Mashkay operation: an analysis.

http://baluchsarmachar.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/mashkay-operation-an-analysis/

The smouldering heaps of rubble welcomed the locals when they returned to their homes after bombing stopped and the Pakistan military personnel withdrew following a two-day military operation in Balochistan’s Mashkay area, the hometown of Baloch nationalist leader Dr. Allah Nazar. They had been punished for belonging to the nationalist leader’s area or for having any relationwith him.

Eight people, including two children and five women, were killed. Dozens of houses were set on fire or destroyed through dynamite. Two men — Dr. Allah Nazar’s brother-in-law Shahbaik and Naeem — were whisked away and are still missing. Their families are expecting their mutilated bodies any time soon.

Why will Pakistan go to this extent? Out of sheer frustration, maybe. But states don’t react spontaneously in most cases. The most popular theory among Baloch nationalists is that the state wants to eliminate Dr Allah Nazar, the main hurdle in the way of parliamentary politics in Balochistan, before the general elections in May next year. There have been predictions that the upcoming elections will be violent and chaotic. Pakistan wants National Party and Balochistan National Party to participate in these elections without any condition, in order to demonstrate to the world that the Baloch nationalists have been finally pacified and accommodated in the mainstream politics. However, the Baloch militant groups would strive to give a different picture to the world during these elections: that the Baloch don’t accept Pakistan’s parliament and that they don’t want to participate in the electoral process.

But why fire mortar shells on Dr Allah Nazar’s home town? If the state wanted to eliminate Dr Nazar it should have launched the offensive on the nationalist leader’s hideouts. So what purpose the two-day military operation is supposed to serve to the state?

At a time when the top Baloch leaders, once allies, are exchanging barbs over the Freedom Charter, Dr Allah Nazar is the only sane voice trying to remain neutral and calm. According to sources close to him, he has sent word to Hairbiyar, Brahmdagh and other Baloch leaders to think over their differences and don’t make them public.He has also reportedly urged Baloch National Movement, Baloch Students Organization, Baloch Republican Party, Hairbiyar, Mehran and Javed Mengal to forge unity under an alliance. As a matter of fact, Dr Nazar is the only person who can play the role of a mediator to resolve this infighting among the nationalist leaders.

By targeting his family and area, the state is trying to render a dent on his nation-building measures. It’s a golden chance for the state to fuel differences among the warring factions of Baloch nationalists. The differences between Hairbiyar, his father Khair Bux Marri, brother Mehran, brother-in-law Javed Mengal and Brahmdagh are no secret any more. All of them are important figures in the ongoing Baloch insurgency. Their division will not only weaken the Baloch armed struggle, but also serve to disappoint the Baloch people. If Dr. Nazar is allowed the luxury to negotiate a deal between them, he has the potential to bring them close once again. Therefore, the state has declared war against him to sabotage his confidence-building measures. After the Mashkay operation, Dr. Nazar would be more cautious in his communications and he would have to focus his concentration on survival measures rather than calming down the warring Baloch groups.

Balochistan Liberation Charter is document of freedom, resistance is the effective form struggle: Bashir Zaib Baloch.

  Quetta:The ex-chairman of Baloch Student Organisation (Azad) Comrade Bashir Zaib Baloch said, on Friday, from the circles of BSO, initial political education and in the practical political field the belief that resistance is the most superlative form of Politics kept getting stronger. He said this with reference to current political situation in Balochistan. 

He said, “Leaving BSO and new political affiliation are questions that hold no importance to me because independence struggle in the past phase and even today is based on three parts which are of importance. First phase is preservation of national identity, second is the formation of nation and third is to acquiring freedom itself.” 

He said instead of getting in the debate regarding surface or underground politics for the achievement of this unclouded objective, he believed resistance to be the best form of politics. He further said it is because of the resistance that there has been positive progress in the salvation of Baloch national identity and transformation from tribalism to nationalism, and there has been visible progress towards acquisition of independence. 

“This kind of progress is impossible without a well-structured organisation. In my opinion the credit for this in Baloch society goes to the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Due to the practical struggle of those friends involved in resistance, examination of every aspect of the national struggle and to counter occupying state’s policies and conspiracies every Baloch is well-convinced and conscious enough to sacrifice his life for the defence of his motherland,” said Mr Bashir Zaib. 

Talking about Balochistan Liberation Charter Mr Zaib said, “Being a political activist I want to see the Charter of Liberation [Balochistan Liberation Charter] from a political perspective. Sangat Hyrbyair Marri and other friends have put efforts in this and for suggestions presented it to Baloch leaders and intellectuals, which is a positive and political method. This document is for freedom and it is the objective and portfolio of our struggle. 

“One should view it irrespective of status and prejudice. The situation and time demand from all activists to unite on the point of independence. The only durable method for such a unity is to agree on a document. We (Pro-Independence) claim to be revolutionaries therefore the revolution demands equality amongst different sections of Baloch society based on their sacrifices and practical efforts, which means the liberation of Baloch, the independence and victory of Baloch nation and the Baloch state.” 

Commenting on the debates in social media, the former BSO chairman said that with in the ethical space rational debate and reasoning is necessary on every aspect that relates to Baloch and Balochistan. He said shying away from rational debate is tantamount to maintain the status quo and stagnancy in Baloch society. This in itself is counter revolutionary approach. In a revolutionary struggle each layer of everything should be open [for debate]. “It is necessary that in interviews, political debates and writings we should abide by rationality, ideology and firm well, the importance of debate, especially in these circumstances of war, cannot be neglected.”

He said Pakistani parliamentary elections and complete revolution are two opposite things. Those who are preparing to contest elections are negating their own slogans and are becoming a hurdle in the way of revolutionary forces. “As I earlier said that some are attempting to maintain the status-quo and are scared of revolution and freedom,” Mr Zaib said.

He said using words like “retired members of BSO” for the activists of BSO was an inappropriate word because they are still actively taking part in Baloch politics. “I request those friends who have left student politics to affiliate with the freedom movement,” Bashir Zaib Baloch said.

Mr Zaib urged the Baloch diaspora to strengthen the hands of Hyrbyair Marri for diplomatic relations, and those inside Balochistan should support the resistance organisations. 

He said, “The struggle for liberation will get strength with the new blood – the more energetic and resolute friends join the struggle the more we get closer our independence. The countless sacrifices and ceaseless efforts of Baloch activists have almost totally dismantled the institutions of the occupying state. Unnatural state and its false system cannot stand before those who want true freedom.” 

Talking about state’s genocidal policies in Balochistan Mr Zaib said, “Recently in Mashky operation due to indiscriminate bombardment several innocent people including women and children were killed, which is part of Baloch genocide.”

He said the silence of International powers, human rights organisations and so called Baloch parliamentarians illustrates their silent partnership with the state. “Complaining from enemy and demand is opposite to ideology of freedom. Unity, sincerity, hard-work and sacrifices are the mediums of national salvation,” Beshair Zaib Baloch advised. 

"TURNING BALOCHISTAN INTO A CEMETRY"

by Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur on Wednesday, 2 January 2013 at 19:31

January 2, 2013

  Turning Balochistan Into A Cemetery | Mohammad Ali Talpur

      This is not the first time that a military operation has been carried out by the Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary force, in southern Balochistan’s Mashky, Awaran District. The FC launched another operation just two months ago. Unlike the current offensive, this earlier, mid-October operation was denounced from the floor of the provincial assembly by the Balochistan Minister for Agriculture, Asad Baloch. He said that the operation had been carried out without the Government of Balochistan’s consent. Their silence this time around is telling, and has caused many to speculate that they did issue their consent when the FC launched the operation on December 25th.

    Whether the operation is consensual, however, might not matter. Consensual operations are not really required in Balochistan. The governor, the chief minister, the now ousted speaker, and a gaggle of ministers, are on record claiming that the Frontier Corps (FC) runs a parallel government, which I have written about, here. The FC does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Political necessity forces it to label its actions as consensual–and at times, like this one, it appears that they are given consent, at least of establishment politicians in the province’s assembly. The FC’s actions, however, indicate that they would carry out the operations irrespective of the stance of establishment politicians. The present provincial government, riven by greed and power struggles (all members of the provincial assembly sit in the cabinet), has never had any real say in the affairs of Balochistan. When the speaker was ousted, the voting members of the provincial assembly had to show their votes to the bureaucrats to prove they weren’t deviating from instructions.

    “If you cannot catch the fish, you have to drain the sea”

      Mao once said, “The guerilla must move amongst the people, as a fish swims in the sea.” He knew what he was talking about, and counter-insurgencies conducting operations against the state follow this basic principle. The guerillas of Balochistan, or the sarmachars, as the Baloch call them, are no different. Dr. Allah Nazar, whose village was attacked last week, bases his tactics on the same principle.

     That is, perhaps, why the Pakistani state uses the same tactic as the Guatemalan government used, when they were fighting leftist guerilla groups supported by indigenous Mayans and poor peasants from the 1960s onwards. In 1982, Guatemalan President Efrain Rios Montt said, “The guerrilla is the fish. The people are the sea. If you cannot catch the fish, you have to drain the sea.” Montt was indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity in January 2012.

      The present Mashky operation, like other operations carried out by the state in Balochistan, serve the same purpose: to eliminate not only the guerillas, but the base that they thrive on.

     The FC wants to destroy the social, economic and political base of the Baloch resistence. The FC wants to terrorize the people and drain the sea in which the sarmachar swims. This is an old army tactic, and it is not the first time that it is being applied. In September 1975, the army carried out a massive operation in Balochistan’s Marri areas. The operation was targeted, not only against guerilla fighters, but also against their families. The goal was to neutralize the Baloch resistance. The operation deprived people of their lives, livestock, wheat and even beasts of burden.

In his book on Baloch nationalism, political analyst, Selig S. Harrison observes that, in an attempt to destroy the Baloch economy, at least 500 camels, and 50,000 sheep and goats were taken and sold to traders in Punjab. The stored wheat was torched and water skins were slashed because these could all be used by the guerrillas. This was carried out during the 1973-1977 military operations in Balochistan, following the illegal dismissal of Ataullah Mengal’s government in February 1973.

     Guerrillas live in the mountains, not in townships and villages. That means that the actual targets and victims of the current operation are the people of Mashky. The continued blockade of the area has resulted in shortages of food, medicine, and other essential items. Yet, even the physical hardships may not be the most debilitating aspect of these operations. The atmosphere of terror in the affected population is far worse. Outsiders seem to overlook and disregard this aspect. The constant threat of unbridled force affects lives adversely, especially the lives of the very young and the very old. Children, who do not comprehend the reasons for this ruthlessness, bear the brunt of the attacks.

     These operations, however, cannot be succesful in destroying the political or economic support of the sarmachars. The simple lives that the Baloch lead in these areas are soon re-established, albeit with a fiercer determination to oppose the state, which is directly responsible for their misery. As hard as the FC, the army, and their collaborators may try, this sea can never, ever be drained, and the fish will continue to live in it. As long as the fish survive, the Baloch can hope that the shackles binding them will break one day.

    Pakistani media’s apathy

     News about Mashky has hardly filtered out into the Pakistani media. Though the physical blockade put up by the army plays a role, the mainstream media’s absolute apathy is also to blame. The media seems oblivious to all that transpires in Balochistan, and this neglect and unofficial blackout increases the resentment of the Baloch against the state. Baloch websites, and those sympathetic to them, are under a blanket ban.

Thankfully, news in an age of social media has made it possible for people to get access to information. This information has also allowed people to develop a deeper understanding of the state’s role in Balochistan’s violence. Take the ruthless killing of Hazaras by the state’s ”strategic assets”, namely Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other anti-Shia Islamists. The horrendous attack against Shia pilgrims in Mastung on December 30th has left at least 19 dead and 25 wounded. This year has seen more than 800 Hazaras killed in such attacks. Many in Balochistan say that the state’s continued tolerance of anti-Shia groups play a key role in the violence against Hazaras.

     The Pakistani state’s policies in Balochistan seem to be in line with the policies of another Guatemalan president, Carlos Arana Osorio who governed from 1970 to 1974 and declared a state of siege in his first year. An estimated 20,000 Guatemalans died during his rule, and it couldn’t have been otherwise for a vicious tyrant who proudly said, “If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetery in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so.”

   Mohammad Ali Talpur is a writer and has been associated with the Baloch rights movement since the early 1970s. He tweets at @mmatalpur and can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com.

Pakistan accused of army massacre in Balochistan.

03 January 2013 16:34 | By Peter Tatchell

Baloch Missing persons Family  hunger strike camp

  

Pakistan has been conducting a violent campaign against one of its indigenous ethnic populations, says human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell 

Since Christmas Eve, Pakistan has launched a savage new military crackdown in annexed and occupied Balochistan.

Jet aircraft and helicopter gunships have bombarded pro-nationalist villages, resulting in the reported destruction of nearly 200 houses and the deaths of 50 civilians, including women and children.

The main military sweep took place in the Awaran, Panjur and Makran districts of Balochistan. It included a 70-truck convoy of army soldiers and Frontier Corps. Hundreds of villagers were rounded up and interrogated. Many have since disappeared. Some were later found dead, with their mutilated bodies showing signs of torture. 

Throughout the operational area, the military have laid siege to villages and imposed a 24/7 curfew, which prevents families leaving their homes to collect food and water and to tend their crops and livestock.

Full details cannot yet be verified because the Pakistani security forces are refusing to allow anyone to leave or enter the area. In particular, human rights investigators, aid workers and journalists are barred. Doctors who attempted to treat the injured were turned away by Pakistani soldiers.

Information about the massacre comes from the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Baloch Human Rights Council (UK).

Freedom or insurgency?

Zaffar Baloch, President of the Baloch Human Rights Council in Canada, condemned the army's operation, saying it is “part of a broader plan of action to curtail the freedom struggle of the Baloch nation... and inflict a slow-motion genocide on the Baloch people."

Pakistan's military justifies the attacks by claiming they were hunting for the Baloch liberation guerrilla leader, Dr Allah Nazar, who they allege was hiding in local villages. They say the dead are insurgents from the Balochistan Liberation Front. This is disputed by human rights defenders, who point to children aged one, two and four who were among those killed.  

International humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate, disproportionate military attacks that are likely to endanger innocent civilians; making the army’s action a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

'Dirty secret war'

Balochistan has been torn apart by a six-decades-long insurgency, which rejects forcible incorporation into Pakistan in 1948 and demands self-rule.

Guardian reporter Declan Walsh has described the conflict as “Pakistan’s dirty secret war”.

In protest at the Christmas massacre and other long-standing human rights abuses by the Pakistani security forces, the President of the Balochistan National Party, Akhtar Mengal, has written to Senator John Kerry, nominated by President Obama as the new US Secretary of State, urging the suspension of American aid to Pakistan.

In his letter, Mengal, a former Chief Minister of Balochistan, advises Kerry: "It is very clear that Pakistan's civilian government has lost 'effective control and oversight' over a military that is committing widespread atrocities and war crimes inside Balochistan."

Human rights abuses

The current killings are merely the latest of many indiscriminate attacks and violent human rights abuses against the Baloch people by the security forces of Pakistan. They have taken place with the de facto collusion of the government in Islamabad.

Amnesty International has previously condemned what it calls the ‘kill and dump’ terror methods of the Pakistani security forces.

These on-going abuses are corroborated by Human Rights Watch.

The US administration is accused of complicity. It supplies Pakistan with F-16 fighter jets and Cobra attack helicopters that were designated for the fight against the Taliban but which are frequently diverted for use in military operations in Balochistan.

Critics accuse government and military chiefs in Islamabad of giving the Taliban free rein in Balochistan. allowing them to act as a proxy second force against the more moderate, secular Baloch national movement.

Armed resistance to Pakistan’s 'neo-colonial' rule has widespread and growing popular support. Nationalists say that 64 years of military occupation and human rights abuses has strengthened the desire for the restoration of full independence.

__________________________________

TO STOP THE CRIMINAL ELITE, WE MUST DO MORE THAN SIMPLY SPEAK ABOUT THE PROTAGONISTS, THE BROTHERHOOD, THE ILLUMINATI, THE UK, USA, GERMANY ETC- WE MUST EDUCATE OURSELVES TO SEE FOR OURSELVES JUST HOW EVIL CAN BE IGNORED BECAUSE THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE...WE MUST FIGHT FOR HUMANITY AS A WHOLE.

STOP THE PERSECUTION OF THE FALUN GONG. -Those who do not know about this - Please read...

1999 to date over 3,000 deaths have been documented, as well as over 63,000 accounts of torture. An estimate of the real figure puts the actual death toll in the tens of thousands.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature. It consists of moral teachings, a meditation, and four gentle exercises that resemble tai-chi and are known in Chinese culture as “qigong.” The latter are a truly unique, and very much enjoyable, way to improve the health and condition of one’s body.

At the core of Falun Gong are the values of truth, compassion, and forbearance (or in Chinese, Zhen, Shan, Ren). Falun Dafa teaches that these are the most fundamental qualities of the universe itself, and takes them to be a guide for daily life and practice. Falun Gong is also known as “Falun Dafa.”

While Falun Gong is practiced openly in the 70-plus countries where it is found, today in its homeland of China it is subject to well-documented egregious human rights violations. The scale and scope of abuses taking place make this possibly the largest religious persecution in the world today

***ORGAN HARVESTING - AN OVERVIEW***

Mounting evidence tells a terrible tale of murder and mutilation in China. Witnesses and Chinese physicians reveal that thousands of persons affiliated with the Falun Gong are being killed for their organs, which are sold and transplanted at enormous profit.

The kidneys, livers, and hearts are often sold on demand to overseas patients, who can afford them. That is, the prisoners of conscience are tissue typed and then killed once a matching recipient is found for their organs.

The perpetrators are officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), acting in cahoots with surgeons, prison authorities, and military officials.

Victims are held in concentrations camps prior to dissection, after which the bodies’ remains are immediately cremated.

The story, almost too dreadful to believe, was first revealed in March 2006, when a woman claimed that as many as 4,000 Falun Gong had been killed for their organs at the hospital in which she had worked. She also said that her husband, a surgeon at the same hospital outside the northeastern city of Shenyang, had disclosed to her that he had removed cornea from the living bodies of 2,000 Falun Gong adherents.

One week later, a Chinese military doctor not only corroborated the woman’s account but claimed such atrocities were taking place in 36 different concentration camps throughout the country. The largest, he said, held 120,000 persons. He said he had also witnessed the Falun Gong being massively transported across the country in cattle trains, at night and under the cover of tight security.

Falun Gong supporters and human rights activists overseas immediately began investigating the allegations. They placed calls to Chinese hospitals pretending to be shopping for a kidney or a liver. To their horror, one doctor after another openly confirmed: We’ve got Falun Gong in stock; just come in and we can get you the organ within a week.

Shocked by these reports, two prominent Canadian human rights lawyers launched their own investigation. Then in July 2006, former Secretary of State for Asia Pacific David Kilgour and Nazi hunter David Matas, published their own 140-page report. It drew “the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true”.

CCP officials are reportedly hastening to destroy all evidence. They have provided monitored tours and removed websites that advertised organs for sale (though not in time, as investigators had already managed to save images of these web pages). One Chinese website had boasted that it can provide matching organs in 1-4 weeks, which medical experts say is impossible unless the Chinese hospitals have access to a huge stock of living organ “donors.”

Shortly after reports of organ harvesting emerged, Party leaders announced new legislation banning use of organs without consent. Over a year later, this law does not appear to have been implemented at all, supporting those who claimed all along that the legislation was nothing more than a public relations stunt.

Throughout the 1990’s, human rights organizations and international media reported the widespread use of executed prisoners’ organs for organ transplants in China. In 2001, a Chinese doctor testified before Congress, saying he had removed corneas and skin from more than 100 executed prisoners, including ones who were still alive.

The Communist Party has now begun employing “execution vans,” which allow for both discrete executions on the go and delivery of fresh organs to hospitals.

Along with Kilgour and Matas, the Committee to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG:http://www.cipfg.org/) has taken the lead in uncovering and exposing the organ atrocities.

****Persecution: Timeline****

1996 - As Falun Gong becomes more popular, early signs of state oppression appear. Shortly after they are named bestsellers, Falun Gong books are banned form publication.

The first major state-run media article criticizing Falun Gong appears in the Guangming Daily on June 17. Mr. Li moves to the United States.

1997 - The Public Security Bureau conducts an investigation into whether Falun Gong should be deemed an “evil cult,” but the investigation concludes: “no evidence found thus far.”

1998-1999 - Police disrupt routine morning Falun Gong exercise sessions in parks and search the homes of Falun Gong adherents who help organize group activities.

Attacks on Falun Gong continue in state-run media. The Falun Gong respond to the critiques by visiting, and sometimes petitioning outside, the local newspaper or television stations in order to explain what Falun Gong is and clear their reputation.

Such events take place in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and other major cities.

Chinese media and government surveys report that at least 70 million people in China practice Falun Gong.

April 1999 - He Zuoxiu, a prominent Marxist-atheist, disparages Falun Gong and qigong in general in a Tianjin college magazine. Local Falun Gong gather in Tianjin, asking the magazine to repair the damage done to their reputation.

Although the gathering is peaceful, on April 23 and 24, riot police is sent, 45 practitioners are arrested and some are beaten. When practitioners ask Tianjin authorities to release those who were arrested, they are told that the orders came from Beijing; if they want to petition, they were told, they must go to the capital.

April 25, 1999 - The following day, on April 25, over 10,000 adherents from Beijing, nearby Tianjin, and other cities in the area gather outside the State Council Office of Petitions in Beijing.

The office is located right next door to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party leaders’ residential compound. In spite of the Party’s later accusation that the Falun Gong “seized” Zhongnanhai, the gathering is actually remarkably peaceful and orderly, with adherents keeping entrances, exits, and footpaths clear – as also reported by Western media.

Adherents request that those arrested in Tianjin be released, that the ban on publishing Falun Gong books be lifted, and that they be able to resume their practice without government interference.

Then-Prime Minister Zhu Rongji meets with Falun Gong representatives in his office. By the end of the day, those arrested in Tianjin are released and the gathering quietly disperses.

Within hours, however, then-Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin opposes Zhu’s assuaging position, and states that if it cannot defeat Falun Gong, the Party will become a “laughing stock.”

June 10, 1999 - Jiang Zemin creates the 6-10 Office, a secret security agency with a mandate to eradicate Falun Gong. Jiang grants it authority over all local levels of police, government, and courts, and the 6-10 Office later becomes the primary tool for arresting, torturing, and killing the Falun Gong.

July 1999 - From the April 25 gathering until mid July, adherents throughout China report being followed and interrogated by plain clothes police officers, as the Party collects lists of adherents and makes final preparations for the ensuing ban.

On July 20, 1999 police begin arresting adherents that they consider to be key organizers. On July 22, 1999 a media blitz commences. Airwaves, television screens, and newspapers columns are filled with attacks on Falun Gong. Sound trucks drive around city streets and college campuses warning people that practicing Falun Gong is now illegal. Among the ban’s stipulations, protesting the ban is also banned.

October 1999 - Falun Gong adherents hold a secret press conference for foreign media in Beijing aiming to expose the persecution they are facing. At the end of the press briefing, participants are arrested. Ms. Ding Yan, one of the adherents who spoke at the press briefing, is later tortured to death in custody. Jiang pushes through legislation that retroactively justifies the ban on Falun Gong.

Winter 1999-2000 - As rounds of arrest continue and the first reports of deaths from torture in custody emerge, the Falun Gong throughout China travel to Beijing to petition their government and appeal to the world for help by meditating or raising banners on Tiananmen Square. The banners often simply say: “Falun Dafa hao” (Falun Dafa is good).

International media repeatedly capture images of police pouncing on people meditating on the square and beating them to the ground before taking them away.

January 2001 - State-run media claim that several Falun Gong practitioners ignited themselves in protests on Tiananmen Square. The so-called self-immolation becomes the centerpiece of the Party’s propaganda against Falun Gong and is used to give credence to what had by then become an increasingly unpopular campaign.

Although most foreign media simply copy-paste the reports from Party mouthpieces Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, the self-immolation incident appears increasingly suspicious, not least because Falun Gong teachings consider suicide a sin. Investigations by the Washington Post and others, most notably slow-motion analysis of the Party’s own video footage, poke hole after hole in the Party’s version of the story and raise alarming questions.

November 20, 2001 - A group of 35 Falun Gong practitioners from 12 different countries gathers on Tiananmen Square to meditate under a banner that reads: “Truth, Compassion, Tolerance” – Falun Gong’s principles. They are arrested and beaten within minutes. Similar protests by foreign Falun Gong practitioners continue in the following months.

March 5, 2002 - Falun Gong practitioners in northeastern Changchun city tap into state-run television broadcasts. They air 45 minutes of video that otherwise cannot be seen in China, including how Falun Gong is practiced freely outside of China yet persecuted in the mainland.

Enraged, Jiang orders police to “shoot to kill” Falun Gong adherents caught posting informational materials. Over three days, the city of Changchun turns into chaos as some 5,000 people are arrested; the number of deaths during those days remains unknown. Of those who participate in the broadcast, several are later tortured to death in custody, including Mr. Liu Chengjun, the subject of an Amnesty International urgent action. Similar overrunning of broadcast signals continues sporadically throughout China in the following years.

November 2002 - Hu Jintao begins officially taking over the leadership from Jiang, although Jiang and his highly-placed supporters who have been wedded to the persecution of Falun Gong – primarily Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Liu Jing, Li Lanqing, and Zeng Qinghong - continue to push the campaign.

July 2004 - The number of documented cases of Falun Gong adherents who died as a result of the persecution, mostly due to torture in custody, reaches 1,000. Estimates place the actual number of deaths at over 10,000 deaths.

November 2004 - The “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” a series of editorials critical of the Party published overseas by The Epoch Times (www.ninecommentaries.com), begins being clandestinely circulated throughout China (www.ninecommentaries.com); tourists bring copies back from Hong Kong, others download them from the Internet or receive them in the mail.

The Nine Commentaries includes a chapter about the persecution of Falun Gong, and sets of a wave of denunciations and withdrawals from the Party and its affiliated organizations throughout China and the Chinese diaspora (see http://www.ninecommentaries.com/).

December 2004 - Prominent human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng in Beijing writes to the National People’s Congress about the persecution of Falun Gong. In the following months Gao’s firm is shut down, he is disbarred, stalked, put under house arrest, and eventually detained – largely because of his outspoken stance on the sensitive Falun Gong issue and because he resigned from the CCP. Attorney Guo Guoting had previously spoken out against the persecution and was subsequently disbarred (Gao Zhisheng book in English A China More Just)

June 2005 - The number of documented cases of Falun Gong adherents killed as a result of the persecution exceeds 2,500.

Former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin and former 6-10 Office policeman Hao Fengjun defect to Australia, smuggling out documents. Chen claims there are 1,000 Chinese spies operating in Australia alone. Hao says he left China after witnessing the torture of a Falun Gong adherent.

March 2006 - A woman who had worked in a Chinese hospital and a Chinese journalist step forward to reveal that Falun Gong practitioners in northeastern Sujiatun are being killed by the thousands for their organs. As evidence from investigation mounts in the following weeks, a Chinese military doctor comes forward to reveal that the atrocities are taking place throughout the country.

July 2006 - Former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour and international human rights attorney David Matas release a report with evidence showing that harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners in China appears more widespread than previously thought. (http://organharvestinvestigation.net/)

March 2007 - The number of documented cases of Falun Gong practitioners in China killed as a result of the persecution surpasses 3,000. Estimates place the number of actual deaths at many times higher.

May 2008 - The Falun Dafa Information Center reports that over 8,000 Falun Gong adherents were reported to have been taken into custody from December 2007 - May 2008 as part of a pre-Olympic campaign of arrests. Several adherents die of torture within days or weeks of being taken into detention, and many others are sentenced to lengthy prison terms