May 08, 2006

• WEEKLY STANDARD: WHY WANG WENYI WAS SHOUTING
• "APRIL 25, 1999 WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE TRIGGER THAT LED TO THE PERSECUTION"
• CITIES AROUND THE WORLD MARK HISTORIC APRIL 25
• MR. ZHANG ANPU TORTURED TO DEATH -- CONFIRMED TOLL AT 2,862
• COUNCIL OF EUROPE ASSEMBLY MEMBERS CALL FOR HEARING, ALLOWING INVESTIGATION

WEEKLY STANDARD: WHY WANG WENYI WAS SHOUTING
WASHINGTON DC (05-03-2006) -- "Wang Wenyi, the woman whose shouts disrupted the welcoming ceremony for Chinese president Hu Jintao on the White House lawn on April 20, is a middle-aged pathologist and a follower of Falun Gong...As a doctor and a Falun Gong practitioner, Wang had to be incensed by a hair-raising story coming out of northeast China--of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong prisoners...

If it is true that imprisoned practitioners of Falun Gong are being murdered for their organs in China, a remaining question is the scale of the practice. The number of Falun Gong practitioners in custody is disputed; estimates by the Chinese dissident community range from 235,000 to one million or more...

Personally, I fear the worst. One reason is that the Chinese authorities have always handled Falun Gong with a peculiar vehemence...Falun Gong participants have regularly disappeared, with no arrest record, nothing but an assigned number...But the main reason I'm pessimistic is the money. Organ transplants are a profitable business... it is indisputable that the Chinese Communist party has sanctioned the sale of body parts from executed prisoners. I suspect that the profits from Chinese organ harvesting dwarf those of the Nazis' soap and hair-pillow-stuffing enterprises..."

Full Story: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/160ymogj.asp

"APRIL 25, 1999 WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE TRIGGER THAT LED TO THE PERSECUTION"
Clearwisdom.net (commentary by Shu Zhen)--"Seven years ago on April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal at the State Bureau of Letters and Calls, not Zhongnanhai. The direct reason for their appeal was the arrest of 45 Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin City...

The actual background is more far-reaching: since 1996, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime's agencies had banned the publication of Falun Gong books and organized various local media to slander Falun Gong in a well-coordinated manner. The police constantly harassed Falun Gong practitioners.

...the 10,000-person appeal on April 25, 1999 was absolutely not the trigger that led to the persecution of Falun Gong; it was a convenient pretext for the CCP to publicly persecute Falun Gong...Appeals, even on a large-scale, are permitted according to the CCP's own laws and regulations...

Seven years have now passed. Countless Falun Gong practitioners have died...However, the spirit of the great compassion, the great forbearance and perseverance in righteous belief that the Falun Gong practitioners manifested during the 'April 25 Appeal' has remained..."

Full Story: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/4/28/72555.html

CITIES AROUND THE WORLD MARK HISTORIC APRIL 25
Falun Gong practitioners and supporters held parades, candelight vigils, and press conferences in cities around the world to mark April 25. The date marks the 1999 gathering of over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing in response to state abuses. The petition was one of the most remarkable civil acts in China's history. Its peaceful legacy has been carried out in Falun Gong seven-year non-violent resistance to persecution.

Activities were held in Auckland, Bangkok, Brisbane, Brussles, Chicago, Dallas, Gothenburg, the Hague, Helsinki, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Maccau, Munich, New York, Ottawa, St. Louis, Tokyo, Toronto and other cities.

MR. ZHANG ANPU TORTURED TO DEATH - CONFIRMED TOLL AT 2,862
According to sources inside China, on April 30, 2006 Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Anpu died as a result of torture suffered in custody. Zhang, 38, from Tongcheng County in Hubei Province, was arrested on April 6. Sources says Zhang's body became swollen after he was beaten by prison guards. On April 29, CCP officials extorted money from his family and released the injured Zhang. He died of his injuries the next day.

Previously, another Falun Gong practitioner from Tongcheng, Mr. Shu Zusi, was arrested while farming in the fields. He also died several days after his arrest, apparently from severe beatings in custody. Zhang's death raises the known toll of Falun Gong practitioners who have died as a result of the seven-year persecution to 2,862 deaths. The recent disclosure of systematic organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, however, suggests that the actual death toll is in fact many, many times higher.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE ASSEMBLY MEMBERS CALL FOR HEARING, ALLOWING INVESTIGATION
Members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly have called for a public hearing on organ harvesting in China. The motion, presented by Mr. Goran Lindblad of Sweden and ten other Assembly members, calls upon Council of Europe member states to influence China "to allow international rights organisations to immediately investigate the conditions of all Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents held in all labour camps, jails and detention centres."

Full Story: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc06/EDOC10904.htm