Practitioners meet with United Nations Journalists in Geneva

For the opening session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights at Geneva on Thursday the 11th of March 2004, the Swiss Falun Gong Association organized a meeting with United Nations journalists, to give them the latest news on the suppression of Falun Gong and on the peaceful means being implemented to combat it. Journalists of the major press agencies showed their interest by continuing a discussion with practitioners for the duration of the press conference.

During the discussion, practitioners placed emphasis on two key points:

• The intensification of the persecution in China, not only through the number of documented deaths but through the intensely cruel methods of torture employed;


• The extent of the persecution and discrimination against the colour yellow in Europe.

On the first point, journalists were informed of the growing number of deaths under torture, notably 64 identified cases in three months from November 2003 to January 2004, and of the multiple means employed, including force-feeding with boiling water or human excrement and burning all over the body with electric batons. They were informed, moreover, that this intensification is reinforced by the State machinery in each province, each town and each village, to keep a close watch on and cruelly persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

On the second point, an overview was given to the journalists who are already aware of a certain number of events that occurred over the past five years, e.g. what happened in Germany (April 2002), in Iceland (June 2002), during the visit of the former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and more recently in Paris during the visit of Hu Jintao (January 2004) for the Chinese New Year. The journalists were particularly interested in such blunders and in these repressive actions in democratic countries where even the colour yellow could be declared illegal, as happened in Paris. They noted that in Germany the Government apologized and in Iceland the apologies of the citizens and members of Parliament had also been published by the press.

Finally, The Swiss Falun Dafa Association recalled that criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin and his cohorts who were responsible for the persecution continued to be filed - for genocide, crimes against humanity and torture - and that a judicial hearing was already in process for several months in Paris. There was also the filing of a second criminal complaint against the Chinese Minister of Culture in January 2004 (accepted by the Prosecutor-General).