A recent report by the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners
provides the details of the deaths of at least fivechildren ranging in age from
eight months to 17 years who have died as aresult of persecution of the Falun
Gong spiritual group in China.
The report also describes the experiences of
many more children whothrough the incarceration or death of their parents under
officialpersecution have become orphans or have lost the care of their parents,and
have lost their rights to education and other social services andbasic human rights.
The report also provides information on underageFalun Gong practitioners who have
been forced to submit to brainwashingand to renounce their beliefs, and others
who have been detained inReeducation Through Labor (RTL) camps.
Human Rights
in China (HRIC) expresses its deep concern over thisreport, in particular as China’s
report on its implementation of itsobligations under the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child comes upfor review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child in May 2005.
Following are some of the cases detailed in the report:
* Wang Lixuan and her eight-month old son, Meng Hao, natives ofShandong
Province, were detained on October 22, 2000 while traveling toBeijing, where Wang
Lixuan was planning to petition on behalf of FalunGong. The mother and baby both
died at the Tuanhe Forced Labor DispatchDivision in Beijing on November 7, 2000.
The coroner’s exam determinedthat Wang Lixuan’s neck and fingers were broken,
her skull was fracturedand she had a needle stuck in her lower back. Her baby,
Meng Hao, wasfound to have deep bruises on his ankles and head and blood in his
nose.It is believed that little Meng Hao had been hung upside down by hisankles.
* Chen Ying, a 17-year old girl, went to Beijing in August 1999 topetition
on behalf of Falun Gong. Police detained her, and policeofficers and officials
escorted her on a train back to her home inHeilongjiang Province.
After the
officials abused and insulted Chen Yingduring the train ride, she jumped out of
a window and was fatallyinjured.
* Liu Qian, a 12-year old girl, began
practicing Falun Gong in2003 as a form of therapy after learning that she had
leukemia. Eightmonths later she was well enough to return to school, but the principalinsisted
that Liu Qian and her parents sign a pledge that she would stoppracticing Falun
Gong. When Liu Qian and her family refused to comply,Liu Qian was expelled form
school. Liu Qian fell into a deep depression,and her health deteriorated. She
died on February 11, 2004.
According to the report, as of September 18,
2004 some 1,047 Falun Gongpractitioners had died in relation to official persecution,
with manymore detained for their beliefs. Many of these practitioners have leftbehind
children who suffer a less visible form of persecution. Thereport provides details
of several such cases.
* Four-year-old Rong Rong lost her father, Zou Songtao,
when shewas not even a year old. Zou died in the Wangcun Village Laogai (ReformThrough
Labor) Camp in Zibo City, Shandong Province on November 3, 2000,after being detained
and sentenced for refusing to renounce his FalunGong beliefs. Rong Rong’s mother,
Zhang Yunhe, lost her accounting jobbecause of her religion, and in May 2001 fled
her home to avoid arrest.She has not been heard from since. Rong Rong was sent
to live with hergrandparents, but her grandmother died soon afterward.
*
Lin Huixuan, a five-year-old girl, has not seen her father, LinYanqing, since
the end of 2002, when he was sentenced to three years ina forced labor camp. Huixuan,
along with her mother, Xu Lei, and hergrandparents were forced into a life on
the road to escape arrest.Nevertheless, on February 19, 2004 Huixuan’s mother
and grandparentswere arrested in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, and taken
back toBeijing. Forcibly separated from those closest to her, Huixuan has beenput
into the care of another relative.
* On February 7, 2004, Falun gong practitioner
Zhao Xudong diedfrom abusive treatment at the Lanzhou City Huilinshan No. 2 DetentionCenter.
His wife, Li Hongping, and his mother, Jin Yuyue, are also indetention, and Zhao’s
eight-year-old daughter has been left in the careof her elderly grandfather.
*
Wang Zhe was expelled from the No. 1 Senior High School inChangtu County, Liaoning
Province in February 2004 after openlyobjecting to the persecution of Falun Gong
practitioners. Wang Zhe andhis mother went to the school on April 6 requesting
that Wang Zhe bereadmitted to the school, but the school headmaster reported the
matterto the police, after which Wang Zhe was detained.
* Kang Jiaqi attended
the Hengshui City Second Middle School inHebei Province, where her mother was
a teacher. But after Jiaqi’s fatherwas detained for his Falun Gong beliefs, Jiaqi’s
mother left home toavoid arrest, and Jiaqi was forced to withdraw from school.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that childhood isentitled
to special care and assistance. The UN Convention on the Rightsof the Child, which
China ratified in 1992, declares that every childhas the right to life, and that
every country has the responsibility ofensuring the survival and development of
its children. The Conventionspecifically states that countries shall not discriminate
against anychild on the basis of the child’s or the child’s parent’s race,religion,
political opinion and other status, and that countries should”take all appropriate
measures to ensure that the child is protectedagainst all forms of discrimination
or punishment on the basis of thestatus, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs
of the child’sparents.”
“Persecuting children on the basis of
their or their parents’ beliefs isa fundamental violation of the rights of the
child under internationallaw,”
said HRIC president Liu Qing. “The
Chinese government shoulddemonstrate its compliance with the Convention by ensuring
that no childis subjected to torture, detention or loss of basic human rights
becauseof the religious beliefs of themselves or their parents,” Liu Qing
said. (boxun.com)
http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/english/2004/10/200410130949.shtml
http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1920
Posting date: 14/Oct/2004
Original article date: 13/Oct/2004
Category:
Media Report
