Eye Witness to the Persecution During 10 Days in Custody in China
(SYDNEY Falun Dafa Information Centre) 7 February 2003 — Following a 10 day ordeal in the custody of China’s notorious secret police, Australian citizen and Falun Gong practitioner Nancy Chen was finally released on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Her rescue was in no small part due to the diligence of Australian Consular personnel, two of whom flew to the city of Chengdu in Sichuan province where Nancy was being held, to negotiate her release. The voices of outrage raised by media and NGO’s throughout the international community were also contributory to the happy outcome.
At a Press Conference on her return, Nancy told of her ordeal on her recent trip to China to visit her parents. Two days after she arrived at her parents’ home in Yibin City, she set off for Chengdu City. On the afternoon of January 21, she arrived in Chengdu. She sensed that she was being followed by at least eight security officers from “610 Office” of the National Security Bureau in Chengdu in two jeeps and one motorcycle. She was stopped by the security officers while attempting to make phone calls and even followed when she went to the toilet. She spent that night in terror endlessly walking the streets, until around 5.00 a.m. on January 22 when she managed to break away from them by taking a taxi. She went to the US consulate in Chengdu for assistance where she found the chance to make the phone call home telling them that she was followed and kidnapped and asking help from the Australian government. As soon as US Consular officials accompanying Nancy to the travel agent to book the flight to Hong Kong left her, a dozen security officers arrested Nancy Chen. The reason given was that she is a Falun Gong practitioner. She was held in two different hotels under 24-hour surveillance. They confiscated her passport, electronic notebook and mobile phone, and locked her up, cutting her off from the outside world and communication.
They treated her as if she were a “spy” and interrogated her for eight consecutive days. They asked her a lot of questions, such as “Who sent you back to China. What are you doing in Chengdu, and who were you meeting?” They asked her what overseas Falun Gong practitioners are doing daily, what’s her relationship with New York-based “Falun Dafa Information Centre.” They also asked her about names of overseas Falun Gong practitioners and Falun Dafa Association members as well as Falun Gong practitioners in Sichuan Province. Nancy Chen told them about the international community’s constant condemnation of Jiang’s regime over the three year escalating suppression of Falun Gong. She said there is no such ridiculous thing as the western opposing forces using Falun Gong to overthrow the Chinese government. Falun Gong practitioners do not get involved in politics. If Falun Gong practitioners had not been illegally detained, sentenced, sent to forced labour camps and even tortured to death, they would not have needed to clarify the truth to the public.
“610 Office” personnel of the National Security Bureau attempted to “transform” her. They took her to the Nanmusi Female Forced Labour Camp in Zizhong City, Sichuan Province where over 500 female Falun Gong practitioners are illegally detained. Most of the practitioners are over 50 years old. Nancy said, the forced labour camps in China are as hideous and horrendous as Hitler’s Fascist concentration camps.
Due to the intervention of the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Embassy in China and international pressure, at 3.00 p.m. on January 30, Chinese authorities had to release Nancy Chen who was told that she and her daughter would be leaving China in a limited time and would not be allowed to return China for three years.
Mrs. Chen wishes to thank the Australian media and the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their help in rescuing her and her daughter but wishes to remind people that there are thousands of Falun Gong practitioners quietly suffering in jails and labour camps under Jiang Zemin’s regime of state terrorism. She has particularly stressed how every media report, expression of disapproval by foreign governments, or letters and phone calls to Chinese officials protesting about the persecution, are treated very seriously and definitely help to improve the terrible conditions of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Nancy’s husband Mr. Lu’s response to State Terrorism: “Completely Expose the Facts”
Mr. Lu said he learned that in those ten days the officers of the local 610 Office, (the branch of the Public Security Bureau which is charged with the total eradication of Falun Gong, and which operates outside the law) interrogated his wife like a criminal and/or spy during her arrest. They told her that if she did not cooperate, they would detain her daughter and expatriate her. The police threatened her family, instructing them not to leak any information overseas or the consequences would be severe. “I told Nancy’s family over the telephone that no matter how they threatened her, if I can get even a small bit of information, I will publicize that sentence on the Internet. I was determined to expose their conduct completely.”
Particularly horrifying was the fact that Nancy was taken to a notorious labour camp and witnessed first-hand some of the appalling treatment meted out to Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to renounce their beliefs. Moreover, the majority of those being mistreated were ladies over the age of fifty. So much for the traditional Chinese virtue of respect for the wisdom of one’s elders. Over 500 female practitioners are being held at the Nanmusi Camp in Zizhong City, Sichuan province. It is highly likely that had the Australian Government and international community not stepped in, Nancy would also have been incarcerated indefinitely without trial for ‘re-education’.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Media Play a Major Part in Nancy’s Rescue
Once Nancy went missing her husband and other Falun Gong practitioners left no stone unturned in their efforts to secure her release. The Chinese refused to issue any information for 72 hours but once the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had the necessary information they moved quickly into action. Major news media and a variety of concerned international agencies also expressed deep concern.
Consular Maureen suggested that many Australian MP’s were most perturbed that an Australian citizen who had simply gone to visit her family, and was not engaged in any sort of illegal activity, could be subjected to such outrageous treatment..”
Unexpected New Year Celebration with Family
Nancy Chen’s husband Mr. Lu stated that it wasn’t until he received the news that Nancy had boarded the plane from her parents’ hometown of Yibin, Sichuan, that he finally managed to relax somewhat. Nancy’s parents were so worried that they apparently did not eat a full meal throughout the entire time she was missing. Their house was also searched, and they were interrogated along with their friends and neighbours.
“Nancy’s neighbours and classmates in Sichuan had all been investigated by the local police. They were all very afraid of talking to each other. Originally they were very happy Nancy could celebrate the Chinese New Year with them and they had been expecting her visit. They could not imagine things would end up like this.” Mr. Lu said.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
For more information and photos please contact: Dr. Michael Pearson-Smith 0409 500 271
, Kati Vereshaka 0408 165 094
WEBSITES: www.falunau.org , www.faluninfo.net E-MAIL: news@falunau.org
