CHINA CRISIS NEWS
BULLETIN #51áááá
7/20/2000
Monitoring
News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
SPECIAL EDITION
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng
Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
July 20th marks the first anniversary of
China's crackdown of Falun Gong (Falun Dafa). To mark the occasion, U.S.
Falun Gong practitioners will be holding day-long events in front of the
Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the PRC Consulates in New York
and San Francisco, including press conferences and candlelight vigils.
There will also be screenings of the new video, "Falun Gong: The
Real Story, Part 2."
- TIANANMEN UPDATE:
OVER 1,000 DETAINED IN WEEK LEADING UP TO ANNIVERSARY
- CHINA ADMITS
YEAR-LONG CAMPAIGN HAS FAILED TO WIPE OUT FALUN GONG; PLEDGES TO CRACK
DOWN WITH A "FIRM HAND"
- TWO MORE FALUN GONG
MEMBERS DIE IN CHINA CUSTODY
PRESS CONFERENCE THURSDAY IN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Falun Gong practitioners will hold a press briefing and
premiere a new video "Falun Gong: The Real Story (Part 2)," with
Falun Gong spokespersons, Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman of the Board of
Freedom House, Rabbi David Saperstein, Chairman of U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom and T.Kumar of Amnesty International.
AND A VIGIL SET AT THE D.C.
EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
On the same day, several hundred Falun Gong
practitioners will gather in front of the Chinese Embassy to deliver a
letter calling for a peaceful dialogue to end the brutal persecution.
Candlelight vigil ceremonies will be held to commemorate those who were
tortured to death for refusing to renounce their spiritual beliefs.
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Group practice, appeal and peaceful vigil in front of Chinese
Embassy.
When:
July 20, 10:30am to 10:00pm
Where:
2300 Connecticut Ave. NW Washington, DC
Press briefing and video screening.
When:
July 20, 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Where:
Washington Hilton - Conservatory Room, 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW.
Washington D.C.
For more information, please contact:
Dana Cheng 703/725-4168 or Gail Rachlin
917/627-5762
Email at: USInfo@FalunDafa.org
|
TIANANMEN: OVER 1,000 DETAINED IN
WEEK LEADING UP TO ANNIVERSARY
BEIJING (AP) July 19 - Scores of Falun Gong followers
raised banners in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday in a burst of protest that
provoked a frenzied police response and proved the sect remains a force in
China a year after being outlawed. Police swarmed over groups of followers
- middle-aged women and children among them - wresting away banners and
knocking protesters to the ground. A uniformed officer locked his arms
around a woman's neck, pulling her away. Others were dragged along the
ground by their arms or clothes. All told, police detained more than 100
group members in a 10-minute explosion of seemingly coordinated protests
across the vast plaza in central Beijing. Police immediately cleared the
square, slightly earlier than scheduled for a midmorning visit by Russian
President Vladimir Putin. That the protests happened, and in such numbers,
showed the popular spiritual movement's resilience despite a year of
persecution and a police force on alert for demonstrations this week - the
anniversary of the crackdown against the group Followers have streamed
into Beijing this month for protests, and police have picked up at least
200 practitioners from Tiananmen Square every day for the past week, said
a Communist Party official involved insecurity work. Chinese leaders have
ordered police in Beijing and other cities to watch airports and railroad
and bus stations to prevent followers from reaching the capital, said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Names of practitioners have
been distributed to local police stations, the official said. He added
that followers who have renounced their ties have been put under
surveillance, while those who refused have been detained in police
stations. "Still some have slipped through our net," the
official said. The government has called Falun Gong an unprecedented
threat to communist rule.
CHINA STEPS UP WAR OF WORDS IN
STRIDENT PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN, ADMITS CRACKDOWN HAS FAILED TO "WIPE
OUT" FALUN GONG
BEIJING (AP) July 18 -- Anticipating protests by the
banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, China renewed attacks on the group
Monday, calling the sect's founder "a running dog" of foreign
powers who was inciting followers to resist the government. A commentary
in the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper carried some of
the harshest invective in recent months in a year-old smear campaign
against Falun Gong.
BEIJING (AP) July 19 -- China's leaders are settling
in for a prolonged struggle against the banned Falun Gong sect,
acknowledging in an official editorial that a year of arrests, harassment
and political campaigns have failed to wipe out the group. Hours after the
statement, as the anniversary of a government crackdown on the Falun Gong
arrived Thursday, police dispersed scores of protesters and detained more
than 90 of them in Tiananmen Square. Thursday's display showed that one of
China's biggest political campaigns in years may have thinned the
resilient group's ranks but has failed to wipe the movement The group's
resilience was grudgingly acknowledged in an editorial to be published
Thursday in the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily. Excerpts were
carried Wednesday on the official Xinhua News Agency "The fight
against Falun Gong will be a 'long-lasting, complicated and acute
struggle,' it said, and pledged to crack down on members with a 'firm
hand.'
TWO MORE FALUN GONG MEMBERS DIE IN
CHINA CUSTODY
BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) - Two members of the Falun
Gong spiritual group died in police custody this month, bringing to 24 the
number of deaths from abuse since China outlawed the group last year, a
Hong Kong human rights group said on Wednesday The Information Center
for Human Rights and Democracy said it had confirmed with relatives or
fellow adherents the July 7 beating death of 44-year-old Li Zaiji and the
July 12 death by apparent suffocation of 68-year-old Wang Peisheng
Police told relatives of Li, who came from the northeastern province of
Jilin, he had perished because of dysentery in a labour camp, but his body
was covered with bruises, the centre said Shandong resident Wang's death
certificate said only "sudden death," but fellow Falun Gong
members in the eastern province surmised he suffocated in a densely packed
cell in stifling heat, it said.
For more detailed information on the crackdown, visit www.faluninfo.net.
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER -
Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan
917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org