- CONFIRMED DEATH TOLL OF FALUN GONG IN CHINA TOPS 3,000
- CHINESE ARMY HOSPITAL ADMITS USE OF FALUN GONG ORGANS
- FALUN GONG FOUNDER RESPONDS TO SWELL OF NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS
- HEAD OF BEIJING OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SUED IN AUSTRIA
- AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ORDERED TO PAY LAWSUIT COSTS TO FALUN GONG
CONFIRMED DEATH TOLL OF
FALUN GONG IN CHINA TOPS 3,000
Last week, the confirmed number of people killed in China for practicing or
supporting Falun Gong topped 3,000. According to Chinese government sources, the
true death toll is estimated to be as high as 10,000 or more. Most of the deaths
resulted from severe forms of torture, including beatings, being shocked with
30,000-volt electric batons (often in sensitive places, such as the anus,
genitals and mouth) and being submerged in sewage water for prolonged periods of
time (see: torture
methods). Since the Chinese Communist regime launched the suppression of
Falun Gong in 1999, extreme violence -- combined with a systematic propaganda
campaign and a wide range of extortion and suppression tactics -- has been used
throughout China to coerce Chinese citizens into giving up their Falun Gong
practice. The Falun Dafa InfoCenter has verified more than 63,000 cases of
torture. Millions of Falun Gong men and women have been detained or sent to
forced labor camps without trial. Untold thousands have been driven from their
homes and workplaces by the threat of torture and imprisonment from local
police.
CHINESE ARMY HOSPITAL
ADMITS USE OF FALUN GONG ORGANS
According to a Dec. 29, 2006 report from China, a staff member at the Air Force
281 Hospital in Beidaihe District, Qinhuangdao City confirmed to an undercover
investigator that organs used at the hospital to perform transplants come from
(unwilling, imprisoned) Falun Gong practitioners. The hospital has recently
taken out advertisements in local newspapers offering transplants for kidneys,
livers and, more recently, lungs. The statement is the latest in a string of
shocking admissions by medical staff in hospitals across eight provinces that
have told investigators they get organs from Falun Gong practitioners. In some
cases, the staff members boast at how healthy and "fresh" the organs
are, and how quickly a match can be found. In July, former Canadian Secretary of
State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour and human rights attorney David Matas issued
an independent report on organ harvesting in China (see: news).
The report concluded that a large number of people who practice Falun Gong were
being killed for their organs. The report also said there was no other explained
source for the more than 40,000 transplants that have taken place in China since
2000.
FALUN GONG FOUNDER
RESPONDS TO SWELL OF NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS
The Epoch Times, January 3, 2007 - "The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
has tried for over seven years to eradicate the peaceful meditation practice of
Falun Gong, but an exchange of New Year's greetings suggests that Falun Gong is
more than surviving the CCP's campaign. On New Year's Day, in response to
thousands of New Year's greetings, Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong,
published on the Falun Gong Web site Clearwisdom.net a message addressed to the
people of the world... Greetings were sent from every corner of China, including
remote rural or mountainous areas and also ethnic areas, such as Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region -- the home of the Hui people. A wide cross-section of Chinese
society is also evident in the greetings from China... Such greetings show the
failure of an intensive propaganda effort meant to turn the people of China
against Falun Gong. This propaganda effort was one cornerstone of a systematic
and comprehensive persecution that began on July 20, 1999."
Full story: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-1-3/49992.html
HEAD OF BEIJING OLYMPIC
GAMES SUED IN AUSTRIA
Austria Press Agency reported on Dec 16 that the Austrian Falun Dafa Association
filed a suit in Vienna against Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Olympic Games
Organizing Committee, and three other high ranking Chinese Communist Party
officials. Liu, along with former Chinese Communist Party head Jiang Zemin and
two heads of the infamous 610 Office, Li Lanqing and Luo Gan, have been charged
with "Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity" for their roles in the
persecution, torture, and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Often
likened to the Nazi Gestapo, the 610 Office is an extra-judicial agency created
in 1999 specifically to wipe out Falun Gong in China.
AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN
MINISTER ORDERED TO PAY LAWSUIT COSTS TO FALUN GONG
On December 14, 2006, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Supreme Court issued a
final verdict on the year and a half-long legal case filed by Falun Dafa
practitioners against Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. In order to
avoid a court order, Mr. Downer promised he would stop issuing certificates that
restrict Falun Gong practitioners' use of banners in peaceful protests. The
judge also ordered Downer to pay $20,000 in legal fees. The Falun Gong
practitioners had charged Downer with abuse of power in issuing 96 certificates,
on a monthly basis, over a period of four years, which restrict practitioners'
use of banners and music to protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.
Downer began issuing certificates in March 2002, one day before Chinese Foreign
Minister Tang Jiaxuan was to visit Australia.
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
