Falun Gong News Bulletin: March 12, 2010

News on Events Inside China:

• FDIC: “Guizhou Falun Gong Practitioner Killed in Custody on Eve of Chinese New Year”
• FDIC: “Urgent Appeal Update: Falun Gong Practitioner Abducted from Shanghai Airport Being Held in Anhui, at Risk of Torture”
• Epoch Times: “Falun Gong Founder Receives Thousands of New Year Greetings”

News on Events Outside China:

• Jakarta Post: Indonesian Radio Station at Risk of Closure for Airing Falun Gong News
• Associated Press: “UN expert concerned about missing Chinese lawyer”
• Montreal Gazette: “Winnipeg lawyer, former MP nominated for Peace Prize”
• Agence France Presse: “Groups ask US for funds to break China ‘firewall’“

FDIC: “Guizhou Falun Gong Practitioner Killed in Custody on Eve of Chinese New Year”

Feb 25: “As families across China prepared to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the relatives of Ms. Gao Qiying were coping with the sudden death of the 40-year-old photographer.

Gao, a Falun Gong practitioner from Guizhou, had been abducted in 2008 before the arrival of the Olympic torch in her town. She died in custody on February 12, 2010, two days before the holiday and within weeks of complaining to her family that prison authorities had injected her with an unknown drug.

Gao is the 10th Falun Gong practitioner whose death from abuse the Falun Dafa Information Center has confirmed in 2010, though the actual toll is almost certainly higher.”

To read more: /article/985/?cid=84

FDIC: “Urgent Appeal Update: Falun Gong Practitioner Abducted from Shanghai Airport Being Held in Anhui, at Risk of Torture”

Mar. 9: “According to reliable sources inside China, a Falun Gong practitioner who was abducted at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on February 18 en route to the United States is currently in the custody of the Public Security Bureau in Anhui province. The Falun Dafa Information Center is urging the international community to take immediate action to ensure his immediate release and safe passage to the United States.

The Center reported Mr. Jiang Feng’s (??) apparent abduction on March 1. Since then, the Center has learned … that after Mr. Jiang passed through the security checkpoint at the airport, he was illegally abducted at the border inspection station.

Jiang was then taken back to his hometown of Hefei in Anhui province, where he was transferred into the custody of the Public Security Bureau’s Domestic Security Department in Luyang district. He is currently being held in a facility run by the department where officers are reportedly using coercive means to force Mr. Jiang to renounce his faith in Falun Gong.

[…] On February 18, 2010, Mr. Jiang Feng traveled to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport aiming to board Continental Airlines Flight #CO86 to Newark, where his wife was scheduled to meet him. The couple have been married for eleven years, but because of the Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong, have spent only a few months by each other’s side.”

To read more: /article/993/?cid=84

See also: FDIC: “Urgent Appeal Update: Falun Gong Practitioner Abducted from Shanghai Airport Being Held in Anhui, at Risk of Torture,” March 1, 2010: /article/992/?cid=84

Agence France Presse: “Man Vanishes Before Boarding Flight,” March 11, 2010: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/man-vanishes-before-boarding-flight/story-e6frfku0-1225839478884

Epoch Times: “Falun Gong Founder Receives Thousands of New Year Greetings”

Feb. 15: “Many mainland Chinese take this opportunity [of the Chinese New Year] to send greetings to Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. The greetings express gratitude to Mr. Li for introducing Falun Gong to the public.

As of the first day of the New Year, over 2,000 greetings from numerous cities and towns and from various groups of people have been published on Minghui.org. The majority of these greetings are from mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners…Even practitioners working in various departments in the Chinese military and within the government have sent greetings.

It was not only Falun Gong practitioners who sent greetings. Non-practitioners also wrote to Mr. Li, expressing their thankfulness for Falun Gong practitioners who have risked their lives to expose the propaganda fabricated by the Chinese communist regime and for their efforts to uphold the values of traditional Chinese culture.

Mr. Chen Xi, a mainland activist for democracy, also sent greetings to Mr. Li Hongzhi via New Tang Dynasty TV. “Mr Li Hongzhi lifts people from lives centered on cheap materialism up to a healthy and spiritual realm,” Chen said, adding that the things Falun Gong practitioners are doing are for all of the Chinese people and even for all of mankind. Another couple who actively promote democracy in China, Mr. Liao Shuanyuan and Mrs. Wu Yuqin, wrote: “We want to pay tribute to Mr. Li Hongzhi. We are eye witnesses to the indomitable spirit of his disciples under the communist regime’s brutal persecution in China.”

To read more: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/29739/

Jakarta Post: Indonesian Radio Station at Risk of Closure for Airing Falun Gong News  

Radio Erabaru (New Era Radio), which broadcasts general news and entertainment content from Batam island in Indonesia, is at risk of closure, apparently due to pressure from the Chinese authorities. Since 2007, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission has closely monitored the station after the Chinese embassy sent letters various Indonesian government ministries complaining that the station aired programming about Falun Gong. In early 2008, the Indonesian government rejected the extension of the station’s broadcasting license. The station filed a court case against the cancellation of the license later that year. They lost the case and are currently appealing to the Supreme Court.

In recent months, the station has come under repeated pressure from the government to end its operations, although the case before the Supreme Court is still pending. This week, the National Commission on Human Rights announced that it had initiated a probe to investigate whether the Chinese government had indeed applied pressure towards the cancellation of the station’s license. “This is a violation of Indonesia’s press freedom by the Chinese government, which could set a bad precedent. Other countries could follow suit,” Commissioner Johny Nelson Simanjuntak told the Jakarta Post on March 10.

The above is an FDIC summary of the series of events covered in the following three stories::

Jakarta Post: “China suspected behind radio closure,” Feb. 23, 2010: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/23/china-suspected-behind-radio-closure.html

Jakarta Post: “Stance toughened on `rebel’ radio,” Feb. 25, 2010: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/25/stance-toughened-rebel039-radio.html

Jakarta Post: “Commission probes China’s alleged violation of RI press freedom,” March 10, 2010: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/10/rights-commission-probes-china%E2%80%99s-alleged-intervention-ri%E2%80%99s-press-freedom.html

Associated Press: “UN expert concerned about missing Chinese lawyer”

March 11: A U.N. torture investigator said Wednesday he is very concerned about the fate of missing Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng and believes he has been severely tortured. Gao, known for defending people belonging to persecuted minorities, has been missing for more than a year.

“I’m very concerned,” he told reporters. “I have repeatedly asked the Chinese government to provide me with information, but I have not received any clear answer.”

Gao, who took up sensitive cases defending prominent people in Tibet, Xinjiang Uighurs, members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group and followers of Christian groups, had been arrested several times before, Nowak said. “He was, according to my information, severely tortured,” Nowak said.

To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i8Atiz2R14DxsAwNVNpPNa7ZBwPwD9EBRVS00

Montreal Gazette: “Winnipeg lawyer, former MP nominated for Peace Prize”

Feb 20: “Winnipeg lawyer and human rights advocate David Matas has been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the Falun Gong spiritual group, who he says are being killed for their organs in China.

Matas was nominated alongside former MP David Kilgour for their work over the past four years to alert the international community to the situation followers of the group face.

“It’s an honour to be nominated,” Matas said yesterday morning. “David Kilgour and I have been working on this issue since 2006. “Our goal is to stop this abuse. I can’t say it’s stopped yet.”

They were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize separately by federal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj and Balfour Hakak, chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel.”

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Winnipeg+lawyer+former+nominated+Peace+Prize/2589048/story.html#ixzz0hvf7l6ip

Agence France Presse: “Groups ask US for funds to break China ‘firewall'”

Feb 23: “A coalition of human rights campaigners on Tuesday urged the US government to fund efforts led by the Falungong spiritual movement to circumvent Internet censorship in China and other nations.

Congress approved 30 million dollars in the 2010 budget to combat cyber censorship in China, Iran and elsewhere. But lawmakers have voiced concern that the funding since 2008 has been used ineffectively. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rights advocates — most from China — urged that money go to the Global Internet Freedom (GIF) Consortium, originally set up to evade China’s Internet “firewall.”

The letter was signed by exiled leaders of the 1989 democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square… Other signatories included Rebiya Kadeer, the leader of exiles from China’s Uighur minority, along with activists campaigning for greater openness in Cuba, Myanmar, North Korea and Syria.”

To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2RwDlpb6hXb3qH1Zjmc6xWRj_Ug