Mrs. Hui Ma and her daughter Jing Ma are now on a Russian Polkova Airline Flight No. 215. The plane will need to refuel at Novosibirsk Airport where we have the final chance to help them stay in Russia. Urge officials to stop all deportation procedures by sending a fax to the Ministry of Civil Affairs immediately. (more about Russia)
Fax: 007 495 625 98 85
FDI: NEW YORK, NY -(3/28/2007 14:47)- Falun Gong adherent Ms. Ma Hui and her 8-year-old daughter, Ma Jing, were seized on Tuesday by Russian Immigration officers at their St. Petersburg residence and forcibly put on a plane to China, sources from Russia tell the Falun Dafa Information Center. The Center is deeply concerned for the safety of mother and child, as the action is said to result from pressure by visiting Chinese communist diplomats. Witnesses say that a Chinese man, acting in tandem with a Russian police officer, was seen putting the couple on the plane. Once returned to China, imprisonment, forced labor, and torture, if not execution, are possible forms of punishment awaiting the Ma and child.
Ma Hui and daughter have been recognized as legitimate refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Russia the past three years, and were awaiting a March 30 court date regarding its renewal. Their seizure and deportation amounts to a violation of the non-refoulement prohibitions of Convention Against Torture, which Russia has ratified and is obligated to follow, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Ma Hui and her daughter were put on flight FV215, Polkova Airlines, departing from St. Petersburg at 7:50 PM Moscow time (11:50 AM EDT).
The Center is calling for urgent, immediate intervention, as the mother and child’s plane will reportedly land briefly in the Russian city of Novosibirsk for refueling and they might still be returned.
Mr. Bart Staes, a Member of the European Parliament and former Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, sent a letter today to Russian authorities imploring them to stop the deportation. Staes stated that he was “very concerned that Mrs. Ma Hui will be arrested in China as soon as she gets off the plane,”and fears for her fate, given that “practitioners of Falun Gong die every day in China, in the context of organ harvesting and widespread torture…”
This incident is the culmination of several days of diplomatic kowtowing by Russian officials. In what appears an exaggerated attempt to satisfy a large retinue of visiting Chinese communist officials, Russian authorities have unlawfully detained and arrested numerous Falun Gong practitioners since Saturday. In each case persons were attempting to exercise constitutional rights of protest and demonstration in proximity to the Chinese Embassy in Moscow. On Saturday (news) seven Falun Gong were arrested, followed by another 22 on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, sources in Russia report, adherents were being arrested throughout Moscow for passing out human rights literature or even merely wearing clothing identifying them as Falun Gong (e.g., trademark yellow scarves).
China, tear down this gate!
ReplyDeleteby Dan Bloom
Longtime observers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have said,
"The China question is open as long as the CCP rules China." And as
long as the gate of freedom in China remains closed, as long as this
scar of a gate is permitted to stand, it is not the China question
alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all
humankind. Yet, today there is a message of hope inside China, a
message of triumph, where slowly people are trying to take matters
into their own hands and set up a democratic movement inside the
country that can finally replace the CCP. It can happen and it will
happen.
Leaders of democratic countries around the world understood the
practical importance of liberty -- that just as truth can flourish
only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can
come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic
freedom. China will learn that soon enough.
In fact, even now, in a limited way, the current leaders of China may
be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from
Beijing about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political
prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts and
Internet sites are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises
have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state
control.
Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the CCP? Or are they
token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to
strengthen the Chinese system without changing it? We welcome change
and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together,
that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of
world peace. There is one sign the Chinese communists can make that
would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of
freedom and peace.
President Hu Jintao, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for
China and Hong Kong and Macao and Taiwan, if you seek liberalization:
Come here to this gate of tyranny, and replace it with a gate of
freedom! Mr. Hu, replace this gate! Mr. Hu, let freedom ring!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict the
leaders of China today -- and I know that my country will use all its
efforts to help overcome these burdens. When freedom finally comes to
the Chinese people, they and their leaders will be surprised how
wonderful it feels.
Today represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to
cooperate with China to promote true openness, to break down barriers
that separate people, to create a safe, freer world.
The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such
violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to
enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love
and of worship an affront.
As one looks at China today, from across the sea, one can perhaps
catch a glimpse of some words crudely spray-painted upon the gate,
perhaps by a young Bejinger: "This gate will fall. Beliefs become
reality." Yes, across China, this gate will fall. For it cannot
withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The gate cannot withstand
freedom.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. Thanks for sharing your enlightened comment.