PETITION!
Today, in the People's Republic of China, we are witnessing an alarming escalation in the persecution of Falun Gong. Led by president Jiang Zemin, China's Communist leadership has stepped up measures aimed at eliminating Falun Gong. Increasingly the victims of this persecution are women, the elderly and even the disabled. Despite international criticisms, Chinese government has made a policy of denial and doubled its efforts to cover up its rampant human rights abuses against Falun Gong --- abuses that now included over 485 murders (as of sep. 24th, 2002).
Danielle Wang, a UT student is very worried that her lovely father could be one day persecuted to death just like the others. Her father had been sentenced for 16 years of jail term just because he is one of the main contact persons of Falun Gong. She is calling on all kindhearted Austinites to help rescue her father and other persecuted practitioners in China.
Statement from Danielle:
My name is Danielle Wang, I am a student in the University of Texas at Austin. I had been enjoying the life of peace and harmony with my father--Zhiwen Wang. However, such a peace was suddenly destroyed by the Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, who started his crimes against Falun Gong three years ago.
In the early morning of July 20th, 1999, Chinese police broke into my home and kidnapped my father, and then detained him for 5 months without any notice. I was not able to see him since then until December 27th, 1999, when he appeared on a public court proceeding on TV. I could not recognize him at all. His face was swollen, his hair turned gray and he looked terribly exhausted. He seemed 10 years older than his actual age. I could not imagine what they have done to him. Later, I learned from my aunt that he was deprived from sleep for 7 days and beated severely by the police.
The authorities sentenced him up to 16 years in jail. However, what is ridiculous is that, his only crime they charged is that he was one of the 4 major contact persons in China, who believe in "truthfulness, compassion, tolerance", and volunteered to help other people learn the beneficial Falun Gong practice.
Even though he was severely tortured, my father hold strong belief in what he think is right. He was clam, he was compassionate, and yet he was very determined. He never retaliate or even say one resent word to the prosecutors. In one of his letters to me, he said, " I am not scared, because I think what I am doing is right." I am so proud of having such a good father.
I love my father, I could not be without him. He is a good person. It is not wrong to be a good person. Jail is not where good persons should stay. I want to have the happy life with my father, just as what I had before. I appeal to all people in the world to help rescue my father, and all other practitioners who are being persecuted, and stop the evil persecution of Falun Gong.
Thank you for your help
Danielle Wang
Since July 20, 1999, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has implemented a brutal crackdown against Falun Gong (a Taichi-like mind and body practice), which they deemed a threat after the number of practitioners outgrew the Party's membership. Over 50,000 innocent citizens have been arbitrarily sent to labor camps, prisons and mental hospitals, where they are inhumanely tortured to astounding degrees, and at least 263 have died in custody from police abuse and torture. The government allows all police-induced deaths to be labeled as suicide. The Chinese government routinely forces work places to fire Falun Gong employees, mandates apartment and hotel owners to deny housing to practitioners, coerces non-practitioners to divorce their practicing spouses, exorbitantly fines practitioners and their families sometimes five year's-worth of salaries, disallows high school practitioners from going to college and now can expel any practicing student or school staff. The number of police induced deaths is dramatically increasing as the president of China is trying to eradicate Falun Gong. New legislation has been recently passed to allow executions. We urgently call for help to end these horrendous violations of human rights.
