Falun Gong practitioners protested outside the Russian embassy in Ottawa, Canada today after Russia deported an elderly practitioner to China last Sunday. This was Russia's second deportation of a Falun Gong practitioner with United Nations (U.N.) refugee status within less than two months.
Professor Gao Chunman, age 73 and an invalid due to a stroke two years ago, was forcibly carried away from his home in St. Petersburg on Sunday morning by Russian Federal Immigration Service police. His wife, Mira, a Russian citizen, said the agents entered their home under the pretence of wanting to rent their flat. They showed no court documents and cut the phone line before abducting Gao.
Gao is a former professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of China's top universities. He began practicing Falun Gong in 1994.
Falun Gong is a system of exercise and meditation with a spiritual component that teaches the moral principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance." Despite earlier awards and official government support, its growing popularity led to a brutal crackdown by the Chinese communist regime in July 1999.
Gao was forced to leave China in 2000 to escape persecution. Granted U.N. refugee status in 2003, he was in the process of seeking asylum in Russia when he was deported.
Earlier, on March 28, Russian authorities had seized Ms. Ma Hui and her daughter, 8-year-old Ma Jing, at their St. Petersburg home and deported them to China. Both were registered as "persons in need of international protection" by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They were also in the process of applying for asylum in Russia and were deported just two days before their court date to renew their refugee status. Ma's current condition and whereabouts are unknown, while her daughter is under the care of an aunt.
Violation of U.N. Convention Protecting Refugees
The protestors delivered a letter from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada to the Russian embassy.
"These acts are in direction violation of the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which Russia has ratified," the letter stated, citing articles 32 to 34 of the convention on expulsion, prohibition of expulsion or return, and naturalization, respectively.
The letter also quoted from a UNHCR briefing issued following the deportation of Ma and her daughter: "UNHCR is concerned at their forcible deportation in violation of the Russian Federation's international obligations and of the Russian Federation Law on Refugees, both of which prohibit the return of asylum seekers to their country of origin before a final decision on their asylum claims has been made."
The association points to the fact that the U.N., governments, and human rights groups worldwide have published numerous reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, brainwashing, and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners to prison and forced labour camp without due process to force them to renounce their belief.
Association spokesperson Lucy Zhou also delivered a copy of a much-publicized investigation report by two prominent Canadian human rights lawyers confirming that the Chinese regime is conducting large-scale organ harvesting from unwilling Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Winnipeg-based David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour have travelled to over 30 countries to raise awareness about their report, published online at http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ .
Valery Chumakov, a cultural counsellor and advisor at the Russian embassy who received the package from Zhou, said he had no authorization to comment on the policy of the Russian government concerning the deportation.
These deportations followed a series of arrests of practitioners by Russian police beginning March 24 in advance of Chinese leader Hu Jintao's visit to attend the opening of "The Year of China" in Russia.
Zhou emphasized that Russia is now a democratic country and no longer under the repressive rule of a communist regime such as the one in China today. The association is urging the Russian government to "meet its international obligations to guarantee the safety of Falun Gong practitioners in Russia and stop deporting them to China."
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