Prisoners Hidden Away From Beijing
- 00:02:07
- YouTube
Prisoners Hidden Away From Beijing
ANCHOR: Just before the start of the Beijing Olympics, a U.S. group released "A Journalist's Walking Guide to the Persecution of Falun Gong in Beijing." It's a detailed guide to detention facilities located within miles of Olympic venues. The group, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, was hoping Western journalists could visit and see for themselves the abuse suffered by prisoners of conscience in China. But these journalists may not find what the group is expecting. STORY: According to Falun Dafa Information Center, prisoners of conscious in some Beijing prisons have been whisked away since the Walking Guide to the Persecution was published two weeks ago. It says Falun Gong practitioners have been transferred from Beijing detention centers to centers in other provinces, including Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. In their place, it says, authorities have planted people who do not truly practice Falun Gong, and will give visiting journalists a misleading impression of prison conditions. Peter Westmore, president of Australia's National Civic Council, has this to say: [Peter Westmore, President, National Civic Council]: "It casts a spotlight on the abuses of human rights, have been for years, but now are even more obvious than ever before. So I do think the IOC has not stood up for the principles of the International Olympic Movement, and in fact has allowed some of these abuses to go on." Falun Dafa Information Center spokesman Zhang Erping says Falun Gong is the group that's suffered the most extreme persecution by the Chinese regime. [Zhang Erping, Falun Dafa Association]: "Lots of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested before the Olympic Games. No one knows where they are now. But we know that many Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death before that." According to the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, more than 580 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in Beijing since the beginning of 2008.
YouTube | August 20, 2008
