Letter from WOIPFG's Legal Counsel to the Minister of Immigration in Australia

March 10 , 2003

11 March 2003

Via Fax: +61 2 6273 4144
Minister of Immigration
Philip Ruddock MP
Suite MF 40
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Re: Jun Tao and Li Luan Wang
Immigration File No: CLF 2001/40662
RRT File No: N02/45236
Client ID: 31527125190 (Mr. Wang) - 31736125190 (Mrs. Wang)

Dear Minister Ruddock:
I am counsel to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (“WOIPFG”). WOIPFG is dedicated to protecting the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners around the world, to investigate and expose violations of those rights, and to restore and uphold justice in society.
Mr. and Mrs. Wang, citizens of the People’s Republic of China and Falun Gong practitioners, are being held at a detention centre awaiting deportation to China because the Department of Immigration has declined to proceed favorably with the Wangs’ asylum application. In ordering the deportation, the Department of Immigration cites that the Wangs are free to practice their beliefs in private and that the Chinese authorities are not interested in ordinary practitioners of Falun Gong.
We are not speaking about mere denial of the practice of the Wangs spiritual beliefs, 1but the outright infliction of brutal and oft times lethal measures of repression. There is ample evidence amassed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 2which establishes the severity of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners from all stripes—almost six hundred practitioners have been killed in thirty different Provinces throughout China since 2002. 3
Although efforts are underway to secure legal representation for the Wangs, WOIPFG is asking for your assistance to enjoin the deportation in the interest of justice and compassion. Once counsel presents the Wangs case, I am confident that their applications for asylum will be granted.
Thank you for your attention to this most important matter.
Very truly yours,

Stewart L. Weisman, Esq.
SLW/sw
cc: Distribution List

DISTRIBUTION LIST

Hon John Howard
Prime Minister
Fax: +61 2 6271 5414

Hon Alexander Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Fax: +61 2 6273 4112
Email: a.downer.mp@aph.gov.au

Ambassador Michael Thawley
The Embassy of Australia in Washington D.C.
Fax: (202) 797-3168, (202) 797-3100 (DIMIA)

Ms Merrie-Charlotte McKenna
UNHCR
Fax: +61 2 6290 1315
Email: mckennam@unhcr.ch

Members of Australia Parliament

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Such denials in and of themselves run afoul of Articles 7, 18, 19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Articles 18, 19, 21, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
2. For example, see: Human Rights Watch, “Dangerous Meditation – China’s Campaign Against Falungong” at: http://hrw.org/reports/2002/china/
3. Summaries of confirmed deaths can be viewed at:
http://media.minghui.org/gb/d-stats/province_en.htm