• ANOTHER DEATH IN POLICE CUSTODY: DEATH TOLL NOW AT 37
• CHINA'S OBSESSION WITH FALUN GONG
• CRACKDOWN ESCALATES SINCE ANNIVERSARY: ABITRARY DETENTIONS
• CHINA - "WORLD'S LEADING JAILER OF JOURNALISTS"

FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER KILLED DURING FORCED-FEEDING BY CHINESE POLICE July 27, 2000 BEIJING (AP) -- Police forcibly fed a hunger striker protesting the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group, causing the woman to choke to death, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said Thursday. Gong Baohua died last month, about a week after police broke her nose while arresting her at a demonstration in Beijing, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. Police tried to force the 35-year-old woman to eat by using a nasal feeding tube at a detention center near her home in Pinggu County, outside of Beijing, the group said.

CHINA'S FALUN GONG OBSESSION August 1, 2000 EDITORIAL (Washington Post, Page A22) It has now been just over a year since the government of China began its effort to stamp out the nonviolent spiritual movement known as Falun Gong. Thousands of Chinese followers of the group have been subjected to surveillance, harassment, arrest, torture and, in some two dozen cases, death. The Communist government portrays its battle against Falun Gong as an effort to protect China from an evil cult bent on destabilizing society. In fact, the authorities are reacting out of instinctive hostility to the growth of an independent organization that appears capable of offering Chinese a spiritual alternative--however obscure--to official ideology. Yet for all its determination to deny Falun Gong practitioners their right to the free exercise of their beliefs, Beijing has been unable in a year to restore the monochromatic ideological climate its rulers require. The effort to destroy Falun Gong will be a "long-lasting, complicated and acute struggle," a July 20 editorial in the official People's Daily conceded. This backhanded compliment to the undeniable courage and tenacity of Falun Gong's adherents was also, alas, probably a threat of even greater official violence to come.

APA COMMITTEE CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF CHINESE PSYCHIATRIC ABUSES June 16, 2000 APA Professional News Journal -- The media and human rights groups have reported on recent psychiatric abuses of Falun Gong practitioners in China by the government. An APA committee wants the World Psychiatric Association to investigate the matter. APA's Committee on the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists passed a resolution last month at APA's annual meeting in Chicago recommending that the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) investigate the alleged wrongful detention of Falun Gong practitioners in psychiatric hospitals. The resolution will be reviewed by the Council on Professional Values and Human Dignity at the fall component meetings, according to committee member Abraham Halpern, M.D. The resolution is the latest step by APA members to draw attention to alleged psychiatric abuses of some Falun Gong practitioners. Halpern commented to Psychiatric News that the Chinese government wants to discredit Falun Gong practitioners by labeling them as mentally ill and dangerous. He said that reporters for the New York Times in China have interviewed practitioners detained in psychiatric hospitals who confirmed the abuse of psychiatry. Source: http://www.psych.org/pnews/

CHINA "WORLD'S LEADING JAILER OF JOURNALISTS" BEIJING, Aug 4, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A U.S.-based press freedom group urged Chinese President Jiang Zemin to order the release of a journalist who has been given a 13-year sentence on allegedly trumped-up charges. Gao Qinrong's real crime was to expose an elaborate fraud in north China's Shanxi province whose purpose was to help local officials gain faster promotions, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We call on President Jiang Zemin to order Gao's immediate release." [the committee said, in a recent statement]. The committee said there were 19 reporters were known to have been jailed in China by the end of last year, making the country "the world's leading jailer of journalists." All print and broadcast media in China are owned and controlled by the government. Only a handful of news websites are in private hands.

STATEMENT FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (7/20/00), Amnesty International's Speech at Ottawa Press Conference by Alex Neve, Secretary General (A.I. of Canada): In the year since the ban, Amnesty International has documented an extensive pattern of serious human rights violations. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers have been arbitrarily detained by the police. Some have been held for short periods, and pressured to renounce their beliefs. Many have been tortured or ill-treated in detention. As I've said, at least 12 [ed. note: count now 37] have died as a result. Some have been held in psychiatric hospitals and forced to take drugs. Thousands remain in detention. Some have been charged with crimes and sentenced after grossly unfair trials. Others have been sent to labour camps without trial. New arrests and detentions continue to be reported every day. Anyone who dares to speak out about the persecution of Falun Gong followers faces harsh reprisals. It must stop. The arbitrary detentions, unfair trials, torture and deaths resulting from this campaign must come to an end.

NEWS FROM CHINA August, 2000, BEIJING - Lu Chunfeng went on a hunger strike in mid-February, and was taken away at the end of May. (It was said that she had died in the hospital). She had been on a hunger strike for about 100 days. MIYUN COUNTY - The following practitioners have been sentenced to forced labor without any trial. They are: Guo Jingxia and Liu Xuecheng (a married couple with two teenage children), Huo Pingsheng, Ma Deshan, Dang Fengxia, Li Yajuan, and Yu Shufen, all of Miyun County. HENAN PROVINCE - Li Kun was sentenced to three years in a labor camp on April 25, 2000, after appealing to the central government, with three other practitioners. After her arrest, she was escorted back to her hometown. The local police told her they would release her if she agreed to pledge that she would not go to Beijing to appeal. However, Ms. Li refused and would not sign the pledge. As a result, she was sentenced to three years in a labor camp, and was forced to divorce her husband. The other three practitioners who were arrested with Ms. Li are also still in custody. HUNAN PROVINCE - The persecutions against practitioners have been escalating as more practitioners are being thrown into prisons, forced labor camps, or detention centers. Many more have lost their jobs or have had their pensions suspended. The police are arresting practitioners arbitrarily without any legal procedure, as well as imposing arbitrary fines upon them. Practitioners who can't afford the stiff fines are sentenced, sent to labor camps, or detained.

NEW PUBLICATION AND VIDEO AVAILABLE: "The Falun Dafa Quarterly," a journal for community leaders and concerned individuals, plus "Falun Gong: The Real Story, Part 2," a 30-minute docu-video with rare footage of interviews from inside China, as well as commentary from top scholars and human rights experts. Contact the Falun Dafa Information Center for complimentary copies for the media.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-912-3301, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: [email protected]