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FALUN GONG — REPORT FROM IRELAND
contact: E-mail (Ireland) zhaom@cs.tcd.ie
list of web sites

Official Statement From the Irish Falun Dafa Association
Speech of Zhao Ming
Speech of Gerald O’ Connor
The Persecution of Falun Dafa in Ireland
Falun Dafa: A Brief Introduction
State Sanctioned Persecution
Frequently Asked Questions About Falun Gong
US Congress backs Falun Gong

NEWS

2010 UN Report Highlights Falun Gong Persecution in China
LETTER FROM LABOUR CAMP IN CHINA
REPORT INTO A LLEGATIONS OF ORGAN HARVESTING OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA
Falun Gong continues action to bring former Chinese Minister Ms. Chen Zhili to justice for killing and torture

Background items

3 Years of Persecution In Ireland

Irish Falun Dafa Association

DUBLIN 16^th July 2002

It has been three years since the persecution of Falun Gong began. During this time, we have looked on as our family and friends in China have been brutally beaten, tortured or murdered. Some among us have even had to cope with family and friends being brainwashed into renouncing Falun Gong.

In the past, we have called on people for help to stop this. We have organised SOS walks across hundreds of kilometres. Some of us have been to China to appeal for Falun Gong. Our self-interest has been laid aside to help save the millions of endangered lives in China.

We have organised a series of events over the next week, and we hope that through these events people will come to know, not just about the brutal persecution in China, but also about Falun Gong itself.

For this, we have no organised schedule, we will just tell our story and appeal to people with nothing more than our hearts.

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Ming Zhao’s speech at Falun Gong Press Conference

I have suffered from the persecution even after returning to Ireland. In May this year, I received a copy of the letter sent to a TD from the Chinese Ambassador, in which, she said "No evidence showed that any Falun Gong followers were tortured by the authority." But the fact is that 2 weeks before I was released this year, I was shocked with 6 electric batons simultaneously by 5 policemen of the labour camp including 3 department heads, pressuring me to sign a document to denounce Falun Gong. In that letter, the Chinese ambassador also enclosed a copy of the document that I was forced by torture to sign unwillingly to harass me. Here I officially declare that those documents were signed when I was not in clear mind after being deprived of sleep for 48 hours and tortured with electric shocking using several electric batons simultaneously and did not represent my true will. Those documents are the true evidence of the brutal mentally torture and brainwashing that the Chinese authority imposed upon me. Falun Gong, which improves me both mentally and physically so much, is the best part of my life. My belief in Falun Gong has never changed.

Some severe persecution cases in relation to me, for example, include one of my old friends, Mr. Jiang Yuan, who was tortured to death last year. The torture instruments used in mistreating him need to be carried in two trucks. Recently, I learned that my friend Mr Chengtao Lin, a medical researcher who is now still the labour camp that I was in, was tortured into losing his sanity by electric shock. In China there are many more Falun Gong practitioners that are suffering more severe persecution than I. To the 20^th July, 2002, the persecution of Falun Gong will have lasted 3 years. The 3 years’ history has truly proved that we are completely peaceful. There can not be any reason that accounts for such brutal persecution that we have suffered.

In April, 2002, I was invited to speak at a conference in Geneva organized by 3 NGOs during the UN Human Rights Convention, which was titled "State Terrorism in Asia". At the conference, the persecution of Falun Gong was referred to as "State Terrorism". I absolutely agree with this, because it was done by some government officials harming millions of people. It is more harmful than any other terrorism and is definitely evil.

Upon my return, I have been travelling to various countries telling people about my experiences in the labour camp. In Ireland I have visited some TDs, written letters to them asking for their help to stop the persecution. On the 5^th July, I met with Mr Bertie Ahern at the government building when handing in a letter regarding another two Dublin Chinese students who were prevented from returning to Ireland once again recently.

In the following months of this year in affiliation with the Amnesty International, I am going to do a "speech tour" to various cities in Ireland to share my experiences in China’s labour camp with people in order to ask for people’s help to stop the persecution.

Thank you everyone.

Ming Zhao

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3 Years of Persecution In Ireland

Persecution Of Falun Gong Practitioners in Ireland

Dun Laoghaire Students Held in China

Mr. Feng Liu (22) and Ms. Fang Yang (31)

Mr. Liu and Ms. Yang are students of Dun Laoghaire College for Further Education and Dun Laoghaire Senior College respectively. They returned to China at Christmas 1999, only to be arrested for their practice of Falun Gong. Ms. Yang had her passport confiscated and Mr. Liu was placed under house arrest. Both have been prevented from returning to Ireland to resume their studies.

In June 2002, Mr Liu obtained a valid visa to return to Ireland and continue his studies from the Irish Embassy in Beijing. Before leaving China, he went to visit his parents in Dalian. His parent’s house was under police surveillance, and he was arrested upon arriving there. He is now being detained in Dalian.

With a valid Chinese passport and Irish visa, Ms Fang Yang had arranged to return to Ireland on the 18^th June 2002. She was stopped from boarding the plane at Beijing airport and was escorted back to her hometown by the local police. She was detained at the Shenyang city police station where she was questioned for the entire day. She asked why she was being arrested, but received no response. After going on hunger strike to protest her illegal detention, she was released but her passport was confiscated.

Irish Resident Made Stateless

Ms. Dai Dongxue (35).

Ms. Dai Dongxue was the first Falun Dafa practitioner to come to Ireland. She began teaching classes in early 1998 in DCU.

She returned home to China to appeal against the ban on Falun Dafa. She was arrested and detained by the police on New Years Day, 2000. She was later ‘deported’ back to Ireland by Chinese authorities.

The Chinese Embassy in Dublin refused to renew Ms. Dai’s passport after it had expired in February 2001. Staff from the Embassy stated that Ms. Dai’s passport would only be renewed if she renounced Falun Dafa.

Ms. Dai is currently stateless after having her passport application refused three times in one year.

Ms. Dai’s mother died on 15^th October 2001. The Chinese Embassy refused to permit Ms. Dai to return home for the funeral. Ms. Dai’s two sisters, Xialing (41) and Qiuxiu (39) are currently being held in Jinan Female Labour Camp. They were also prevented from attending their mother’s funeral by labour camp officials. Both have been sentenced to three years detention for their practice of Falun Gong.

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Persecution Of Falun Gong Practitioners in Ireland

UCC Student Appeals on Tiananmen Square

Mr. Brian Trought (22)

Mr. Brian Trought participated in an appeal with 35 other western Falun Gong practitioners in November 2001 on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Those who participated raised a banner with the three characters "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" and sat in a meditation position. Police quickly surrounded them and herded them into police vans.

Mr. Trought was lifted up while still in the meditation position. The police began to stamp on his legs to force them down. He was then put in a nearby police van.

Mr. Trought managed to escape from the police van, but was subsequently escorted to Tiananmen police station for being suspected of taking photographs of the event. He was detained for approximately 2 hours and then released.

Trinity Graduate Detained and Assaulted in Beijing

Mr Gerald O’ Connor (23)

Mr Gerald O’ Connor is a computer science graduate of Trinity College and currently a postgraduate student in DCU. He went to China in March 2002 to help Zhao Ming return safely to Ireland. Failing to make contact with Ming, Mr O’ Connor then went to appeal against the ban on Falun Dafa in Tiananmen Square. Alone he held a banner reading "Falun Dafa is good!" Purely for this, he was beaten repeatedly by several Chinese policemen. He was imprisoned for 16 hours in an underground cell, stripped naked, his money and possessions stolen, and questioned about his practice of Falun Gong. He was then deported back to Ireland.

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Falun Dafa: A Brief Introduction

Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) is an ancient form of qigong, the practice of refining the body and mind through special exercises and meditation. Like tai chi, qigong is a vital part of many people's lives in Asia; almost every Chinese park is brimming by the break of dawn with people practicing these arts.

In just eight years since its public introduction, Falun Dafa has grown to become the most popular form of qigong ever in Chinese history. The major reason for this is that Falun Dafa distinguishes itself from other qigong practices by emphasizing not only physical cultivation, but also cultivation of one's moral character in daily life according to higher principles taught by Mr. Li Hongzhi, Falun Dafa's founder.

Falun Dafa's effectiveness in improving health and its profound principles have quickly made the practice immensely popular throughout the entire world. Since being introduced to the general public in 1992 by Mr. Li, Falun Dafa has attracted tens of millions of people in over 40 countries. Most major cities and universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe have English-speaking Falun Dafa practice groups.

The people who practice Falun Dafa come from every imaginable walk of life, as Falun Dafa transcends cultural, social, economic, and national boundaries. The practice has spread largely by word of mouth, as those who learn it usually find the benefits simply too good to keep to themselves.

1. The Books and the Exercises

The practice of Falun Dafa is simple, yet profound and effective. It consists primarily of two components: self-improvement through studying Mr. Li's teachings, and performing Falun Dafa's five gentle exercises. The exercises, which include a meditation, are easy to learn, enjoyable, and at the same time both relaxing and energizing. Many students of Falun Dafa enjoy doing them together as a group outdoors. The teachings are articulated in two books, Falun Gong (Law Wheel Qigong) and Zhuan Falun (Turning the Law Wheel), which are available in over a dozen languages, including English.

2. The Principles of the Practice

The benefits of practicing Falun Dafa are numerous and varied, ranging from improved health and newfound energy to mental clarity, stress relief, and peace of mind. Yet Falun Dafa is different from most other qigong practices in that it goes beyond the pursuit of health and fitness to the goal of wisdom and enlightenment. At the heart of the practice are the supreme principles of the universe: Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance. Through a combination of studying the books and performing the exercises, practitioners strive to become better people by embodying these principles in everything they do.

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State Sanctioned Persecution

On June 7, 1999, about a month before the suppression of Falun Gong began, Chinese President Jiang Zemin circulated a letter entitled "Comrade Jiang Zemin's Speech at a Meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee Regarding Handling and Resolving the 'Falun Gong' Issue Without Delay."

In this letter, Jiang initiated the suppression policy to be used against Falun Gong. He ordered the establishment of what he called "a leadership group that will specialize in handling the 'Falun Gong' issue," and appointed the three chiefs to the group including the head of the Political and Judiciary Committee, Luo Gan.

Under Jiang's direct order, on June 10, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee officially set up an office for the "leadership group" and named it "the Head Office for Handling the Falun Gong Issue," also called the "610 Office."

In his letter, Jiang further asked that "the Central Committee and government units in all ministries and commissions, and all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, need to act in close coordination" with the "610 Office." Consequently, the "610" became a well-organized and independent system spanning from the Central Government to the local governments, and has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.

It is the highest authority deployed by Jiang Zemin and his accomplices to specifically persecute Falun Gong. According to Jiang in his letter, the establishment of "610 Office" is "to investigate and to come up with a unified approach in terms of specific steps, methods, and measures to resolve the 'Falun Gong' issue."

Just as chilling as it sounds, the "610 Office" has orchestrated the two-year-plus brutal persecution of Falun Gong and its practitioners which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of cases of defamation, arbitrary detention, false imprisonment, torture, sexual and psychiatric abuse, disappearance, and murder.

The Execution of the "610 Office"

Over the past two years, the "610 Office" headed by Luo Gan has been developed into an ultimate machine of Jiang's state terrorism policy against Falun Gong, which employs forceful indoctrination, violence and fear to terrorize and dominate the minds and hearts of Falun Gong practitioners as well as all other Chinese citizens.

Documentation from the testimonials of multiple, sometimes hundreds, of witnesses shows that for the past two years, Jiang Zemin's regime has constantly issued various secret orders against Falun Gong through the "610 Office," from the directive "Physically destroy Falun Gong practitioners" to "Falun Gong practitioners' being tortured to death is counted as suicide" and "Do not identify the body. Cremate it locally."

These secretive and deadly directives have given local police free rein to torture, sexually assault, even murder Falun Gong practitioners.

The brutality is beyond comprehension. In detention facilities, violence and torture have become a major tool against Falun Gong practitioners, regardless of age, gender, or physical condition.

Battering; force-feeding with hot pepper or high-density salt water; denial of food, sleep, and toilet use; exposure to extreme hot or cold weather; burning with cigarettes and heated metal; shocks with electric batons - these are just some of the recorded means of torture employed upon practitioners. Women practitioners have suffered all types of sexual assaults including rape and use of electric stun devices to shock sensitive body parts. Pregnant women have been subject to forced late-stage abortion in order to prolong their captors' ability to detain them rather than be released from jail to give birth to their child.

The rapid increase of death cases over the past year is a direct result of all these orders from "610 Office." Currently the verified death toll has come to 430 cases, while the actual death toll is far greater in number. Insider sources from the Chinese Communist Party say that the death toll has come to at least one thousand.

In nature, "610 Office" is very similar to the Cultural Revolution Group of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, a product of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, which led the horrifying persecution and murder of numerous innocent citizens during the "Cultural Revolution."

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Frequently Asked Questions About Falun Gong

How many people have been affected by Jiang Zemin's persecution against Falun Gong?

Since the president of China, Jiang Zemin, began the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in 1999:

Over 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally arrested and detained.

More than 500 have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years.

More than 1,000 have been forced into mental hospitals, an act condemned by the World Psychiatric Association.

Over 20,000 have been illegally sent to labour camps without trial.

At least 430 deaths through police torture have been confirmed, with government sources inside China disclosing that the actual number exceeds 1,600.

Who is Mr. Li Hongzhi?

Mr. Li Hongzhi is the founder and teacher of Falun Gong. He introduced the practice to the general public in China in 1992. In keeping with Chinese tradition, Li is often respectfully referred to as "Master" or "Teacher," but he is not accorded special treatment, nor does he accept money or donations from students of Falun Gong. Li has given lectures on Falun Gong in many countries, including Australia, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. For his contributions to humanity he has been given over 400 honors and awards, and is a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

Is Falun Gong a religion?

Like religions, Falun Gong has its spiritual beliefs. Through practising, one strives to become a better person who is able to contribute more to our society, so the goal is similar. But in Falun Gong there are no devotional activities or worship, nor any set doctrine or canon; there is also no membership, organization, or hierarchy. Falun Gong is more properly referred to as an ancient form of self-cultivation practice, often called qigong.

How has Falun Gong responded to this oppression?

Practitioners of Falun Gong in China have made appeals to the Chinese government via the proper legal channels, and have resisted the persecution with non-violent public protests. There has not been a single report of responding with violence, destroying property, or the like - despite beatings, torture, jailings, murder, and other grave injustices. Practitioners outside China have taken up long marches, done hunger strikes, staged sit-ins, launched letter-writing campaigns, staged rallies, held press conferences, and documented rights abuses.

What has been Ireland’s response, and that of the international community?

The Irish government has displayed great support for Falun Gong. An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, openly brought up the persecution and the case of Zhao Ming when the Chinese Premier visited Ireland in September 2001. Many other TDs have continuously voiced their concerns at the unjust persecution of innocent people. Through the efforts of the Irish government, the media and general public, Zhao Ming was released from Tuanhe labour camp in March 2002 where he had been imprisoned and tortured for nearly two years. He returned to Ireland and he studies atTrinity College.

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FALUN GONG — REPORT FROM IRELAND contact: E-mail (Ireland) zhaom@cs.tcd.ie list of web sites

FALUN GONG — REPORT FROM IRELAND
contact: E-mail (Ireland) zhaom@cs.tcd.ie
list of web sites