PureInsight | June 2, 2003
Chinese police seized Zhao Meiyu at her home, confiscated her letter to the US Court filing a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, and imprisoned her in a labor camp
In response to the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the former head of China, on charges of genocide against Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese Security Bureau established a nationwide "Special Felony Investigation Network" to investigate and eliminate all activities involving the development of the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Throughout China, the "Special Felony Investigation Network" treats all probable plaintiffs and those who seek justice in the lawsuit as felons. It spies, monitors, controls, and arrests all probable Chinese plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit against Jiang. In fact, recently the organization allegedly already arrested people suspected of being plaintiffs or assisting in the collection of evidence of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. In mid-May, an American resident's younger sister Zhao Meiyu was suddenly taken from home, as she is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Ms. Zhao Langxiang is a Chinese American resident in Maryland. This year she called her younger sister Zhao Meiyu in China and told her that the US District Court is now processing the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Being a torture victim, who survived being detained in a forced labor camp run by the "610 Office"* for one and half years, Ms. Zhao Meiyu decided to become a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Jiang. One day in mid-May, the police of Zhao Meiyu's hometown Huizhou, Guangdong Province traveled over 100 miles to the city of Shenzhen to ransack her home. They confiscated her draft of charges against Jiang and took her away to the Huizhou police station. While ransacking the home, the local policemen from Huizhou, a mid-size town near Shenzhen, showed a search warrant issued by the Chinese Customs Headquarters. At first, Ms. Zhao Langxiang could not understand why a high-level jurisdiction unit such as the Chinese Customs Headquarter would go through the trouble of issuing the police station in a city like Huizhou a search warrant, until she recalled her recent conversations with her sister on the sensitive topic of the lawsuit against Jiang. That must have triggered the alarm and alerted top-level management of the Chinese Security Bureau.
Ms. Zhao Langxiang said, "Zhao Meiyu is my youngest sister. She has been practicing Falun Gong since 1998. She is now 25 years old. She lived with one of my brothers in Shenzhen before the police took her away. One day in mid-May…I don't know which day because my family is afraid to talk about her case over the phone…a group of Chinese policemen broke into my brother's home, took all the valuables and a draft of charges against Jiang, and then kidnapped her. She has not come back since."
According to Ms. Zhao Langxiang, her sister Zhao Meiyu visited the National Appeals Bureau in Beijing to explain the facts about Falun Gong in December 1999 and January of 2000, but on both occasions the National Appeal Bureau called the police in Huizhou to take her immediately to jail. In 1999 Meiyu was locked up for 15 days before her family paid 10,000 Yuan for her release. In 2000 Meiyu was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor at the Sanshui Women's Forced Labor Camp in Guangdong Province. Ms. Zhao Langxiang added, "My sister was made to perform forced labor in jail for long hours until May 2002, simply because she chooses to practice Falun Gong. She has lost her job and her home."
Ms. Zhao Langxiang recalled her sister's days at the forced labor camp: "When Meiyu was at Sanshui, she experienced all kinds of torture. To make her renounce Falun Gong, the '610 Office' would hold her in a narrow solitary confinement with no light, like the one shown in the movie Green Mile except in horrific sanitary condition. When she was not confined in solitary confinement, my sister was forced to perform hard labor for 12 hours a day." Therefore, Ms. Zhao Langxiang felt very encouraged when she heard that American Falun Gong practitioners had filed a lawsuit in Chicago against Jiang. Langxiang telephoned her newly released sister immediately to share the good news. The two sisters discussed over the phone about reporting Meiyu's story to bring Jiang to justice. Ms. Zhao Langxiang recalled their conversations that might have been subject to scrutiny by the Chinese intelligence: "In January I started to suspect that my calls to my sister might be monitored."
Subsequent developments confirmed her suspicion. After May 20, Ms. Zhao Langxiang could no longer reach her sister. She became increasingly worried. Finally Langxiang's family in China reluctantly admitted to Langxiang that the police had arrested Meiyu several days ago. The police suddenly broke into her brother's home in Shenzhen, and they searched everywhere for the draft of the lawsuit against Jiang that Meiyu had planned to send to the United States. The police also took away many valuables, and the family was terrified. They are afraid of calling the police station, much less demand the return of Meiyu. Naturally they are now afraid of discussing Meiyu's case over the phone with Langxiang, worried about police reprisals. Ms. Zhao Langxiang explained, "My family is overcome with fear. They are very nervous and afraid of talking about my sister. The police has declared this a 'major case.'"
The Chinese regime is allegedly trying to prevent at all costs the continuance of the lawsuit against Jiang. They are under orders to arrests all probable plaintiffs in the case, as well as everyone who helped collecting the evidence for the proceedings against Jiang. According to a Washington DC federal government official, the Chinese government has contacted the US government more frequently than ever through diplomatic, military and economic channels, demanding the US court to stop proceedings under the "head of state immunity" clause. All signs point to Jiang Zemin sparing no expense or national resources in attempting to stop the lawsuit against him.
On April 14, 2003, the plaintiffs' attorney, Terri Marsh, delivered documents citing evidence of crimes by defendant Jiang and the "610 Office", and other evidence required under legal procedures. The U.S. Justice Department, representing the U.S. government, which has received diplomatic pressure from Jiang, delivered by the May 8 deadline, as ordered by the judge, documents that support the government's viewpoint to the court. About four to six weeks after May 8th, the judge will decide whether the case has probable cause to either proceed or be dismissed. His decision will be based on the documents provided by the plaintiff's attorney and U.S. government officials.
Terri Marsh, a human rights attorney from Washington DC, said, "In today's international community, crimes committed in a region or a country that are against humanity will meet the opposition of the world's people. After WWII, Nazi war criminals were tried in Nuremberg, and many Nazis who participated in the persecution of Jews were pursued and tried since that time. After genocide took place in Rwanda, the United Nations established a court to try those responsible for the atrocities. Jiang's good friend, the former leader of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, is currently being tried in that same court. In China, the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to give up Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is taking place, and it is the world's responsibility to put Jiang on trial."
Terri Marsh also reminded us of the founding principles of the United States as declared in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." She emphasized that the United States' global mission has always been safeguarding the spirit of this Declaration of Independence. She continued that the United States is now given the chance to uphold its fundamental principles in the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in the Chicago courtroom.
*The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political or judicial systems.
Translated from:
Big5: http://epochtimes.com/b5/3/5/28/n320190.htm
GB: http://epochtimes.com/gb/3/5/28/n320190.htm
