Spanish Falun Gong Practitioners Deliver a Letter to the French Ambassador in Spain

Honourable Ambassador,

All Spanish Falun Gong practitioners hope that you can understand the events that took place from January 24th to 26th 2004, when the Paris police arrested many Falun Gong practitioners from Germany, Denmark, Britain, America and Taiwan for no reason. The practitioners were arrested just because they wore clothes and scarves with the words “Falun Dafa” or “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” printed on them. We Falun Gong practitioners feel sorry and dissatisfied with the improper, unreasonable and unlawful behaviour of the French police.

This event coincided with the visit of Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China and Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party, to France during the Chinese New Year.

We Spanish Falun Gong practitioners, including those who participated in the Paris activities, express our protest against the French authorities’ behaviour during this event. Meanwhile, we are pleading with you to tell your President that the behaviour of France was unlawful and against basic human rights.

At present the international community has a clear understanding of the current persecution against Falun Gong practitioners launched by the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Many international human rights groups and NGOs, such as the UN Human Rights Commission, the EU Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International and International Human Rights Watch, have verified the brutal persecution against over one hundred million innocent people in China. Chinese people are deprived of the rights to exercise basic freedoms, such as the freedom of belief. What’s more, they are unlawfully imprisoned and detained in labour camps, where they are subjected to inhumane torture. Many of them are tortured to death, including women, the elderly and children.

Currently the verified number of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners is almost nine hundred, but the real death toll is far more than that. Over 200,000 people are being unlawfully detained; over one hundred million people are being made victims of this large-scale persecution. So far the persecution has lasted for four and a half years and is still continuing. Many renowned lawyers around the world came to an agreement that this is the largest and most evil genocide ever since World War II.

Lawsuits are being filed in many countries against the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who is directly responsible for this large-scale genocide. Criminal lawsuits have already being filed in America, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Taiwan and Korea against Jiang for Genocide, Crimes of Torture and Crimes Against Humanity.

The unreasonable arrest of Falun Gong practitioners that occurred in France just proves that Jiang’s regime has extended its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners overseas. Unfortunately, this time the French authorities disregarded their usual stance on safeguarding human rights, approved this persecution and forgot about millions of innocent people who are suffering in China.

We can still clearly remember the terror of the holocaust, which brought intense suffering to European people, including French people. Going through the bloody storm, citizens of the French city of Caen established a Caen Memorial, an authentic Museum for Peace. Since 1990 in Caen, a human rights conference has been hosted for lawyers around the world to present different cases related to violations of human rights, in order to denounce them before the public. Amongst the ten cases presented on January 25th 2004, one dealt with the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Mr. Carlos Iglesias, a human rights lawyer from Spain, was able to expose to the public the brutal persecution against Falun Gong directed by Jiang’s regime. More than two thousand people, including many high officials and important people in the world of law, economics and politics, had a further understanding of the violations of Falun Gong practitioners’ human rights. Unfortunately in Paris, only two hundred kilometres away from Caen, the French Police arrested peaceful Falun Gong practitioners from different countries for no reason. Moreover, the police said, “During these days yellow clothing is banned in France.”

In the past, France has been internationally admired and highly regarded as an example of safeguarding democracy, freedom and human rights. Furthermore, France is renowned for its spirit of “freedom, equality and fraternity.” Based on this, we can neither understand nor forgive the surprising events in Paris. No excuse can be used to justify this unreasonable and unlawful violation of basic human rights.

No matter in what the situation is, a democratic country should not place economic interest above human lives and basic human rights. Therefore, with solemnity we deliver the letter to you and hope that you can hand it to the French government. Meanwhile, we will also send a copy of this letter to the French Ministry of Domestic Affairs to express our dissatisfaction with and concern over the events. Here we also demand the French authorities to immediately investigate the events and correct the mistake made by the police in Paris.

Sincerely Yours,

All Spanish Falun Gong practitioners