China signals intent to crush Falungong with new jail terms

[Guest guest]

<h3>China signals intent to crush Falungong with new jail terms</h3>

BEIJING, Aug 17 (AFP) -

 

China's decision Friday to hand out long prison terms to members of the Falungong is just the latest blow in a bitter and violent two-year onslaught against the spiritual movement.</p>

 

Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced four people it said organized a mass suicide attempt on Tiananmen Square in January to between seven years and life in jail.</p>

 

The Falungong, also called the Falun Dafa, was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, a former member of the People's Liberation Army who now lives in New York.</p>

 

Through most of the decade, the Chinese government opted to tolerate the movement, apparently seeing it as just another slightly exotic meditation group like many others formed under the more liberal social conditions of the reform era.</p>

 

The group, which promised better health through a series of mystical exercises, appeared to strike a chord with many Chinese, and at one point it claimed to have 100 million followers inside and outside the country.</p>

 

Gradually, however, frictions between the Falungong and the authorities appeared to multiply, as officials became aware that the group had become a powerful focus of allegiance to many of its adherents.</p>

 

This culminated on April 25, 1999, when about 10,000 Falungong members staged a silent protest in front of Zhongnanhai, the Chinese government headquarters in the heart of Beijing, over alleged attacks.</p>

 

President Jiang Zemin was particularly angered by this affront and eventually called for a crackdown, according to reports.</p>

 

In the weeks that followed, official policies sharpened and ended in a nationwide sweep beginning on July 20 in which thousands of members were arrested.</p>

 

The Chinese government announced two days later that the Falungong had been outlawed and blasted it as a "heretical cult", employing a phrase that has been used to denounce dissent since imperial times.</p>

 

Throughout the second half of the year, Falungong members staged high-profile protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square to protest the ban, with thousands of followers being arrested in often violent scuffles.</p>

 

Last year also saw frequent Falungong demonstrations, as adherents picked important dates such as April 25, one year after the Zhongnanhai protest, and July 22, the anniversary of the ban on the movement.</p>

 

The stakes were raised on January 23, 2001, the eve of the Chinese New Year, when five alleged Falungong followers set themselves alight on Tiananmen Square.</p>

 

The suicide bid, which was reported extensively by the official media, appeared to trigger widespread public anger against the group, especially after a woman and her 12-year-old daughter died from their horrible burns.</p>

 

Since then, public Falungong demonstrations seem to have become less frequent on Tiananmen, although the group and its exiled leader Li still claim a powerful following.</p>

 

Meanwhile, there has been no let-up in the government's harsh policies on the group, as it continues its anti-Falungong media barrage, while meting out heavy punishments to its members.</p>

 

Since the Falungong was banned, tens of thousands of practitioners have been sent to "re-education through labor" camps and hundreds have been given prison sentences.</p>

 

A total of 156 have died in police custody, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.</p>

 

 

 

[JRdd 0]

Where do the United Nations stand (or not) in all this. Isn't there any world group that can stop this. I know about the boycotts. I don't own a car. I want to know how one more death or torture can be prevented. Isnt it hard for the whole world to sit back and watch this happening?

 

JR