The Dignity of the Mission

It Is Not Unlawful to Call a Murderer a Murderer

By Geoff Gregory

Zhang
Cui Ying (L) and her husband Zhou Zhong Ming (C), at a vigil by Falun Gong practitioners
and supporters to commemorate the victims of genocide by the CCP. Zhang Cui Ying
was impisoned for eight months in Shen Zhen. She is one of the plaintiffs in the
Falun Gong court case against Foreign Minister Downer’s certificates. (Greg
Wood/AFP)

What is the “dignity of the mission”?

The mission I
refer to is the diplomatic mission of the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.

On 16th
March 2002, Mr Alexander Downer, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs,
signed “certificates” declaring that Falun Gong practitioners’ banners across
the road from the Chinese Embassy “impair the dignity” of the (Chinese) mission.
The certificates restrict banners and audio, as well as signage on cars parked
legally in the vicinity of the Embassy by Falun Gong practitioners. The certificate
is effective for 30 days, but Mr Downer has continued signing certificates each
month for 44 months.

The certificates are issued under the Commonwealth Diplomatic
Privileges and Immunities Act 1967. This act was enacted to give sections of the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, the force of law in Australia.

There
is no doubt that the Foreign Minister can legally issue such certificates under
the regulations, although many legal experts would like to see a constitutional
challenge to these certificates, as they are issued entirely according to the
opinion of the Minister and not debated in Parliament.

There is also no doubt
that Australia is a signatory to the Vienna Convention, and has an obligation
to protect the missions of all countries. However, does that protection extend
to curtailing the rights of Australians to the peaceful expression of freedom
of speech?

The question is why does the Minister continue to issue these certificates
every month for the last 44 months, and how do we define this “impairment of dignity?

Hypothetical
but Relevant

I would like to pose the following hypothetical question to
Mr. Downer:

“Mr. Downer, please imagine that this is the period of the 2nd
World War, and you are the Foreign Minister of Australia.

Would you sign a certificate
under the Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Regulations, banning these peaceful
people from having these signs, because the signs or banners “impaired the dignity
of the (Nazi) mission?”

I believe that the Australian public would be outraged
at such an infringement of civil liberties, and would consider it to be appeasement
of Hitler and the Nazis. What would they say when you continued signing such certificates
every 30 days, for 44 consecutive months, whilst the killing of Jewish people
continued in Germany?

How Is This Different from Today’s Situation?

Since
July, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government has carried out a policy
of genocide against the peaceful, spiritual practice of Falun Gong, also known
as Falun Dafa.

Since the start of this persecution, Falun Dafa practitioners
around the world have peacefully conducted vigils, or appeals, at Chinese Embassies
and Consulates in more than 60 countries.

Practitioners in all countries, including
Australia, conduct the epitome of peaceful vigils and appeals. They do not block
any Embassy or consulate business, they do not shout abuse at visitors or Embassy/Consulate
staff, they do not damage property.

The Falun Dafa practitioners have signs
such as, Falun Dafa is Great; The World Needs Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance;
Jiang Zemin –Stop the Torture and Killing of Falun Dafa Practitioners, and, CCP
Stop The Persecution of Falun Gong.

How does this impair the dignity of the
mission? By definition, for dignity to be impaired, there must be dignity present
in the first place.

Does the CCP, the most brutal totalitarian regime in history,
who are responsible for the deaths of over 80 million of their own citizens in
the CCP’s 55 year history, and who continue to suppress freedom of speech, through
censorship, torture, “re-education” camps, and murder, have dignity that needs
to be protected? (Please see “The Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party”,
published by The Epoch Times, for further information).

The Australian
government is the only democratic, western government to think so. For example,
in Britain, which is also a signatory to the Vienna Convention, Falun Gong practitioners
have conducted a peaceful protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in London, including
banners, signs and A frame boards that detail the crimes of the CCP, for 24 hours
per day, 7days a week, for over 4 years.

The British government and other democratic
governments have not tried to appease the CCP by placing limits on freedom of
expression.

It Is Not Unlawful to Call a Murderer a Murderer

Falun
Dafa practitioners in Australia have reluctantly applied for an injunction in
the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Supreme Court, to restrain Mr. Downer from
issuing the certificates every 30 days. Reluctantly, because for three and a half
years, they have tried to engage Mr. Downer in dialogue re the certificates, both
directly, and through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), to resolve
the issue, to no avail.

Well known civil and human rights lawyer, Mr. Bernard
Collaery, is representing Falun Dafa practitioners, and said recently that he
was looking forward to presenting evidence to the court, that proved the existence
of the “Chinese Gestapo”, the 610 office, which was expressly set up to carry
out the persecution of Falun Gong in China, and to show that Falun Gong practitioners
had every right to protest peacefully against the brutal CCP regime.

He went
on to say that, “Mr. Downer claims that Falun Gong appeals outside of the Chinese
Embassy, impair the dignity of the Chinese mission, however, it is not unlawful
to call a murderer, a murderer”.

Genocide

The genocide against
Falun Gong was initiated in July, 1999, by the CCP leader, Jiang Zemin, and continues
to escalate today under the present leadership of the CCP.

According to the
Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide:

genocide
means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing
members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of
the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children
of the group to another group.

Many independent organizations, such as Human
Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations Commission for Human
Rights have spoken out against the CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

Amnesty
International, in 2002, named Jiang Zemin, as an International Human Rights Scoundrel.

We have also heard, from the courageous defectors, Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun,
that the CCP government uses many forms of coercion in other countries, to extend
the persecution of Falun Gong overseas, and to try to stop their human rights
atrocities from being exposed.

Why Were These Certificates Issued, Then?

Existing
legislation is sufficient to control all behaviour that is detrimental to public
order. For example, the National Capital Authority guidelines for demonstrations
can be enforced by Federal Police, and of course, any violence or interference
with day to day running of Embassies, can also be dealt with by police under existing
legislation. Falun Gong practitioners do not in any way, interfere with the Embassy’s
business, they do not block access, and they are the epitome of a peaceful protest,
as evidenced by their principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.

To
understand why Minister Downer issued the certificates, we must look at the timing
of the original certificates.

They were issued on the 16th March, 2002, because
of pressure from the Chinese Embassy – just one day before the then, Chinese Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Tang Jiaxuan, arrived in Australia.

From a transcript of
the press conference of the Australian and Chinese Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
available on the DFAT website – in reply to a journalist’s question about Falun
Gong, Tang defamed Falun Gong with CCP propaganda, whilst Alexander Downer stood
by. Tang concluded by saying:

“As the Foreign Minister of China, I would
like to appeal to the relevant countries to heighten their vigilance against the
evil …..of Falun Gong and refrain from conniving at or supporting the activities
of the Falun Gong or allow Falun Gong to use their territories in engaging in
activities against China, so as to preserve their social security and their stability
and to preserve their friendly and co-operative relations that they have had with
China, and to prevent the on-going friendly and co-operatives with China from
being damaged in any way.”

Speaking Out

It was left to Australian
Greens Senator Bob Brown to speak out for Australians:

“What sort of country
is it where we have the government stand next to the Foreign Minister from the
Beijing dictatorship and “acquiesce” to that dictatorship’s breaches of human
rights not just in China, but now by its de facto curtailing [of] our rights to
peacefully protest here in Australia?

That is complicity
by the Howard government and I for one could not live with myself if I did not
come here today. I want to be with these people, these Australians, expressing
their rights to freedom and for a better world against the representatives of
this government, not the people of China – this government and its dictatorial
abuse of people’s rights and of killing and torturing of people simply because
they believe differently [from] the Chinese Communist system [CCP].”

Payoff?

On
August 8th, 2002, Mr. Downer announced the largest energy export contract in Australia’s
history. The contract with the CCP government was for liquefied natural gas worth
18.5 billion AUD. Was this the payoff for Australia keeping quiet about the abysmal
human rights record of the CCP?

Australians need to ask themselves – if this
genocide was happening in Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iran or Iraq – would the Australian
government be so quiet?

Mr. Downer has said in his replies to representations
on behalf of Falun Gong, that the certificates do not prevent practitioners from
protesting peacefully outside of the Chinese Embassy.

The fact remains however,
that the certificates place restrictions on practitioners’ freedom of expression,
that do not apply to any other individual or group in Australian society.

In
an article in the Law Society Journal, June 2002, issue of the NSW Law Society,
Mary Rose Liverani commented on the exercise of Ministerial power. She quoted
the only precedent; – In 1992 Gareth Evans (the then Australian Foreign Minister)
issued a certificate ordering the removal of a prescribed object (white wooden
crosses) from their location within 50 metres of the Indonesian Embassy. (Magno
and Another v. Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and others, Federal Court
of Australia – General Division).

East Timorese community members who had been
protesting outside the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, went to court to argue
the invalidity of Special Regulation no 7 –1992, made under s.15 of the Diplomatic
Privileges and Immunities Act 1967, and enabling the Minister to authorize removal
of the crosses. At the first hearing Olney J ruled the regulation was invalid
and ordered an injunction staying the Minister’s action. Generally the tenor of
the judgments was that the exercise of Ministerial power outside the consensual
ambiance of Parliament is to be deplored, and that a statute should be demonstrably
deficient in achieving its objectives before a Minister starts creating regulations
to authorize taking executive action.

Mary Rose questioned Mr Downer’s Certificate:
“And was his opinion his own?” She also quoted one judge’s opinion, “while
the source of the Act is an international convention, we don’t want governments
known to be autocratic, authoritarian or military in nature contributing to, let
alone determining the extent of freedom of expression in Australia.” and another
judge opined that “impairment of the dignity of the mission required abusive
or insulting behaviour and political demonstrations do not themselves amount to
such”. The lawyer who represented the East Timorese is Bernard Collaery who
is also representing Falun Gong practitioners.

In Conclusion

I believe
that Australians need to be aware of what their government is doing in their name.

This certificate issue is not just related to Falun Gong, but to the basics
of human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly of all Australians.

If
a government can unilaterally curtail the human rights of a section of Australian
society, by issuing arbitrary certificates that do not require debate in Parliament,
then this sets a dangerous precedent.

Which group will be next? Do we want
our government, on our behalf, to appease a brutal, authoritarian government,
by curtailing the right of Australians to peacefully protest?

Australia does
not have a Bill of Rights, as the US does. The basic freedoms which we take for
granted in Australia, are not enshrined in the constitution. These human rights
and freedoms have been fought for by many generations of Australians, but they
can be easily lost if we as Australians, do not defend them. They can be taken
away insidiously, if we are not vigilant and demanding of transparency from our
elected representatives.

Australians need to let their elected representatives
know, in no uncertain terms, that their giving away our hard won freedoms, in
exchange for trade, is an impairment of the dignity of Australians, not of the
CCP mission.

Geoff Gregory is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Sydney, Australia.

Posting date: 18/Nov/2005
Original article date: 12/Nov/2005
Category:
Open Forum