| Dear Secretary of State Clinton,
The past nearly ten years have seen China's communist leaders violently suppress tens of millions of Chinese citizens simply for their practice of Falun Gong - a gentle spiritual practice consisting of exercises and moral teachings. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a host of others report that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been arrested on spurious charges, with thousands being sent to slave labor camps without trial. Torture is widespread, and now accounts for at least 3,000 deaths in police custody; the number is believed to be much higher.. Thousands have been stripped of their homes, jobs, educations, and even families. This situation is appalling to any person of goodwill.
The suppression of Falun Gong by Chinese authorities has spread overseas to democratic countries as well- notably here on American soil. China has attempted to influence and intimidate officials at all levels of the US government who support Falun Gong, as well as harass, threaten and violently beat US citizens here. These actions led the House of Representatives to unanimously to pass Resolution 188, calling for an investigation into these matters and action against any Chinese government personnel that are found to be involved.
The PRC’s cover-up of SARS has shown that there are global consequences for lying, callous disregard for human life, and denial of accountability. These tactics have been the hallmark of the Chinese government’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong from the very beginning. Now there are charges of a bird flu coverup, and a concentration camp in northeast China, used as an "organ farm" to enrich corrupt doctors and officials. The Falun Gong practitioners in the camp, once their organs are extracted for sale on the lucrative black market, are then immediately disposed of in an on-site crematorium.
In all of this, those who practice Falun Gong have remained committed to a nonviolent response; not one case of violent retaliation has been reported - either in China or abroad. They have met brutality and hatred with peaceful civil disobedience.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on the United States to call for an investigation into the concentration camp charges, and to demand that the government of the People's Republic of China cease its persecution of Falun Gong immediately, and release all Falun Gong prisoners of conscience.
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