Spanish Court Indicts Top Chinese Communist Party Officials for Torture, Genocide of Falun Gong

News Courtesy: Falun Dafa Information Centre (faluninfo.net), 18th of November 2009


NEW YORK – In an unprecedented decision, a Spanish judge has indicted five high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for their role in crimes of torture and genocide committed against Falun Gong practitioners. Among the defendants is former CCP head Jiang Zemin, widely acknowledged as the chief instigator of the campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual practice.

Following a two-year investigation, Spanish National Court Judge Ismael Moreno last week notified attorney Carlos Iglesias of the Human Rights Law Foundation (HRLF) that the court had granted a petition to indict the defendants on charges of torture and genocide. According to the notice, for committing the crime of genocide, the defendants face imprisonment for up to 20 years and may be economically liable to the victims for damages.

The Judge’s notification also stated that the court had granted a petition to send rogatory letters (letter of request) to the five defendants in China with questions relating to each individual's involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The decisions followed a series of submissions to the court by Iglesias and other HRLF staff.

The defendants have 4-6 weeks to reply and could subsequently face extradition if they travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with Spain. The decision was taken under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows domestic courts to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity regardless of where they occur.

“This historic decision by a Spanish judge means that Chinese Communist Party leaders responsible for brutal crimes are now one step closer to being brought to justice,” said Iglesias. “When one carries out the crime of genocide or torture, it is a crime against the international community as a whole and not only against Chinese citizens. Spain is emerging as a defender of human rights and universal justice.”

Among the accused are former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, widely acknowledged as the primary instigator of the campaign launched in 1999 to “eradicate” Falun Gong. Also facing charges is Luo Gan, who oversaw the 610 Office, a nationwide secret police task force that has led the violent campaign. Chinese lawyers have compared the 6-10 Office to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo in its brutality and extra-legal authority.

The other three accused are Bo Xilai, current Party Secretary for Chongqing and former Minister of Commerce; Jia Qinglin, the fourth-highest member of the Party hierarchy; and Wu Guanzheng, head of an internal Party disciplinary committee. The charges against them are based on their proactive advancement of the persecution against Falun Gong when they served as top officials in Liaoning, Beijing, and Shandong respectively. In a Pulitzer prize-winning article, The Wall Street Journal’s Ian Johnson describes how Wu imposed fines on his subordinates if they did not sufficiently crackdown on Falun Gong, leading officials to torture local residents, in some cases, to death. (news)

Other evidence considered by the judge during his investigation included written testimonies from fifteen Falun Gong practitioners and oral testimonies from seven practitioners, including torture victims and relatives of individuals who had been killed in Chinese custody. The judge also relied on reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the U.N. Human Rights Commission to reach his decision, HRLF attorney Iglesias said.


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A Lost Message And A Lost Opportunity

Article Courtesy: gopusa.com


“How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin”


“Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit”


“The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated” -----

By ---- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th President of United States.


By: Michael Reagan

This past week I have been in Europe to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I went into this trip with a great deal of enthusiasm and an expectation that the heroes responsible for that momentous event be justly recognized. Sadly, I was instead reminded of how much we have willingly forgotten.


Over the past several months, the Reagan Legacy Foundation has been working hard to ensure that Berliners remember the vital role my father played in bringing down the wall and defeating communism. Amazingly, there are no major statues, memorials or tributes to Ronald Reagan -- the president, the man who sided with freedom over tyranny. Thankfully, in partnering with the "Checkpoint Charlie" museum, we have now unveiled a Ronald Reagan permanent exhibit to help educate Berliners and their international guests of what would have been an unpardonable omission in modern historical analysis of that period.


During these ceremonies I fully expected the legends of this period to be honored...to at least be mentioned. But over the course of this celebration that included fireworks and a re-enactment of the fall of the wall, I heard nary a mention of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher. This was both frustrating and alarming.


One only has to review modern education textbooks to see that this omission is not limited to an important celebration on a cold Berlin night. Rather, it is a trend -- a trend that is removing the reference of the great heroes and leaders of the Cold War battle and replacing it with a softer, perhaps less controversial revision.

Last year, a German study revealed how disturbingly little German youths understand about their divided history just a generation back. Two-thirds of the schoolchildren surveyed did not believe East Germans lived under a dictatorship. Nearly as many thought the East German economic system was preferable to West German's. Communism, preferable?!


When we allow such a travesty, we disregard not only who the heroes were, but that there was ever any need for heroism at all. The Berlin Wall did not simply divide a city. The focus of Monday's celebrations should have been life and freedom, not unity.


The facts are what they are. We cannot and must not forget that the Soviet Union murdered and oppressed millions of people before, during and after World War II in an effort to conquer more territories, gain more resources and grab more power. And while the world trembled, a select few leaders of that era finally took a stand in defense of freedom-loving people who lived under separate and distinct flags.


Germans are not the only ones who have forgotten. This lazy softening of history is equally a problem in our American classrooms. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, American students test worse in history than they do in any other subject. A survey in 2007 concluded fully a third of 17-year-old American students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees our freedoms of religion and speech.

These are the principles our nation's veterans have fought and died for over the centuries, on our own soil and across an ocean, in places like Germany. These are the principles for which men and women like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher made such courageous stands. This is the bedrock of who are, who we have been, and who we must remain in the future.

Thomas Jefferson told us, "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

I was proud to stand there and remember the fall of that terrible Wall. But until we remember in full, we leave ourselves open and vulnerable to the seditious creep of communism and oppression.


(Michael Reagan or Mike Reagan, the elder son of the late US President Ronald Reagan, is Chairman and President of The Reagan Legacy Foundation.)


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Burma Need’s Full Engagement, Not half-hearted One

By: Rajshekhar alias Vijay ‘Bidrohi’

The new US policy to engage Burma is a welcome step and a step forward to help directly Burma’s innocent citizen’s devastated in Cyclone Nargis. Moreover, the policy of engaging Burma is coherent with the Gandhian philosophy of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, which doesn’t believe in ‘permanent boycott and hate’ of opposite forces. However, the present policy of sanction as well as of engagement is against the basic ethos of Gandhian philosophy of ‘non-violence’, so Burma needs full engagement from western civilization and not a half-hearted one. The United States apprehension that, engaging Burma would give a wrong signal to the world is a prejudiced notion. It also creates a definite distance between Burma’s ruling military regime and western world, weakening the objective of release of Daw Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

In a recent visit by US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs - Mr. Scot Marciel and Assistant Secretary of State - Mr. Kurt Campbell to Burma and Junta’s positive approach of allowing media to cover the event was positive development in the democratization process of Burma.

The struggle & demand for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners could be pursued while engaging Burma as per UN & ASEAN resolutions. Burma needs a massive international help to create job intensive industries to help unemployed poor people. Moreover, India needs to engage Burma beyond traditional trade items in the areas of critical technology like - Space Research, Joint Ocean research programme, Robotics and peaceful use of nuclear energy etc.

Few days back, I come across a poem, which made India’s father of nation – Mahatma Gandhi a firm believer in ‘non-violence’. The poem is an anonymous Gujarati one and poet had been unknown to Gandhi. He mentions the poet as 'Diwana'. The poem was published in his journal – “Indian Opinion” on 13th November 1909. It is my pleasure to share Gandhi’s favorite poem with the readers of Burma Review, which is applicable to all rulers & citizens resorting to violence to suppress ‘individual freedom of opinion’. “Burma Review” will change to “Myanmar Review”, the day Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is released.

"The lamp not burning
On what will the moth throw itself and be burnt?
Seeking to burn us,
You burn yourself first.

The union of soul and body,
The same in you as in me;
Unless you wound yourself,
Us you cannot hurt.

So soon as I owned myself your lover,
You stood declared my beloved;
A name I’ve bestowed on you,
And will cease only when I perish.

Such airs you give yourself today,
Your eyes stern and proud;
These your arrows
Will turn back upon you, myself unharmed.

You live, if I live; if I die,
Tell yourself you die too;
Can a tree exist without seed?
The fruit, whereon will it grow?

Where is the king if there are no subjects?
Would he rule over wood and stone?
Your being is wrapped up in mine,
Aiming a blow at me,
You shall only hurt yourself."

(By: A Diwana - a mad one)

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UN Expert Urges Release of All Political Prisoners Before Elections

(Tomas Ojea Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar)

Photo & News Courtesy: UN News Centre

22 October 2009 – An independent United Nations expert has called on Myanmar’s Government to release all political prisoners before the national elections planned for 2010 so that the polls can be as inclusive as possible. “I told the Government that these elections should be fair and transparent, that freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed in the country, and of course that all prisoners of conscience should be released before those elections,” Tomás Ojea Quintana told a news conference in New York.

In his most recent report on the issue, Mr. Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said the Government missed an opportunity to prove its commitment to holding inclusive elections by extending the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, effectively barring her from participating in next year’s polls.

Earlier today he told the General Assembly committee dealing with social and humanitarian issues, also known as the Third Committee, that all political prisoners should be released to be able to participate, either as candidates or voters, in the elections – which the Government announced as the fifth step in its seven-step roadmap to democracy. Last year the Special Rapporteur proposed that four core human rights elements be completed before the 2010 elections.

He again urged the Government to implement the elements, which are the revision of domestic laws that limit fundamental rights, the progressive release of the estimated 2,000 prisoners of conscience still in detention, the reform and training of the military so that it conforms with human rights, and changes to the judiciary so that it is fully independent. He reported that the situation of human rights in Myanmar remains “alarming,” with “a pattern of widespread and systematic violations.” In addition, the prevailing impunity allowed for the continuation of those violations.

“I urge the Government to take prompt measures to establish accountability and responsibility with regard to those widespread and systematic human rights violations.”

Mr. Quintana also referred to the “starvation situation” in many parts of the country – including Kayin, North Rakhine, Chin, North Shan and East Shan states – and reports of “dire” economic and social conditions. He said he has asked the Government and the international community to try to find solutions to tackle poverty in the country.

Mr. Quintana, who has visited Myanmar twice since being appointed Special Rapporteur in May 2008, announced he will make his trip by the end of November. Like all Special Rapporteurs, he reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in an independent and unpaid capacity.

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