[child-rights] China: Children Reported among victims of governments persecution of Falun Gong

HRIC Press Release
October 12, 2004

A recent report by the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong
Practitioners provides the details of the deaths of at least five children
ranging in age from eight months to 17 years who have died as a result of
persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual group in China.

The report also describes the experiences of many more children who
through the incarceration or death of their parents under official
persecution have become orphans or have lost the care of their parents,
and have lost their rights to education and other social services and
basic human rights. The report also provides information on underage Falun
Gong practitioners who have been forced to submit to brainwashing and to
renounce their beliefs, and others who have been detained in Reeducation
Through Labor (RTL) camps.

Human Rights in China (HRIC) expresses its deep concern over this report,
in particular as China's report on its implementation of its obligations
under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child comes up for review by
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in May 2005.

Following are some of the cases detailed in the report:

• Wang Lixuan and her eight-month old son, Meng Hao, natives of Shandong
Province, were detained on October 22, 2000 while traveling to Beijing,
where Wang Lixuan was planning to petition on behalf of Falun Gong. The
mother and baby both died at the Tuanhe Forced Labor Dispatch Division in
Beijing on November 7, 2000. The coroner's exam determined that Wang
Lixuan's neck and fingers were broken, her skull was fractured and she had
a needle stuck in her lower back. Her baby, Meng Hao, was found to have
deep bruises on his ankles and head and blood in his nose. It is believed
that little Meng Hao had been hung upside down by his ankles.

• Chen Ying, a 17-year old girl, went to Beijing in August 1999 to
petition on behalf of Falun Gong. Police detained her, and police officers
and officials escorted her on a train back to her home in Heilongjiang
Province. After the officials abused and insulted Chen Ying during the
train ride, she jumped out of a window and was fatally injured.

• Liu Qian, a 12-year old girl, began practicing Falun Gong in 2003 as a
form of therapy after learning that she had leukemia. Eight months later
she was well enough to return to school, but the principal insisted that
Liu Qian and her parents sign a pledge that she would stop practicing
Falun Gong. When Liu Qian and her family refused to comply, Liu Qian was
expelled form school. Liu Qian fell into a deep depression, and her health
deteriorated. She died on February 11, 2004.

According to the report, as of September 18, 2004 some 1,047 Falun Gong
practitioners had died in relation to official persecution, with many more
detained for their beliefs. Many of these practitioners have left behind
children who suffer a less visible form of persecution. The report
provides details of several such cases.

• Four-year-old Rong Rong lost her father, Zou Songtao, when she was not
even a year old. Zou died in the Wangcun Village Laogai (Reform Through
Labor) Camp in Zibo City, Shandong Province on November 3, 2000, after
being detained and sentenced for refusing to renounce his Falun Gong
beliefs. Rong Rong's mother, Zhang Yunhe, lost her accounting job because
of her religion, and in May 2001 fled her home to avoid arrest. She has
not been heard from since. Rong Rong was sent to live with her
grandparents, but her grandmother died soon afterward.

• Lin Huixuan, a five-year-old girl, has not seen her father, Lin Yanqing,
since the end of 2002, when he was sentenced to three years in a forced
labor camp. Huixuan, along with her mother, Xu Lei, and her grandparents
were forced into a life on the road to escape arrest. Nevertheless, on
February 19, 2004 Huixuan's mother and grandparents were arrested in
Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, and taken back to Beijing. Forcibly
separated from those closest to her, Huixuan has been put into the care of
another relative.

• On February 7, 2004, Falun gong practitioner Zhao Xudong died from
abusive treatment at the Lanzhou City Huilinshan No. 2 Detention Center.
His wife, Li Hongping, and his mother, Jin Yuyue, are also in detention,
and Zhao's eight-year- old daughter has been left in the care of her
elderly grandfather.

• Wang Zhe was expelled from the No. 1 Senior High School in Changtu
County, Liaoning Province in February 2004 after openly objecting to the
persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Wang Zhe and his mother went to
the school on April 6 requesting that Wang Zhe be readmitted to the
school, but the school headmaster reported the matter to the police, after
which Wang Zhe was detained.

• Kang Jiaqi attended the Hengshui City Second Middle School in Hebei
Province, where her mother was a teacher. But after Jiaqi's father was
detained for his Falun Gong beliefs, Jiaqi's mother left home to avoid
arrest, and Jiaqi was forced to withdraw from school.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
[http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=445] proclaims that
childhood is entitled to special care and assistance. The UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child
[http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=473], which China
ratified in 1992, declares that every child has the right to life, and
that every country has the responsibility of ensuring the survival and
development of its children. The Convention specifically states that
countries shall not discriminate against any child on the basis of the
child's or the child's parent's race, religion, political opinion and
other status, and that countries should "take all appropriate measures to
ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or
punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or
beliefs of the child's parents."

"Persecuting children on the basis of their or their parents' beliefs is a
fundamental violation of the rights of the child under international law,"
said HRIC president Liu Qing. "The Chinese government should demonstrate
its compliance with the Convention by ensuring that no child is subjected
to torture, detention or loss of basic human rights because of the
religious beliefs of themselves or their parents," Liu Qing said.


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