Subject: Should the World Boycott the Beijing Olympics?

From: Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group <[email-masked]>

Should the World Boycott the Beijing Olympics?

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On August 3, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, the Ranking Member on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, introduced a House Resolution to boycott the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

He explained, "The Olympics represent the noblest elements of humanity and the Chinese regime represents the opposite. The Olympic torch is supposed to be a beacon of light shining upon mankind's higher aspirations in the world and it's a travesty to have that torch hosted by a regime that is the world's worst human rights abuser."

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Because she practiced Falun Gong, Ms. Wei Fengju was tortured to near death in the Heizuizi Forced labor Camp. Unable to recover, she passed away on July 11, 2007.

On March 28, 2007, actress Mia Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, drew the world's attention to the Beijing Olympics when she and her son Ronan wrote an op-ed article for the Wall Street Journal [1]. In the article, Farrow launched a campaign to label the 2008 Olympics the "Genocide Olympics." Her forthright candor gave voice to the world's awakening shock at Communist China's ever-burgeoning atrocities, its total disregard for human values and its severe human rights violations.

Not only is China bankrolling Darfur's Genocide [2]; for more than eight years it has sought to eliminate Falun Gong, which in 1999 had an estimated 70 million practitioners in China; it has likewise abused democracy activists, lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, journalists, trade unionists, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighurs, ''unofficial'' church members, and political dissidents.

In 2004, Asma Jahangir the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions stated, "The Special Rapporteur continues to be alarmed by deaths in custody in China. Reports describe harrowing scenes in which detainees, many of whom are followers of the Falun Gong movement, die as a result of severe ill treatment, neglect or medical inattention. The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description."

After the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, completed his fact-finding mission to China he issued a press release on December 2, 2005, detailing some of the alleged torture methods the Communist regime uses on its victims. While too numerous to list, the most abhorrent include electric shock, cigarette burns, guard instructed beatings, submersion in sewage pits, exposure to heat or cold and deprivation of sleep, food or water. Nowak's 2005 report is here.

In March 2006, Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of the victims of alleged torture while in the Chinese government's custody.

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When Zhang Xiaohong, 29, died after continuous torture, he weighed only 70 lbs.

The CCP is also known to subject its victims to forced brainwashing, rape while in police custody, and harvesting their organs on call, resulting in their deaths, so that their organs can be perfectly fresh for transplantations in order to make huge profits.

On March 20, 2007, in a more extensive report Nowak confirmed allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, stating "Organ harvesting has been inflicted on a large number of unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations for the purpose of making available organs for transplant operations."

According to Amnesty International, China continually holds thousands of political prisoners without charge or trial and is responsible for over 80 percent of all executions documented in the world.

All of these reports culminated, on August 3, 2007, in Congressman Rohrabacher introducing House Resolution 610 [3], aptly named because the "610 Office" in China is an extra-constitutional agency established by the former leader Jiang Zemin. It was specifically created to persecute Falun Gong and has absolute power over every level of the Communist Party and all political and judiciary systems.

Rohrabacher's H.Res. 610 expresses "the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless the Government of the People's Republic of China stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the Governments of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens."

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Rohrabacher proclaims, "In 1936, Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics giving Hitler a worldwide platform to showcase his fascist propaganda. It was wrong to support the Olympic venue then and it's wrong for the United States to support this prestigious event being held in a similarly fascist regime in 2008."

Communist China lost its bid for the 2000 Olympics because of its horrific human rights violations. Recognizing this concern, the Chinese regime explicitly promised to improve human rights [4] in order to win the 2008 Olympics Games. Its subsequent record belies its empty promise. Human rights in China have not improved; they have grievously deteriorated.

China announced "One World, One Dream" as the slogan for the 2008 Olympics. Do we really dream of a world in which freedom and China's human rights violations coexist?

We urge you to read Congressman Rohrabacher's Resolution and then contact the appropriate officials from your country. Ask them to do their part to end China's crimes against humanity.

Our dream should be a world without mind-boggling atrocities. Let us each do our small part to create that world.

[1] The "Genocide Olympics" by Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow
[2] Ibid
[3] To read the full text of the resolution go to: http://www.consciencefoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=121
[4] Liu Jingmin, Vice President of the Beijing Olympic Bid, promised in April 2001, "By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights."

"TAKE SIDES. Silence helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

"Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe."

Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, 1986 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1985 winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, and author of over 40 books.

"We see before us a Stalinist nightmare revived for the 21st century. Hundreds, perhaps thousands dead as a result of torture, tens of thousands jailed without trial, held in labor camps, prisons and mental hospitals where they are forced to endure torture and brainwashing sessions. ... Finally, we will hear testimony about China's barbaric policy of harvesting human organs for sale and transplant. China admits it does this. According to the Chinese ministry of health, since 1993 there have been over 65,000 transplant procedures performed in China. ..."
Hon. Chris Smith, Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, U.S. Congress, April 19, 2006
http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/archives/109/27067.pdf

"With the World Cup well underway in Germany, across the world Beijing is preparing to host the 2008 Olympics. But, if what I was told there recently by former prisoners is true, the civilised world must shun China..."
Edward McMillan-Scott, vice president of the European Parliament in a June 13, 2006 letter published in the Yorkshire Post Today.
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=97&ArticleID=1560709

"The China of today is worse than the China of yesterday, or of last year, or of the last decade. China is not progressing. It is regressing. It is more violent, more repressive, and more resistant to democratic values than it was before we opened our ports to freely accept Chinese products."

"... despite all of these abhorrent acts, China was still awarded the honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic Games: an event designed to lift up "the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles," according to its own charter. Does China's behavior sound like a "good example" to the rest of the world? Or that it is reflecting "fundamental ethical principles" that all nations should aspire to?"

"America must be a country that stands up for basic decency and human rights. America must speak out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves - men and women who are being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs. Our foreign policy must be a policy that helps promote human rights and freedom. Not a policy that sides with dictators who oppress their own citizens."
Congressman Frank Wolf on the floor of the House of Representatives, July 16, 2007
http://wolf.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=34&parentid=6§iontree=6,34&itemid=961

UN Reports on Organ Harvesting in China
http://falunhr.org/reports/UN2007/UN-07-Organ.pdf

To Sign the Online Petition:

http://falunhr.org/te/index.php?signature=1&lang=en

Background Information

What is Falun Gong?
Why the persecution in China?
Current situation of the persecution in China
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Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group
9974 Scripps Ranch Blvd. #228, San Diego, California, 92131, United States
Phone: 619-280-5177, Fax: 619-280-4931, E-mail: [email-masked]