Canadian Citizens Found Their Names on a “Blacklist” and Stranded at World’s Airports on Their Way to Iceland
- From: "Falun Dafa Canada InfoCentre" <info-centre@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: dafa-news-ottawa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 20:27:40 +0000
Canadian Citizens Found Their Names on a “Blacklist” and Stranded at World’s
Airports on Their Way to Iceland
- Demand Icelandic Government’s Apology and Compensation
Ottawa (June 21, 2002) Last week, dozens of Canadian citizens from Ottawa,
Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver travelling to Iceland to take part in a
peaceful appeal during the president of China’s visit (June 13-16) were
shocked to find their names on a “Blacklist” and their tickets cancelled, or
barred from boarding any Iceland bound aircraft at the international airports
such as Paris, London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo. Some who made their way to
Iceland were detained more than 24 hours. No arrangements were made for their
return trip or food or lodging upon this unexpected refusal to honor their paid
tickets. The same happened to citizens from US, Australia, Taiwan and other
European countries.
According to media report, this Blacklist, which identifies both Chinese
nationals as well as citizens of Western democratic countries, was compiled by
the Chinese government and supplied to the Icelandic government.
“We are shocked to see Iceland, a democratic county, bow to the Chinese
communist regime’s totalitarianism and set a dangerous precedent of using a
blacklist to violate world citizens’ human rights. These people spent their
own money and vacation time to travel thousands of miles, not for themselves
but to give a voice to the innocent people being brutally persecuted in
China,” said Xun li, a software engineer stranded in Copenhagen airport on
June 12 &13, 2002.
“We urge our Canadian government to demand an explanation from the Icelandic
government why Canadian citizens and residents who are not criminals and do not
pose any threat to anybody were blacklisted and received such treatment. The
Icelandic government should apologize and compensate these Falun Gong
practitioners. This small gesture will restore the image and reputation of the
Icelandic government, which has already been seriously jeopardized,” said Li,
who spoke on behalf of all the unjustly treated Canadian practitioners.
Barring the entry of Falun Gong practitioners enraged Iceland’s own people.
All Icelandic Newspapers, TV, and radio widely reported against their
government’s decision. “You have the whole nation behind you. 100% of the
media and 99% of the Icelandic people are all with you,” said a reporter from
Iceland TV Broadcasting Corporation to Lucy Zhou, a Canadian Falun Gong
practitioner in Iceland at the time.
Some 450 Iceland citizens, including Member of Parliaments, City Councilors,
Professors, etc. took out a full-page advertisement in the island’s major
national newspaper apologizing for the Government’s ‘incomprehensible
actions’ towards Falun Gong and condemning China’s human rights record in
Chinese, English and Icelandic. They welcome Falun Gong practitioners to
Reykjavik.
Three thousand furious Icelandic people in the capital - Reykjavik went onto
the street to demonstrate against its government’s wrong decision of barring
Falun Gong practitioner’s entry and against the president of China’s visit on
June 14, the day of his official visit. The scale was unprecedented in this
small country.
The U.S. State Department has asked Iceland's government for an explanation.
Contact: Lucy Zhou 613-599-7494, 613-862-7494, faluninfo.net
Further Information: China’s Illicit Overseas Operations
There is significant evidence that China’s leadership has long held a keen
interest in profiling and monitoring individuals outside China who practice
Falun Gong.
In May, 2001, Hong Kong officials first denied, then admitted to employing a
“blacklist” to block entry of such persons during Jiang Zemin’s visit. In
the last two years, many cases of Chinese consulates denying passport renewals
to Chinese nationals residing oversea and practicing Falun Gong have surfaced,
such as in the US, Canada, and the UK.
In February, 2002, classified documents smuggled out of China and authenticated
by renowned China expert Su Xiaokang revealed orders from China’s leadership
that, “We should focus on building up data banks and further fulfill and
complete the intelligence management systems on “Falungong”… and on
religious organizations abroad that infiltrate [China], and bring the function
of the systems to full display. We should set up intelligence and data
portfolios… and constantly fulfill and complete these portfolios to make sure
the data is accurate and updated.” These directives apparently follow orders
from China’s Jiang to “strengthen the campaign overseas against those foreign
forces, collect more information, and prevent protests” as reported last year
by the Falun Dafa Information Center.
And in recent months such efforts by Chinese overseas agents have prompted
legal action accusing China’s ministries, consulates and embassies of
“engaging in a pattern of criminal acts and interfering with the right to
practice their spiritual beliefs.”
Early signs of China’s overseas intelligence operations appeared as early as
the first week following Jiang’s ban on Falun Gong in late July of 1999. At
that time the apartment of New York Falun Gong spokesperson Gail Rachlin was
forcibly broken into and her address book, filled with contact information of
Falun Gong practitioners, was taken, but nothing else.
Practitioners of a peaceful spiritual discipline that has no membership,
charges no money, and has no organizational structure are discovering that
someone has been snooping. And not just snooping into the readily available
list of volunteers on websites or flyers, but deep into the private lives of
citizens in many countries and many backgrounds. The names of Falun Gong
practitioners who quietly practice Falun Gong in the privacy of their own homes
or in their local parks appeared on the lists as well.
___________________________________________________________________________
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