January 2006: A number of Falun Gong practitioners around Australia have been harassed during the Christmas and New Year celebrations by a series of disturbing phone calls believed to stem from the Chinese Communist Regime.
The calls, mostly in Chinese but some in English, are pre-recorded and vary from messages containing slanderous comments about Falun Gong to others pretending to be a Falun Gong practitioner exhorting practitioners to condemn the Queen of England, George Bush and the South Korean president.
William Luo, a Brisbane resident and Falun Gong practitioner said “It is so childish. The messages are just silly, no one believes them. At the same time it is serious, I run a business on this number and it is such interference.” The first call came around 10 am on the 30th December and continued every half to one hour until 9pm and then started again the next day. A caller identification facility on Mr Luo’s phone showed that all the calls were international.
Jonothan Solomon, a Mittagong resident and Falun Gong practitioner, who has also received calls over the same time, said he experienced similar incidences last year but both times he felt they were trying to intimidate him for being involved in the organisation of Falun Dafa events in Sydney. “I don’t even listen to the messages, I find it quite pathetic,” he said.
February and March 2004 both brought several rounds of these prerecorded messages to over 60 practitioners around Australia. One West Australian Falun Gong practitioner, Jana Shearer, had a tracer put on the calls by Telstra who traced the calls back to an International Date Gate. The Federal Police and Telstra both told Ms Shearer they had no jurisdiction to pursue the matter any further.
Over a dozen practitioners around Australia have reported receiving the calls with many confused as to why they would be coming at this time. While it has been suggested the calls may be linked to the visit to Australia next week of China’s Secretary of the State Council, Hua Jianmin, Mr Luo believes it is more likely linked to the New Year celebrations. “They always do it when there is a big day, like Chinese New Year or Middle Moon Festival. All the calls I received in Chinese began with Happy New Year,” Mr Luo said.
Posting date: 9/Jan/2006
Original article date: 9/Jan/2005
Category: Australian News
