China: New wave of arrests against supporters of Falun Gong

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has received information that a new wave of arrests is rolling against supporters of Falun Gong. More than 1,870 members of the meditation movement have been arrested by Chinese security forces in the first three months of the year 2008. "In the run-up to the Olympic Games the persecution of the meditation movement has increased significantly not only in Peking, but throughout the country”, reported the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Tuesday in Göttingen. Although the People’s Republic has signed the Anti-torture Convention, six Falun Gong supporters have died a violent death since January 2008 while in custody. Since the beginning of the persecution of the meditation movement in April 1999 more than 3,130 supporters of Falun Gong have died under mysterious circumstances in the custody of the security forces.

"Even more shocking than the large number of victims is the unscrupulous and brutal behaviour of the security forces, which is steadily increasing”, said Delius. Children have been interrogated in order to catch and convict their parents and other near relatives as active members of Falun Gong. As an example: On 7th January 2008 a grand-child of a Falun Gong member under arrest was brought to a police-station in the district of Xiangyang (in the Heilonghijang Province) to force the child to give information on its grandmother and other Falun-Gong supporters, reported friends of the family concerned to the GfbV. The elderly woman was beaten in police custody and sat opposite her grandchild with black eyes from the beating. Since she refused to give the names of other Falun Gong supporters her grandchild had to look at photos of all the inhabitants of the district and say who had been in contact with its grandmother. Finally the child identified Qi Tian, a woman practising Falun Gong. Two days later the police broke in by force into her house, confiscated a computer, information material on the meditation movement and money. Qi Tian was not at home. However a few hours later her parents, her sister and her nephew were arrested. They were interrogated closely and then released. The search for Qi Tian continues.

"These raids make it clear how fine is the mesh of the net with which Falun Gong supporters are being handled”, said Delius. "Today people are not being arrested by chance, but sought systematically.”

The persecution of the Falun Gong began nine years ago when on 25th April 1999 when more than 10,000 Falun Gong supporters had protested against the withdrawal of their freedom to practise their religion.