Hundreds of Falun Gong Adherents Arrested in ?Preparation? for Olympics
Chinese security agencies offering cash rewards for turning in Falun
Gong
practitioners (3/12/2008 13:26)
NEW YORK ? Chinese security agencies have been conducting large-scale
arrests of Falun Gong adherents throughout China in recent months as
authorities step up efforts to ?stamp out? the practice in advance of the
Olympic Games, in August, the Falun Dafa Information Center re****ted
today.
In recent weeks, the Center has been receiving regular re****ts from
adherents and their families inside China of door-to-door searches and
arrests. According to statistics compiled from these re****ts, there have
been 1,878 arrests across 29 provinces, major cities, and autonomous
regions since January 1 of this year. In Beijing alone, 156 arrests are
known to have taken place.
The Center released today a list of names and details of 67 representative
cases of individuals detained in Beijing since December 2007 (list). Out
of
this group, 16 adherents were arrested from Chaoyang District, which is
set
to host the beach volleyball and tennis events, and 10 from Shunyi
district, the site of the Olympic rowing and kayaking venues.
?The International community had hoped that awarding the Olympics to China
would spur an improvement in human rights,? said Information Center
representative Mr. Erping Zhang. ?But the facts on the ground tell a very
different story. The Olympics seem to have given the Beijing regime a new
incentive, and excuse, to hasten its abuses of citizens? rights. The
arrests make a mockery of the regime?s promise to improve its dismal
record
on human rights. It is now imperative that the international community
speak up, leverage real pressure, and stop these deplorable actions.?
Door-to-door Arrests
According to the re****ts, many of the arrests follow a common pattern,
whereby officers from the local police station or Public Security Bureau
(PSB) branch come to the adherent?s home or workplace, conduct a search
for
any Falun Gong-related materials, and take the individual into custody at
the district detention center. In some cases, family members or co-workers
who do not practice Falun Gong have been taken into custody as well.
The systematic nature of the arrests suggests that authorities are using a
previously compiled list of local adherents ? a common practice of the
PSB.
According to former PSB and 610 Office agent Hao Fengjun, who currently
resides in Australia, authorities in the city of Tianjin, where Hao
formerly worked, had a database of 30,000 Falun Gong practitioners? names.
Rewards for Identifying Falun Gong Adherents
In many cities a reward system has been put in place offering 500-3,000
yuan
(roughly USD $60-$360) for identifying Falun Gong adherents to the
authorities. In Zibo city (Shandong province), for example, announcements
were posted in neighborhood administration offices offering 2,000-3,000
yuan for information leading to the arrest of a Falun Gong adherent. Other
offices re****tedly offered 500-2,000 yuan for identifying a Falun Gong
adherent seen distributing informational leaflets.
While such reward mechanisms are not new, their use in connection with the
Olympics is. Websites run by the PSB and other government agencies have,
for the past several years, openly posted notices calling on citizens to
turn in Falun Gong adherents; rewards have ranged up to 5,000 yuan. The
following PSB site for Liaoning Province is one example: link (Chinese
authorities usually take down websites such as these once they have been
publicized in the West. If the link does not work, please refer to an
Internet archive or the archived text of this page here).
As another example, in an October 8, 2007, USA Today article, a taxi
driver
named Liu Chunfa was quoted as saying, ?I have attended several meetings
with police lecturers. They told us if we re****t suspicious people, like
believers in Falun Gong, we could get a 2,000-yuan ($250) reward.?
The Center has received word of several detained Beijing adherents having
been sentenced to ?re-education through labor? camp terms without trial,
and fears others are at grave risk of wrongful sentencing. Any likely
sentences will extend beyond the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games,
if not for years. Chinese law allows for sentences of up to three years
without so much as a court hearing.
The Center is demanding the immediate release of all Falun Gong adherents,
and calling upon foreign media stationed in and around Beijing to
investigate these arrests.
Earlier Re****ts ? Beijing Olympics Fueling the Persecution of Falun Gong
A Feb. 21, 2001, Reuters re****t revealed that the campaign against Falun
Gong had escalated as China entered the final stages of bidding for the
2008 Olympics. The re****t cited the state-run Xinhua propaganda outlet as
saying the government had given ?citations? to 110 organizations and 271
individuals ?for anti-Falun Gong work? and to ?wipe out Falun Gong.?
A July 17, 2001, re****t from the Australian Broadcasting Cor****ation,
meanwhile, disclosed that after Beijing landed the 2008 Olympics, China?s
then Vice Premier declared that winning the Olympics was ?justification
for
the country?s crackdown on the Falun Gong.?
In 2005, an intelligence journal, Intelligence Online, revealed that
China?s
deputy public security minister, Liu Jing, had been assigned the
responsibility of wiping out Falun Gong before the Games. (news)
According to Amnesty International, in preparing for the Games, Former
Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang issued the following order in the
context of ?successfully? holding the Beijing Olympic Games: ?We must
strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic
separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ? the Falun
Gong.?
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mailto:peter@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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