Relatives Imprisoned In China, New Yorkers Appeal

15 months in a secretive prison where rights abuses are common. It's a situation hard to imagine for many of those living in the Western world.

But for one New York woman - it's the reality that her mother is experiencing in China. She and other Chinese New Yorkers with detained relatives are appealing for American society to take note and for help to secure the early release of their loved ones.
"Immediate release." Not just the appeal they're making today, but perhaps the only two words that could release these New Yorkers from anxiety over the fate of their Chinese relatives.

That's if China's communist authorities would be willing to let the detainees go.

For today's speakers all have parents or siblings who've been jailed for practicing Falun Gong.

The communist party launched a brutal crackdown against the movement in 1999, and huge numbers of Chinese are still being arrested without warrants and sentenced without trials in an attempt to, quote, "educate" them into giving up the spiritual practice.

This education can take violent and disturbing forms however. And that's what most worries today's appealers. Salina Wang learned of her mother's detention and sentencing earlier this month.

(Salina Wang, Detainee's Daughter:)

"From my mother's arrest until today, no relatives have been allowed to see her. And we've only learned through notification by police. They said that my mother would be sentenced to 15 months of re-education through labor. They haven't given her a courtroom trial, they haven't done anything of the sort. And today we still haven't seen any official documentation."

From what Salina's been able to learn, her 61-year-old mother Zhu Lijin was arrested while handing out flyers.

Zhang Xingwu was once an assistant professor at a university in Jinan, Shandong Province, but he and his wife were abducted from their home by police before last year's Olympics.

Their daughter says that her dad had already gone through three years of re-education through labor for his practice of Falun Gong. There Mr. Zhang was once forced to stay awake for 12 days straight. Now she's lost contact with him again.

(Zhang Shuangying, Detainees' Daughter):

"Since the arrest, I haven't received any information about my father. They haven't allowed him any contact with friends or relatives."

Hu Zhiming once seemed to have a bright military career ahead of him. Then he was caught in possession of some compact discs with information related to Falun Gong's persecution in China. Now he's become a victim of that persecution.

Older brother Hu Zhihua described Zhiming's attempts to protest his imprisonment by refusing food. No brother wants to have to say the following:

Hu Zhihua: "Because he went on hunger-strike and was force-fed, for so long, Zhiming's muscles have atrophied. He can't walk, and can only get around by wheel chair. He's been seriously paralyzed in that prison."

The Falun Dafa Information Center, an organization associated with the spiritual practice, has described an increase in arrests of adherents around the 2008 Olympics. From the information they've gathered, 8,000 were arrested and 104 killed by communist authorities as part of the crackdown.

Behind those numbers are human faces. Those of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. The faces not easily forgotten. The ones that remain in the heart.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• china news
• new york
• appeal
• human rights abuse
• chinese communist party
• falun gong
• persecution

[917893678251]

LOL,of course,nuclear was is the answer

[Alphonzen]

More like forced indoctrination and punishment

[arequipa1]

re-education?