Falun Gong Practitioners Ask the European Court of Human Rights to Hear Their Call for Justice

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing to inform you of a recent development in the legal action taken by Falun Gong practitioners to bring to justice those who are responsible for the severe human rights violations suffered by Falun Gong practitioners – this is an introduction of a request at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to a press conference that will be held in Strasbourg on Wednesday to announce this recent development.

Falun Gong is a Chinese meditation practice and way of life, based on the traditional moral principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. This method is practiced in numerous European cities and in more than 60 countries worldwide. Despite Falun Gong’s peaceful, apolitical nature and positive contributions to Chinese society, and against the better judgment of China’s other top leaders, in 1999 Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese state leader, initiated a campaign of genocide, persecution and defamation against Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners.

In 1999 Jiang Zemin declared his objective to “completely destroy" Falun Gong practitioners and to “defame them, ruin them financially and eliminate them physically”. For more than four years Jiang Zemin and his accomplices have been manipulating, deceiving and abusing millions of people to make this persecution of Falun Gong possible. For more than four years Falun Gong practitioners in China have been mistreated, imprisoned, tortured and killed. Hundreds of people have perished in prison under police custody. During this time, within the framework of this persecution, slanderous and defamatory campaigns have been set up outside China and attempts have been made to interfere with the practice of Falun Gong practitioners around the world, restraining their freedom of belief and freedom of speech.

In response to the escalating persecution, complaints have been filed against Jiang Zemin and his accomplices on charges of genocide, persecution and torture in the US, France, Belgium, Iceland, Finland, Moldovia, Armenia, Taiwan, Spain and Germany. Complaints are being prepared in the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland and Australia. The purpose of these complaints is to further bring to light the crimes being committed against Falun Gong practitioners and to bring to justice those responsible for the widespread torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners.

In August 2003, six Falun Gong practitioners in Brussels filed a complaint against Jiang Zemin and two of his accomplices, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and torture. Some weeks later, the Belgian federal prosecutor declared that the complaint could not be accepted, estimating that the Belgian plaintiffs cannot claim to have been victims of serious human rights violations. As victims of a systematic and worldwide persecution lead by Jiang Zemin, with the clear intent to exterminate Falun Gong and its practitioners, the plaintiffs believe this decision to be incorrect. Furthermore, according to the stipulations under the current Belgian legal code, the federal prosecutor has to determine whether there truly is genocide occurring with the submitted complaint and whether there are Belgian ‘links’ who are involved or related to this genocide. It is not within his jurisdiction to determine who the actual victims are and to what degree they have been victimised. Under current Belgian laws and procedures, it is not possible to appeal against the decision in Belgium. Therefore the plaintiffs have decided to introduce a request to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Through this procedure we ask for the right to expose the crimes that have been committed against Belgian and other Falun Gong practitioners in a court of law and to hold the accused accountable for their crimes.

We thank everybody who has supported the case thus far and has joined our call for justice. We are grateful to the Belgian government for allowing the possibility of starting this procedure in front of the European Court. Our confidence in the legal system is firm and it is for this reason that we continue to insist on wishing to defend our case in front of a Belgian judge. Martin Luther King once said that ‘Justice is indivisible. A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’ and that ‘a man can only be a man if he can stand up for what he believes in'.

Thank you for your attention,

Respectfully,

In the name of the Belgian Falun Gong association and the plaintiffs of the Belgian complaint.