WARSAW, Poland—A senior Chinese government official accused in Spain of genocide and torture against Falun Gong practitioners in China, was confronted by human rights protesters in the halls of the Polish Parliament in Warsaw Thursday morning.
“We wanted to meet the delegation face-to-face and get a message out to Mr. Jia Qingling: that the persecution of Falun Gong in China that he is co-responsible for is wrong and must be stopped”, said Tomasz Kowalski, president of the Polish Falun Dafa Association and one of the protesters.
Jia Qinglin is a top member of China’s Politburo and according to Kowalski is responsible for the systematic arrest, detention, torture and murder of many thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China. On the day of the arrival of the delegation to Poland, Kowalski filed a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office, requesting that Polish courts proceed with an investigation into whether Jia Qingling could be arrested and tried in Poland for the crimes of genocide and torture perpetrated in China.
When Kowalski and another protester approached the delegation wearing T-shirts carrying the words “Falun Dafa is Good,” the delegation’s Chinese security entourage reacted vocally and aggressively and what ensued has been the focus of intense media attention since the incident took place.
At the urging of the Chinese security personnel, the two protesters were briefly detained by a parliamentary security guard, ostensibly to have their security passes verified, which gave the Chinese delegation an opportunity to make a quick getaway.
Various media were on hand to witness the incident, including radio and television crews, who caught it on tape. In a story broadcast by one of the biggest and most popular television stations in Poland, TVN24, journalists can be seen and heard questioning the legality of the security guard’s actions and attempting to intervene on behalf of the protesters.
“On whose orders are you taking these people away?” one of the journalists asked the Parliamentary security guard, to which the guard replied that he was merely escorting them to the security desk to verify the validity of their passes.
“But your actions are obviously intended to obstruct these people from carrying out what they came here for … by the time you check their passes the Chinese delegation will be long gone,” said another journalist.
It later turned out that the protesters were invited to the Polish Parliament by former Minister of Justice and current Member of Parliament Andrzej Czuma.
“I invited them to come to Parliament because they’re my friends, in particular Ms. Maria Salzman, together with whom I organized in Chicago and Boston activities in support of the Falun Dafa organisation, also known as Falun Gong, which I regard very highly because it is the only organization in communist China, aside from the Catholic Church, which is independent,” said Czuma.
The former Minister has publicly called for an explanation from the Parliamentary Chief of Security as to why his guests were treated the way they had been.
“We wanted to meet the delegation face-to-face and get a message out to Mr. Jia Qingling: that the persecution of Falun Gong in China that he is co-responsible for is wrong and must be stopped”, said Tomasz Kowalski, president of the Polish Falun Dafa Association and one of the protesters.
Jia Qinglin is a top member of China’s Politburo and according to Kowalski is responsible for the systematic arrest, detention, torture and murder of many thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China. On the day of the arrival of the delegation to Poland, Kowalski filed a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office, requesting that Polish courts proceed with an investigation into whether Jia Qingling could be arrested and tried in Poland for the crimes of genocide and torture perpetrated in China.
When Kowalski and another protester approached the delegation wearing T-shirts carrying the words “Falun Dafa is Good,” the delegation’s Chinese security entourage reacted vocally and aggressively and what ensued has been the focus of intense media attention since the incident took place.
At the urging of the Chinese security personnel, the two protesters were briefly detained by a parliamentary security guard, ostensibly to have their security passes verified, which gave the Chinese delegation an opportunity to make a quick getaway.
Various media were on hand to witness the incident, including radio and television crews, who caught it on tape. In a story broadcast by one of the biggest and most popular television stations in Poland, TVN24, journalists can be seen and heard questioning the legality of the security guard’s actions and attempting to intervene on behalf of the protesters.
“On whose orders are you taking these people away?” one of the journalists asked the Parliamentary security guard, to which the guard replied that he was merely escorting them to the security desk to verify the validity of their passes.
“But your actions are obviously intended to obstruct these people from carrying out what they came here for … by the time you check their passes the Chinese delegation will be long gone,” said another journalist.
It later turned out that the protesters were invited to the Polish Parliament by former Minister of Justice and current Member of Parliament Andrzej Czuma.
“I invited them to come to Parliament because they’re my friends, in particular Ms. Maria Salzman, together with whom I organized in Chicago and Boston activities in support of the Falun Dafa organisation, also known as Falun Gong, which I regard very highly because it is the only organization in communist China, aside from the Catholic Church, which is independent,” said Czuma.
The former Minister has publicly called for an explanation from the Parliamentary Chief of Security as to why his guests were treated the way they had been.
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