Toronto Star: Tales of torture from Falun Gong follower

Jan. 23, 2001

Toronto Star Staff Reporter

A Canadian sculpture professor who was jailed in a Chinese labour camp for being a member of the outlawed Falun Gong following says he was tortured, brainwashed and forced to publically recant his beliefs before being released.

''I was arrested ... and sentenced to a labour camp by the Chinese government because I practise Falun Gong,'' said Kunlun Zhang, 60, at a press conference at Queen's Park yesterday. ''I suffered mental torture, electric shock, complete isolation ... severe brainwashing morning until night.''

But Zhang, who taught art at the University of McGill in Montreal in the late 1980s and early 1990s, says the worst part of the ordeal was being forced to record propaganda - broadcast around China and other centres - that had him dismissing and denigrating Falun Gong.

''Only what I say as a free man represents my true feelings,'' said the professor, who was released on Jan. 10. ''I want to tell the world that Falun Gong is good and that I will continue to Practise Falun Gong for the rest of my life.

Practitioners say Falun Gong's meditation exercises and philosophies drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and its founder, Li Hongzhi, promote good health and moral living.

China's government, which started a crackdown in July 1999, deems Falun Gong a [slanderous word] that threatens public order and communist rule.

[í ]

MPP Rosario Marchese, who also attended the press conference, said Canada is all for trade with China, but it has to be made clear by our federal government that it will not put up with human rights violations.

[í ]

''Basically we should just keep hammering them on the torture and imprisonment aspects every chance we

get,'' said Marchese, MPP for Trinity-Spadina, an area with a high concentration of Chinese residents.

''Our federal politicians have just been too shy on this matter.''

Lawyer Rocco Galati, also at the news conference and representing a number of practitioners of Falun Gong, said he believes ''threats and intimidation'' to followers are being made in Canada and supported by the Chinese government.

He pointed to a forum that was advertised in two Chinese daily newspapers (Ming Pao Newspapers and the Chinese Canadian Post) and organized by a group called the Toronto Chinese Community General Federation.

The ad publicized a forum on ''upholding Canadian-Chinese friendship and condemning Falun Gong'' that was to have been held on Sunday (Jan. 21) at the Toronto Minzhi Party assembly hall at 436 Dundas St. W.,

Galati said he was uncertain of who comprises the organization, but that representatives from the Chinese Consulate General had been invited.

''It's my client's fear that those abhorrent and brutal human rights breaches condemned by international community and law, are now attempting to find their imported acceptance into Canada contrary to Canadian Law and constitutional rights,'' he said. ''Such meeting has potential to not only undermine the safety of my clients, but generally undermine the national security and integrity of Canada.''

Galati said he will be discussing the issue with the provincial and federal Attorneys General.

Zhang, who was in China helping his ill mother-in-law, pointed to pressure from the Canadian government, Amnesty International and lawyer Irwin Cotler as integral in his release after being arrested November 14 (2000).

Officials said Beijing seemed eager to ease tensions before a major Canadian trade mission to China next month.

Zhang, who holds dual Canadian Chinese citizenship and was to have served a three-year sentence, is believed to be the first foreign citizen detained since the ban.

His wife, Shu-mei, also a Falun Gong follower, stayed in China to nurse her 90-year-old mother, and he still fears for her safety.

In July 1999, Chinese president Jiang Zemin started a crackdown on the following after his own survey indicated that the number of Falun Gong practitioners exceeded the number of communist party members.

A Hong Kong-based rights group claims at least 10,000 Falun Gong members are being held in more than 300 labour camps, with one camp for women in northeastern Changchun city holding 560.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has alleged 98 followers have died, mostly at the hands of police, while in custody.

Zhang told the news conference that during his first detention he was told by police that ''if you were beaten to death, we could simply bury you and tell the outside world that you had committed suicide.''

''He and another policeman then started to torture my whole body with electric shocks,'' he said. ''My arms,

legs and body were burnt on many spots from the electricity. You could smell the burning skin. My left leg was badly injured. I could not walk properly. It took over three months to heal.''