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WASHINGTON DC (FDI) – Over
100 Chinese officials could be denied entry into the United States, or face deportation
if they are already here, for their “particularly severe violations of religious
freedom” according to two NGOs who submitted a report on the Chinese officials
to U.S. authorities.
U.S.-based
Friends of Falun Gong (FoFG)
and World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)
jointly submitted a detailed report to the U.S. Government yesterday, providing
information on Chinese officials who have directed or physically carried out
severe violations of human rights against Falun Gong practitioners. The violations
documented in the report include arbitrary detention, widespread torture and
death from torture as well as other extrajudicial executions.
The report
lists individuals from many levels within the Chinese Government, from local
police and labor camp officials, to provincial-level authorities and Central
Government leaders.
The report,
however, does not target the Chinese Government as a whole, says WOIPFG President,
John Jaw. “The report targets only individuals known to have participated in
the systematic campaign to exterminate the spiritual beliefs of 100 million
Falun Gong practitioners in China,” says Mr. Jaw.
Submitted
to the Office of Religious Freedom within the U.S. State Department, the report
requests that the named Chinese officials, including their immediate family,
be denied entry to the U.S. or deported if they are already residing in the
U.S.
According
to the Immigration and Nationality Act as amended and the International Religion
Freedom Act of 1998, any alien who – while serving as a foreign government official
– was “responsible for or directly carried out particularly severe violations
of religious freedom” are “inadmissible” to the United States. The U.S. Statute
also says “spouse and children” of the violators can be barred from the U.S.
The report
was also submitted to the Human Rights Violators Unit (HRVU) within the Department
of Homeland Security. Recently established under the U.S. Immigration and Custom
Enforcement (ICE),
HRVU was created to place a greater emphasis on investigating human rights cases
and remove the violators from the U.S. According to ICE’s website, HRVU’s mission
is to “deny safe haven in the U.S. to human rights violators by bringing to
bear a full range of investigative techniques and legal authorities to identify,
locate, investigate, and remove human rights violators, torturers and war criminals
from the U.S., and through proactive efforts, to prevent the entry of such individuals
into this country.”
ICE’s website
says that HRVU is “quickly becoming one of ICE’s top investigative priorities.”
In a similar
action, the names of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and other high-ranking
officials were placed on a watch list with Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity
and War Crimes Program (CAHWCP) in January 2004 for their roles in the persecution
of Falun Gong. (news)
Just the
Beginning
According
to Mr. Jaw, over the past 5 years volunteers in North America have documented
details of more than 28,000 individuals in China who have engaged in the violation
of human rights against Falun Gong practitioners.
“The report
we submitted today is really just the beginning,” says Mr. Jaw. “The violent
campaign to eradicate all Falun Gong practitioners in China has permeated all
levels of society, and many people – deceived by Chinese state propaganda –
have had a hand in the wrongful detention, torture, brainwashing or other acts
of severe human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners.”
“We intend
to bring each and every one of them to justice, and using relevant U.S. laws
to ensure they do not find safe haven here in the U.S. is one of the steps we’re
taking,” adds Mr. Jaw.
According
to the ICE, HRVU currently has over 200 active cases it is investigating, and
denial-of-entry actions have been taken by the U.S. State Department in the
past.
In January
2004, the State Department placed senior Indonesian military officials on its
VISA watch list (news)
for the alleged atrocities resulting from their invasion of East Timor.
Posting date: 11/Mar/2004
Original article date: 10/Mar/2004
Category: World News
