The petition, which is the first of its kind to be organized by Taiwanese students, aims to convey to the PRC State Council and Amnesty International Taiwan’s concern over the rights of college students in China, the student representatives noted.

“On the eve of anniversary of the 2-28 Incident, while Taiwan fortunately has come a long way from political intervention to protecting the rights of its citizens, cases of oppression of Falun Gong practitioners are on the increase in China,” said Chang Ta-shan (*ˆ´óÉ*) of National Tsing Hua University.

Chang noted that “the Chinese authorities have now expanded their Falun Gong crackdown to campuses nationwide. Students of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Northern Jiaotong University have been arrested or sentenced to prison for their spiritual practices.”

The student revealed that to date, an estimated 15 college students in China have been put to death for following the Falun Gong movement.

A total of 12 student followers remained missing after it was discovered that they were Falun Gong practitioners, another 129 students were kidnapped or illegally detained by the administration, and “needless to say, an inestimable number of student followers have been expelled or harassed by school authorities,” he added.

He disclosed that the statistics were obtained from college students in China who had managed to bypass the government’s blockage of information. “ The students leaked the information through the Internet so that people outside of China could know what exactly happened,” Chang told reporters.

A Chinese graduate of Tsinghua University surnamed Zhao, who was at yesterday’s press conference, related his personal experience of being illegally arrested and tortured by China authorities for more than a year.

“I was savagely beaten, subjected to electric shocks and forbidden to sleep for two weeks during a ‘re-education’ process in labor camp for over a year,” Zhao said. Zhao, nevertheless, considered himself lucky compared to other practitioners because the authorities eventually gave in to an international petition and released him.

“With regard to the many without international support, it is impossible to even guess at their whereabouts and how they are being treated,” he said.

The local student representatives yesterday called on Taiwan citizens to support the petition and to give the matter visibility internationally so that the rights of Falun Gong followers in China could be protected.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/02/27/1046307599.htm