A Minghui Correspondent reports from New York that from
April 14 to 18, the Annual General Meeting of Amnesty International US section
was held at the New York Marriott in Brooklyn. Falun Gong practitioners joined
the “New Idea Display” with the theme of “Petals of Peace.”
 
Display |  
A teacher wishes to bring stories about paper lotus flowers and |
Background of “Petals of Peace” event
Since June 10, 1999, Jiang Zemin
and his followers have staged and pushed their state-sanctioned terrorism. As
a result, many Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death or injured.
Countless families have been torn apart, and hundreds of thousands of practitioners
have been forced to leave home and become destitute to avoid being imprisoned.
Millions of practitioners’ family members, friends and colleagues have encountered
different degrees of incrimination and brainwashing. It has been verified that
951 Falun Gong practitioners have died from the persecution. Over the past nearly
five years of persecution, countless children have encountered discrimination
and threats; some were obliged to discontinue their studies, some were detained,
beaten or forced to leave home; some lost their family members, either because
they themselves persisted in their belief in “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance”
or because their parents were Falun Gong practitioners. Some children have died
from the persecution.
The “Petals of Peace” event especially emphasizes the
plight encountered by millions of children in China whose parents were either
tortured to death or imprisoned and therefore were unable to take care of them.
The persecuted children also include those who were forced to sign a “guarantee
letter opposing Falun Gong”. This event encourages children throughout the world
to learn to fold paper lotus flowers as a symbol to stop the persecution and to
expose the Jiang group’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Through
the event, we try to help more people learn about the ongoing persecution in China
that has affected every individual and hope people help stop it. The lotus flowers
symbolize children’s hope that this unreasonable persecution will eventually
be stopped.
Children tortured to death
In the unbridled persecution
against the belief in “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” , Jiang and his followers
have not even spared the children. According to estimates, the ages of children
who have died from the persecution ranges from 18 months to 17-18 years old.
On November 7, 2000, Meng Hao, an infant boy less than eight months old was tortured
to death with his mother Ms. Wang Lixuan at Beijing’s Tuanhe Labor Camp.
Wang Shujie was a four-year-old girl, who lived at Miaoshansan Village, Miaoshan
Town, Laiwu City, Shangdong Province. Both of her parents are Falun Gong practitioners.
Since the persecution began in 1999, little Shujie had to face round upon round
of separation from her parents, and she was extremely traumatized. On July 15,
2002, little Shujie passed away.
Liu Qian, a 12-year-old girl, and a third-grade
student at the Gegezhuang Village Elementary School, Hebei Province was diagnosed
on November 15, 2003 to be suffering from leukemia. Seven days after she started
practicing Falun Gong, she completely recovered. Unfortunately, her school did
not allow her to continue her study simply because she would not give up her practice
of Falun Gong. Being a young child, Liu Qian was unable to deal with the cruel
situation and she suddenly passed away on the 22nd day of the first
month of the Lunar New Year of 2004.
Ms Cheng Ying, 17 years old, was a student
at Shuren High School, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. On July 22, 1999,
Chen Ying went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. On August 16, 1999, while
being taken from Beijing back to her hometown, she was beaten, cursed and threatened
by police officers and was forced to jump out of the train. She died as a result.
More children are suffering in the persecution
The above are just
a few known cases up to present. More children are suffering in this inhuman persecution:
- Dafa practitioners from Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, Dong Junming and
Wang Shumei’s child was born in May 1999. The parents were abducted and later
were forced to leave home to avoid being persecuted further. Their baby has to
live with his grandparents where having enough food is a difficulty.
- On July 21, 2000, Falun Gong practitioner from Laiwu City, Shangdong Province,
Mr. Wang Zideng and his five other family members, including his 2-year-old son
and a niece, were forcibly detained in the local detention center. The electricity
and water supply were cut off. His daughter was unable to obtain her diploma after
she graduated from high school. When his whole family was detained in the detention
center, his 2-year-old son held onto the metal crib and heartbreakingly cried,
“I want to go home, I want to go home…”
- The Yanggu County
Police Station, Shangdong Province once detained a 6-month-old infant with his
grandparents and parents in an ice-cold detention center, exposed to inhumane
conditions.
- At about 9 pm on September 1, 2003, several police
officers from Fushun Municipal Bureau of Public Security, Liaoning Province broke
into Korean Dafa practitioner Luo Jingyu’s home and abducted Ms. Luo and
her 3-year-old daughter to the local brainwashing center.
- A
2-year-old bay from Mengyang Town, Pengzhou City was abducted with his parents
and grandmother in May 2002 and detained in the town government office building,
simply because his family members persisted in practicing Falun Gong. At first,
the baby was locked in a dirty room with his mother for more than three months.
The commode was put in the room and bugs and mosquitoes were everywhere. Later,
because they were unable to afford the fines, the family of four was sent to Pengzhou
Detention Center. The 2-year-old baby was imprisoned for at least 9 months. Because
the baby had to eat the poor quality jail food for a long period of time, he was
emaciated with a sallow complexion. Each day, he used his little hands to strike
the jail door and cried, “Let me out!” The scene moved people to tears.
- In 2000 to 2001, four-year-old Rongrong from Shangdong Province successively
lost the three people who loved her the most. Her father was tortured to death.
Her mother was forced to leave home to avoid being imprisoned. Her grandmother
was unable to bear the tribulation and passed away.
- Miss Chen Si, 13 years old, was a middle school student. She lived in the
Shapingba District, Chongqing City. During her summer vacation, she went out to
distribute Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials and was arrested. People who
were deceived by the slandering propaganda and hated Falun Gong beat her terribly.
Later, Miss Chen Si was sent to the Geleshang Brainwashing Center in Shapingba
District and was force-fed for two weeks in the Geleshan Psychiatric Hospital.
When her school began, the “610 office” officials refused to allow her to go to
school because she would not give up her belief in Falun Gong.
- In December 2000, 16-year-old Dafa practitioner, Xiao Zhang from Qiangyuan
County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province unfurled a banner imprinted with the words,
“Falun Dafa is good” on the Tiananmen gate tower. In front of other people, the
police officers beat him and kicked him badly with their leather shoes. The 16-year-old
Xiao Zhang lost consciousness on the spot. Later, seeing Xiao Zhang’s health
in a desperate situation, the Tiananmen Square police station sent him to a hospital
for an emergency treatment. After that, Xiao Zhang was sent back to Xiangyuan
and sentenced to 1.5 years in jail.
More cases of children
suffering from the persecution can be found in China. A 20-year-old girl from
Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, Cheng Ling was sentenced to 7 years in jail
simply because she exercised her freedom of belief and expression, which are ensured
by the Constitution and made Falun Gong materials that contained the facts of
the persecution.
“Petals of Peace” calls for understanding and attention
In China, not only are millions of practitioners’ families suffering
from the persecution, but the children in these families are also damaged both
physically and mentally. This persecution, which is completely based on lies,
has affected every family and every child. The education system was also forced
to become the accomplice of the Jiang group. It has spread lies, poisoned children’s
pure hearts, and deprived children of their right to go to school.
Paper lotus
flowers were displayed at the “Petals of Peace” booth and were especially eye-catching.
Falun Gong practitioners talked with many contact persons of Amnesty International
chapters in different regions in the U.S. They also presented the beautiful paper
lotus flowers to the display attendees. Some people directly put the flowers on
their clothing. Innocent children touch people’s hearts. The paper lotus
flowers help people to learn more about and pay more attention to the brutal persecution
taking place in China.
Posting date: 1/May/2004
Original
article date: 22/April/2004
Category: World
News
