Ten-year-old boy told to renounce
Falun Gong or “We will call the police to take you away.”
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State Councilor and former Minister of Education Ms. Chen Zhili will face
criminal proceedings before a Tanzanian High Court where she has been sued for
torture and extra judicial killings.
The suit was filed on
July 19 2004 against Chen while she was visiting several African nations. (news)
On Aug. 3, a Tanzanian judge gave the green light for a criminal trial to proceed
against her. (news)
During
her term as Education Minister, Chen saturated the Chinese school system’s course
materials and exams with anti-Falun Gong propaganda. She also used mandatory pledges
to identify administrators, teachers and students who practice Falun Gong, most
of whom are subsequently sent to brainwashing sessions or labor camps.
As
of March 2004, the Falun Dafa Information Center has verified the details of 61
Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country who are either students or teachers
that have been killed for practicing Falun Gong. Many others have been tortured,
beaten or raped.
Chen has faced fierce opposition within the
Chinese education community for her actions. In March 2002, she was impeached
during the National People’s Congress.
Chen, however, apparently
continues to receive support from Jiang Zemin – the former Chinese leader who
initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999 (special
report) – and was appointed to the position of State Councilor in charge of
education under Jiang’s influence.
Cultural Revolution
Reborn
Under Chen’s direction, China’s schools serve as
state propaganda organs. Course and exam material has been modified to include
communist propaganda against the practice of Falun Gong. National exams, for example,
now include questions about Falun Gong that must be answered reiterating anti-Falun
Gong propaganda or students will not be allowed to pass.
In
2001, Chen initiated the “million signature” campaign, which was designed to force
everyone involved in the school system, from administrators, professors, principals,
teachers and students, to sign a pledge not to practice Falun Gong and to declare
that they agree with Jiang Zemin’s initiative to “eradicate Falun Gong.”
Coercion
and threats were used against children as young as seven years old to sign this
pledge or else be denied the right to participate in school activities, be expelled,
or have their parents arrested.
Some of these signatures were
later taken to Geneva to present to delegates of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission in an attempt to thwart condemnation of the persecution against Falun
Gong.
Abandon Conscience or Face Violent “Re-education”
Teachers
or students who refuse to sign their names in support of initiatives against Falun
Gong often lose their jobs or are expelled from school, and some are sent directly
to brainwashing classes, labor camps or prison. Some even require that you cannot
have family members that practice.
At Tsinghua University
– commonly known as China’s MIT – over three hundred people have been detained
at labor camps or sentenced to prison for practicing Falun Gong.
Seventeen-year-old
Ms. Wang Lin from Suileng County, Heilongjiang Province, refused to endorse the
anti-Falun Gong propaganda on a high school entrance exam and instead wrote “Falun
Gong is good.” Her parents were subsequently beaten by police and she was forced
to flee home to escape from being detained by authorities.
Mr.
Wang Zhe, a student at the No. 1 Senior High School in Changtu County, Liaoning
Province, was expelled after openly discussing the persecution of Falun Gong.
When his parents later appealed to the school authorities, Wang was taken away
by police and held in a county detention center.
“What we
have learned from history is that a common component to genocide is the complete
demonization of the class of victims and that includes indoctrinating youth with
hate propaganda,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokeswoman Ms. Gail Rachlin.
“What Chen has done through the Chinese school system is exactly that – indoctrinate
the youth of China against Falun Gong – and this has served as a vital part to
Jiang Zemin’s overall plan to ‘eradicate Falun Gong.’”
Inhumane
persecution cases towards teachers and students in schools
Under
the direct control of Chen Zhili, teachers and students who are practitioners
throughout China have been persecuted severely. Below are some of the persecution
cases.
- Lu Hongfeng former Vice-Principal and Director of Education Administration
of the No. 1 Elementary School of Lingwu City, Ningxia Province, was tortured
to death.
Lu Hongfeng, thirty-seven years old, was the former vice-principal
of the No. 1 Elementary School of Lingwu City, Ningxia Province. For speaking
out about Falun Gong, local officials persecuted her mercilessly. During the period
of the “Two Meetings”, [the meeting of the National People’s Congress
and Political Consultative Sessions] she signed an open letter to the People’s
Congress, urging an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. As a result, she was
dismissed from her job. On June 7, 2000, she was sent to the local mental hospital
against her will, since she insisted on speaking out about Falun Gong. Lu Hongfeng
was perfectly healthy when she was sent to the mental hospital. She passed away
on September 6, 2000 after being severely tortured and injected with drugs normally
used for mentally ill patients. - Close to the May 13 World Falun Dafa
Day in 2003, Falun Dafa practitioners at the Chongqing University campus set off
balloons with banners attached. The university authorities immediately sealed
off all exits to search for those responsible and arrested practitioners that
they suspected. Twenty-eight year old Wei Xingyan, a third year graduate student
in the Master’s Degree program for high voltage power transmission, was one of
them.
On the evening of May 13, the police took her to a room in the Baihelin
Detention Center and ordered two female inmates to strip off all her clothes.
Wei Xingyan admonished them, “You have no right to treat me this way!”
Then a police officer in uniform came into the room, pushed Wei Xingyan to the
ground and raped her in front of the two inmates.
After the assault, Wei Xingyan
started a hunger strike in protest. After repeated force-feedings by the police,
on May 22, Wei Xingyan, who was already on the verge of death, was sent to the
Southwest Hospital in Chongqing City. Due to an extremely tight information blockade,
little is known about Wei Xingyan’s current situation. - Cao Qun, nephew
of Australian citizen Mr. Zhang Youlai, was expelled from university for practicing
Falun Gong. In 2001, police arrested and detained him in Dalian City, and sentenced
him to two years of forced labor. In the detention center, his hands and feet
were cuffed together for more than 20 days.
Zhang Youlai wrote to Dalian Forced
Labor Camp and Dalian Judiciary Bureau, but received no response. UNESCO (the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cutural Organization), clearly pointed
out that: “The Chinese government’s treatment of Cao Qun violated rights
officially agreed to by the United Nations.”
Now Cao Qun has returned
home, but is still not allowed to return to his university (Liaoning University
of Technology) to complete his study.
Posting
date: 7/Aug/2004
Original article date: 6/Aug/2004
Category: World News
