WASHINGTON DC-The Falun Dafa Information Center marked the release of its 2010 Annual Report on Monday with a press conference and panel discussion at the U.S. Capitol Building. (report)
Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, introduced the key findings of the report, including the observation that tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners continue to face “lawlessness and brutality” in Mainland China, and that they constitute “the largest group of prisoners of conscience” in the world. (executive summary)
“In the persecution of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is developing more effective and comprehensive mechanisms for brutal suppression and censorship,” explained Browde. “We’re already seeing the CCP unleashing these mechanisms onto other targets…using them against Tibetans, Christians and other persecuted groups, as well as for hiding incidents like SARS and poisonous products, the effects of which reach far beyond China’s borders.”
Full story: /article/1043/?cid=84
Washington Times: Chinese accused of vast trade in organs China’s hidden policy of executing prisoners of the forbidden quasi-Buddhist group Falun Gong and harvesting their organs for worldwide sale has been expanded to include Tibetans, “house church” Christians and Muslim Uighurs, human rights activists said Monday.
In a news conference on Capitol Hill, several speakers, including attorney David Matas of B’nai Brith Canada and Ethan Gutmann of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said their investigations have unearthed a grisly trade in which an estimated 9,000 members of Falun Gong have been executed for their corneas, lungs, livers, kidneys and skins.
They likened the practice to the Nazi treatment of Jewish prisoners in World War II concentration camps, which included using them for sadistic medical experiments and taking the gold fillings from the teeth of corpses.
CBC News: Falun Gong members seek right to sue Chinese officials Canada should allow lawsuits against foreign officials accused of torture by people now living in this country, an Ontario court heard Monday.
Lawyers for members of Falun Gong — which describes itself as a spiritual movement but which the Chinese government brands a group of disruptive radicals — said victims of torture would otherwise have no way to get redress for abuse perpetrated by those with power and influence abroad.
“These sorts of violations should not be committed with impunity, and Canada should not allow impunity for these crimes,” human rights lawyer David Matas said outside Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.
FDIC: Elderly Falun Gong Practitioner Jailed for Handing Out Fliers Dies in Chinese Prison Camp NEW YORK – A 60-year-old woman died on March 18 in a northeast China prison camp where authorities had sent her after finding her distributing information about the persecution against Falun Gong. This was the fourth time Ms. Shi Yingchun (???) had been wrongfully incarcerated, suffering repeated torture sessions of beatings, electric baton shocks, forced-feedings and sleep deprivation.
Full story: /article/1007/?cid=84
New York Times: 2 Chinese Lawyers Are Facing Disbarment for Defending Falun Gong BEIJING — Two Chinese lawyers who represented a follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement could have their licenses permanently revoked in an administrative hearing on Thursday. The action against the lawyers is the latest move in an increasingly harsh government crackdown on lawyers who take on human rights cases…
The two lawyers said in their written statement that the justice bureau’s charge “is obviously factually unsound and lacks legal basis.” The lawyers said it was in fact the judge in the court in Sichuan who was a disruptive element during the trial on April 27, 2009…
The Chinese government has been relentless about quashing any defense of Falun Gong, which is considered one of the most sensitive topics in China, along with independence for Tibet and Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.