic human rights activities we take for granted here in the U.S. I am so happy to see her released back to freedom,” concluded the Mayor.

Ms. Lu was outspoken and seemed in good condition after the ordeals she had been through. “I have benefited so much from Falun Gong; I couldn’t have made it without my belief in this practice. My release further demonstrates the failure of the persecution and the drive of the Chinese regime to eradicate Falun Gong in China.”

When asked what she will do next, Jianhua said she will spend time with her family, enjoy the freedom to practice Falun Gong, and be thankful for being given another chance in life.

[About the picture] Falun Gong practitioner Jianhua Lu (C) is greeted at the San Jose International Airport Wednesday, Nov. 11 by sister Stephanie (L) and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Ms. Lu suffered years of persecution at the hands of the Chinese communist regime because of her spiritual beliefs. (Gary Wang/The Epoch Times)

A month later, on March 3, 2002, Shen Lizhi was killed in jail.  Ms. Luo, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest, survived, but was later forced to have an abortion at eight months of pregnancy.  Her tormentors also injected her with nerve-damaging drugs that paralyzed her legs. For her belief, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison without a trial.

Having lost his son, Mr. Shen does not want to lose his daughter-in-law as well.  He has been going to street fairs around New Jersey gathering hundreds of signatures from New Jersey residents on a petition to free Ms. Luo.  US Representative Frelinghuysen answered his call.  On October 1, 2009, Congressman Frelinghuysen wrote to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Sichuan governor Jiang Jufeng to call for the release of Ms. Luo. 

In a few days, President Obama is going to meet with China’s President Hu. Mr. Shen hopes President Obama can help him win the freedom for his daughter-in-law, just as former president Clinton had done for the two journalists captured by North Korea.  John Shen’s fellow Falun Gong practitioners, amonth them Montain Lakes resident Henry Wang, have rallied around him to help generate awareness to the plight of his daughter-in-law.

Dozens other U.S. citizens and residents share in John Shen’s grief as their husbands, brothers, sons and daughters endure incomprehensible forms of torture and abuse such as electrocution, gang rape, force feeding, sleep deprivation, forced labor, and 24-hour surveillance in China under the communist regime for their steadfast belief in Falun Gong.   According to Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners (GMR), 21 family members of U.S. residents are currently imprisoned in China.  Ms. Li Li, GMR’s executive director says, “We are extremely concerned for their safety and health, as well as for their rights. We wish to express our deep concern as the families of American residents are being torn apart. The inhumane persecution towards Falun Gong is an affront to humanity, and as such it cannot be tolerated.  It is with a tremendous sense of urgency, we ask for help from President Obama.  What we are presenting is the most important and serious issue we will ever face in our human lives…the imminent violent death of our loved ones.” 

It is with a tremendous sense of urgency, we are writing you on the cusp of your visit to China.  Families of American residents are being torn apart, as their husbands, brothers, sons and daughters are enduring incomprehensible forms of torture and abuse such as electrocution, gang rape, force feeding, sleep deprivation, forced labor, and 24-hour surveillance in China under the communist regime for their steadfast belief in Falun Gong. 

President Obama, eighty-year-old Parsippany, NJ resident John Shen has messages for you to carry to Chiana’s president Hu Jintao. For the past 8 years, his daughter-in-law Ms. Luo Fang has been imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong. She was arrested on February 1, 2002 along with her husband and Mr. Shen’s son, Shen Lizhi when they were caught by the Chinese police with printed materials extolling the virtues of Falun Gong on their persons. A month later, on March 3, 2002, Shen Lizhi was killed in jail.  Ms. Luo, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest, survived, but was later forced to have an abortion at eight months of pregnancy.  Her tormentors also injected her with nerve-damaging drugs that paralyzed her legs. For her belief, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison without a trial.  Having lost his son, Mr. Shen does not want to lose his daughter-in-law as well.  

Ms. Huang Hongjian, a New York resident, has not seen nor heard from her husband Mr. Zhang Yuhui since October 2000, when he was unlawfully arrested by the Chinese communist regime for publishing a series of articles supporting Falun Gong on the Internet.  Mr. Zhang has been reportedly tortured brutally.  Consider further the case of Ms. Zhang Shuangying, a New York resident, whose father Zhang Xingwu was arrested in July 2008 -for the third time in the past ten years - for practicing Falun Gong. 

President Obama, what we are presenting is the most important and serious issue we will ever face in our human lives - the imminent violent death of our loved ones.   We are extremely concerned for their safety and health, as well as for their rights. The inhumane persecution towards Falun Gong is an affront to humanity, and as such it cannot be tolerated. 

In a few days, you are going to meet with China’s president Hu. We seek your assistance to request President Hu to immediately release these relatives of our fellow residents. 

Yours truly,

Li Li

Executive Director

Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong (PFOFG) is the first such group of Parliamentarians in the world lending focused support to the practitioners of the system of meditation and moral teachings, also called Falun Dafa, that has suffered a decade of persecution in communist China.

“Our first goal is to make sure Parliamentarians are better informed about issues related to Falun Gong,” said PFOFG chair Bill Siksay.

 “One of the key purposes of [PFOFG] is to encourage respect for fundamental human rights in China.”

Reports from the United Nations, government bodies, human rights groups, and independent investigators worldwide include graphic accounts of torture and corroborating studies detailing evidence of state-orchestrated organ harvesting from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners to supply an illicit organ trade.

Introduced in China in 1992, the practice based on the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” rapidly flourished due to its benefits to physical and mental health. By 1999, it had 70 to 100 million followers, according to government estimates, just before the totalitarian state launched a massive campaign to “eradicate” it.

Future activities may include sponsoring programs and events with FDAC on Parliament Hill such as the May 27 China human rights forum hosted by MP Scott Reid, a PFOFG director.

“We are extremely delighted to learn that this group has been formed,” said FDAC president Li Xun. “The concern by Parliamentarians sends a strong indication of the significance of the matter. It will send an encouraging message to the practitioners in China.”

Canada First to Condemn Persecution

Ten years ago, Canada also took a lead as the first country to publicly condemn the persecution. Canada filed an official protest with the Chinese foreign ministry shortly after mass arrests and detentions of practitioners began on July 20, 1999, as reported by The Globe and Mail.

At a Canada-China human rights meeting that November, then-Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) Raymond Chan said his delegation would raise “specific issues related to religious freedoms and basic rights and reports of ill-treatment of Falun Gong adherents.”

The Canadian Press reported that Falun Gong was the third most frequent subject of correspondence to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2005.

A U.S. State Department 2008 report said foreign observers estimated that at least half of China’s 250,000 labour camp prisoners were Falun Gong practitioners.

Parliamentarians’ efforts and Canadians’ concerns over the years have led to the release of practitioners in China and compelled former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin to raise the issue of the persecution with Chinese leaders.

Support has continued despite ongoing attempts by the Chinese embassy and consulates to vilify Falun Gong, including displaying hate materials in their visa offices, controlling Chinese-language media to turn public opinion against the practice, and pressuring Canadian officials not to support practitioners.

But the impact of such actions cannot be ignored.

“It’s always been apparent to me that there is significant misunderstanding about the practice of Falun Gong,” said Mr. Siksay.

He said if his colleagues have good information and are aware of the important issues concerning the practice, “I can’t see how it wouldn’t have an effect on government policy.”

All-Party Membership

The founding PFOFG membership comprises two senators and 18 MPs from all parties represented in Parliament.

Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj and Conservative Stephen Woodworth are vice-presidents. The executive also includes New Democrats Peter Julian and Don Davies; Conservatives Scott Reid, Rob Anders, and Senator Consiglio Di Nino; and Diane Bourgeois from the Bloc Québécois. Mr. Siksay is an NDP member.

Mr. Di Nino initiated the idea of the PFOFG six months ago.

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj has introduced a private member’s bill to fight the international underground trade in human organs and other body parts. He drafted the bill partly due to a 2006−2007 Canadian report documenting evidence that the Chinese regime has killed tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to extract organs for lucrative transplant surgeries.

“Bloody Harvest” was co-authored by Winnipeg-based international human rights lawyer David Matas and former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour.

Mr. Reid, Conservative Party Deputy Government House Leader, in 2002 introduced a motion that passed unanimously in the House urging Mr. Chrétien to request then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to free 13 imprisoned practitioners with Canadian family ties.

M-236, co-sponsored by current International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, resulted in the release of eight practitioners within a year.

Irwin Cotler, another PFOFG member, is the Liberal Party’s Special Counsel on Human Rights and International Justice. As voluntary legal counsel, he helped rescue two Falun Gong practitioners with status in Canada who were imprisoned in China for their beliefs. Zhang Kunlun and Lin Shenli both returned to Canada after being freed.

Mr. Li believes the PFOFG “will play a significant role in the Parliament” as it reflects the wish of Canadians as well as advances Canada’s leadership role taken as early as 1999 when the persecution began.

“Canadians who practice Falun Gong have asked for our help,” said Mr. Woodworth in a news release. “The very least Parliamentarians can do is stand up for human rights whenever they are called upon to do so.”

The letter is as follow.

August 14, 2009

His Excellency President Lee Myung-bak

Office of the President

1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu

Seoul, Republic of Korea (110-820)

PER FAX to:     Office of the President, ROK: 82-2-770-7029

Amb. Duck-soo, Republic of Korea Embassy, U.S.: 202-797-0595

Dear Mr. President,

We wish to bring to your attention the plight of 33 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners who have applied for refugee status in South Korea. According to news reports, the Chinese government is applying pressure on the South Korean government to deport these Falun Gong practitioners to China, and we have been informed that several of them have already been deported.

        As Members of the U.S. House of Representatives concerned about human rights, we are well aware of the Chinese government’s harsh persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese government has banned Falun Gong and it implements the ban through an extralegal security force, the “6-10 Office,” established not by the Chinese government but by the Chinese Communist Party. The “6-10 Office” and government forces implement the ban by means of the arbitrary detention, beating, torture and “transformation through reeducation” of Falun Gong practitioners—although practitioners seek only to exercise internationally-recognized fundamental human rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Falun Gong practitioners are among the most brutally persecuted groups in the world today. The total number of practitioners who have died or who have been killed while in Chinese government custody likely exceeds the 3,000 cases we understand to be well-documented. Cases of torture involving Falun Gong practitioners account for 66 per cent of all cases of torture in China, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. There reportedly are over one hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners, both men and women, among China’s total labor camp population.

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        In the past fifty years, few countries have made such rapid progress in respect for human rights as has South Korea, both as a government and as a society. It is with this in mind that we urge your government not to deport Falun Gong practitioners to China, but to find an appropriate way, within the South Korean legal system and the international conventions on torture and refugees ratified by South Korea, to permit Chinese Falun Gong practitioners to remain in South Korea.

For your convenience we include a list of Falun Gong practitioners currently in danger of deportation to China. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

                                                Sincerely,                                            

 Cc: Ambassador Han Duck-soo

Chinese Falun Gong Practitioners

Currently At Risk of Deportation to China by South Korean Government

1. Jiang, Cuixiang
2. Jin, Kuihao
3. Jin, Mei
4. Jin, Yingji
5. Jin, Yingzi.
6. Xu, Yuanzhong
7. Piao, Mingzi
8. Xu Zhengzhe
9  Song, Yanlong
10.Liu, Shurong
11.An, Yurong
12.Lian, Baoyu
13.Yin, Tiezhu
14.Yin, Xiangzi
15.Li, Dongjun
16. Jin Jinji
17.Li, Fengshun
18.Li, Zhongxi
19.Li, Hengxie
20.Li, Hongyu
21.Li Yingzi
22.Jin, Chengzhe
23.Zheng, Jingai
24.Cui, Chengri
25.Quan, Jinglin
26.Chi, Zaiquan
27.Lin, Hu
28.Cui, Chengde
29.Yu, Xiaobin
30.Piao, Hongzhi
31.Du, Baosheng
32.Wang, Xiuqin