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World Organization to Investigate PO Box 365326, Hyde Park, MA 02136 |
11 March 2003
Via Fax: +61 2 6273 4144
Minister of Immigration
Philip Ruddock MP
Suite MF 40
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Re: Jun Tao and Li Luan Wang
Immigration File No: CLF 2001/40662
RRT File No: N02/45236
Client ID: 31527125190 (Mr. Wang) – 31736125190 (Mrs. Wang)
Dear Minister Ruddock:
I am counsel to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun
Gong (“WOIPFG”). WOIPFG is dedicated to protecting the human rights
of Falun Gong practitioners around the world, to investigate and expose violations
of those rights, and to restore and uphold justice in society.
Mr. and Mrs. Wang, citizens of the People’s Republic of China and Falun Gong
practitioners, are being held at a detention centre awaiting deportation to
China because the Department of Immigration has declined to proceed favorably
with the Wangs’ asylum application. In ordering the deportation, the Department
of Immigration cites that the Wangs are free to practice their beliefs in private
and that the Chinese authorities are not interested in ordinary practitioners
of Falun Gong.
We are not speaking about mere denial of the practice of the Wangs spiritual
beliefs, but the outright infliction of brutal and oft times lethal measures
of repression. There is ample evidence amassed by Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which establishes
the severity of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners from all stripes-almost
six hundred practitioners have been killed in thirty different Provinces throughout
China since 2002.
Although efforts are underway to secure legal representation for the Wangs,
WOIPFG is asking for your assistance to enjoin the deportation in the interest
of justice and compassion. Once counsel presents the Wangs case, I am confident
that their applications for asylum will be granted.
Thank you for your attention to this most important matter.
Very truly yours,
Stewart L. Weisman, Esq.
SLW/sw
cc: Distribution List
___________________________________________
Such denials in and of themselves
run afoul of Articles 7, 18, 19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, and Articles 18, 19, 21, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
For example, see: Human Rights Watch, “Dangerous Meditation – China’s Campaign
Against Falungong” at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2002/china/
Summaries of confirmed deaths can be viewed at: http://media.minghui.org/gb/d-stats/province_en.htm
Posting date: 13/March/2003
Original article date: 11/March/2003
Category: Australian News
