【人民报消息】

新闻声明
理查德.包切尔,发言人
华盛顿特区
2001年7月5日

法轮功在中国

美国对中国进一步加强严厉镇压法轮功的报导深感不安,6月20日黑龙江省哈尔滨市万家劳教所十几名法轮功修炼者之死尤为令人难过,在此我们对死者的家属表示同情。

发生在万家劳教所的事件报导说法不一,但中国当局对这些法轮功修炼者施行酷刑暴力折磨的报导令人恐怖。

我们以往对中国政府镇压法轮功表达了严重关切,我们将继续这样做,我们呼吁中国尊重思想自由、良心正义和宗教自由,允许所有人自由信奉他们的宗教信仰,终止对法轮功一再地镇压。

我们在此特别呼吁中国释放监禁在劳教所进行所谓“再教育”的法轮功修炼者和其他争取基本人权的被关押者,中国政府声称法轮功修炼者在一些劳教所里集体自杀,而其他人士则确认这些死亡事件是由酷刑折磨和虐待引起的,问题的关键首先在于这些人根本就不应该被关押在这种劳教所里。

同时,我们紧急呼吁中国允许国际红十字会和其它独立的国际机构到这些劳教所不受限制地访问调查被监禁者的待遇。

(完)
2001年7月5日发布(译文)

原文如下 :

PRESS STATEMENT
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
July 5, 2001

Falun Gong in China

The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that China has further intensified its harsh repression of the Falun Gong. The June 20 deaths of over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners in Wanjia Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China is particularly troublesome. Our sympathies go out to the families of the victims.

There are conflicting accounts of what actually occurred at Wanjia Labor Camp, but the reports of violence and torture against these Falun Gong practitioners at the hand of Chinese authorities are chilling.

In the past, we have conveyed our strong concern to the Chinese government on their crackdown on the Falun Gong and we will continue to do so. We call on China to respect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to allow all persons to practice their religious faiths freely, and to end the cycle of repression on the Falun Gong.

In particular, we call on China to release from the so-called "re-education through labor camps" practitioners of Falun Gong and others held for exercising their fundamental human rights. The Chinese Government has claimed a mass suicide among Falun Gong practitioners in some of the camps. Others insist the deaths were caused by torture and mistreatment. The point is that these people should never have been incarcerated in such camps in the first place.

We also call on China, on an urgent basis, to allow unrestricted visits to these camps by the International Red Cross and other impartial international bodies to look into the treatment prisoners receive.

[End]

Released on July 5, 2001