Canada Urged to Cancel Invitation to Chinese Trade Minister Bo Xilai

Media Advisory

Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Charles Lynch Conference Room,
130-S Centre Block, Parliament Building

OTTAWA—The Falun Dafa Association of Canada and the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, joined by Hon. David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific), and victims of torture, will hold a press conference to call on the Government of Canada to withdraw the invitation and bar the entry of Bo Xilai, China’s Minister of Commerce who is scheduled to visit Canada this Monday and is alleged to have overseen the torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners when he was Governor for Liaoning Province. They are also calling for his arrest and a criminal investigation into his alleged crimes if he sets foot in Canada.

Bo Xilai is scheduled to visit Canada on Monday May 28^th at the invitation of the Canadian government.

Background:

Bo Xilai is on the list of 45 perpetrators of crimes against humanity accepted for consideration by the Interdepartmental Operations Group of Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity & War Crimes Program in 2003, which allows for mechanisms that may lead to barring from entry, denial of visa, deportation, or prosecution of perpetrators of crime.

In 2005, Bo Xilai’s visit to Canada was aborted supposedly after attention was brought to his role in the torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners.

In 2006 it was disclosed that large-scale organ seizures from Falun Gong practitioners occurred in Liaoning province since 2001 while Bo Xilai was the governor.

Bo Xilai is a defendant in a number of lawsuits (both criminal and civil) in ten countries for torture, crimes against humanity and genocide, including the USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Poland, Peru, Chile, Spain, and South Korea. On July 28, 2004, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia declared defendant Bo Xilai in default in a lawsuit in which Bo was accused of torture and crimes against humanity. Go here for the website detailing the lawsuits.

BO is among a group of government officials who in concert with others have implemented and sustained a campaign of suppression and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and in particular, in Liaoning Province.

Reuters: Falun Gong sues Chinese minister in U.S. court, 23 April 2004

23 April 2004, 05:37 pm;Reuters News; English; (c) 2004 Reuters Limited

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Falun Gong members have sued Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in U.S. federal court for acts of genocide and torture which they said he carried out against them while a provincial governor, according to court documents made available on Friday.

Bo, in Washington this week as part of a delegation headed by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, was served with the legal papers on Thursday as he entered a hotel for a dinner in Wu's honor, said attorney Morton Sklar of the World Organization Against Torture USA, who represents the plaintiffs.

A State Department spokesman said he was aware a civil suit had been filed but it was unclear if the papers, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had been properly served.

The Chinese Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Before becoming commerce minister in February, Bo for three years was governor of Liao Ning province, home to the Masanjia forced labor camp and three mental hospitals. The provincial government is considered one of the worst abusers of Falun Gong practitioners, Sklar told Reuters.

Court papers said Bo "played a major role in seeking to suppress the Falun Gong spiritual movement."

Bo "planned and carried out a sustained and deliberate set of policies and actions that resulted in the arbitrary and unlawful arrest, detention, persecution and in some cases execution of the plaintiffs," the papers said.

Under international law, genocide is defined as intentional acts "to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

The suit said Bo's activities met this definition because "they consisted of an intentionally inflicted policy and practice, carried out under color of law, of inflicting serious bodily harm, and in a number of cases death while in detention, against members of a spiritual group."

Sklar said the suit was the fourth brought in the United States against Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that the communist government in Beijing considers a threat.

The State Department, in its latest human rights report, said China's government in 2003 continued its crackdown on Falun Gong and thousands of its practitioners remained imprisoned in jails, labor camps and psychiatric facilities.

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 24 MAY 2007

Falun Gong urges Emerson to withdraw Bo Xilai Invitation

VANCOUVER – The Falun Dafa Association has learned that a communist official accused of executing a systematic campaign of torture and genocide against religious believers in northeast China will arrive in Ottawa this weekend at the request of David Emerson, Minister of International Trade. Their meeting is planned for Monday (28^th).

Bo is accused of overseeing a brutal campaign of torture against adherents of Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation practice, in the northeast Chinese province of Liaoning where he was governor from 2001 to 2004. The repression of Falun Gong in Liaoning was one of the most severe in China under Bo's leadership. U.N. reports cite specific human rights abuses against Falun Gong in Liaoning province in every year that Bo was governor. According to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, by the time Bo left the governor post there were 100 confirmed torture deaths of Falun Gong adherents in police custody in Liaoning.

In September 2003, the RCMP accepted a watch-list of high-ranking Chinese officials accused of torture and crimes against humanity against Falun Gong practitioners in China. Bo Xilai was among the first 15 names on the list, which now numbers 45.

Practitioners will hold a protest in front of Emerson’s office this Friday at 1:30 at 2148 Kingsway. A letter will be delivered to Emerson requesting that he withdraws the invitation to Bo Xilai to come to Canada. The torture allegations makes Bo an unsuitable guest in this country. Xun Li, president of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, says practitioners do not oppose Canada having relations with China, but Canada must not open doors to criminals. Allowing such officials [in]to Canada would send a message that Canada condones genocide and violations of fundamental human rights.

Time: Friday, May 25 at 1:30pm

Place: 2148 Kingsway

Background: Bo was scheduled to visit Canada along with current Chinese leader Hu Jintao in 2005 when Paul Martin was prime minister. However, after protests over Bo's planned visit, he was notably absent when the delegation arrived.

Bo has been served with lawsuits for torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity against Falun Gong believers in ten other countries.In April 2004, Bo was sued for crimes against humanity and torture while on a visit to Washington, D.C. Upon realizing he had been served with court papers, Bo threw the papers to the ground and his entourage physically attacked the process server.

Two months after Bo was served the lawsuit in the U.S., nine Falun Gong practitioners travelled to South Africa to protest the alleged crimes committed by Bo and another Chinese official, Zeng Qinghong, who were both visiting South Africa, and to file a lawsuit. On June 28, en route from Johannesburg Airport, a gunman with an assault rifle shot at the practitioners' vehicle, hospitalizing the driver. After disabling the car, the would-be assassin made no attempt at robbery and immediately fled the scene. The practitioners believed the gunman to be hired.