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威特每日新闻:法轮功海外滥诉(中英对照)

作者:Dan Abendschein 李芬 张涤非(编译) · 2008-01-02 来源:凯风网

 

  【美国《威特每日新闻》2007年12月29日,作者:Dan Abendschein】柯汶纳市议会的委员们上个月听取了一项抗辩,这个抗辩对于圣盖博山谷各城市的许多官员来说耳熟能详。一位声称受到迫害的当地法轮功成员李彬(音)正要求市议会通过一项决议以谴责中国政府迫害。

 
  正如大多数人对李的抗辩的反应一样,柯汶纳市长约翰·金(John King)承诺,市议会成员将在后面的会议中进行表决以支持法轮功。两个星期后,市议员沃尔特·艾伦(Walter Allen)引述了法轮功组织创始人对于不同种族间婚姻与生育的谴责,随后,那些支持决议的议员对于该决议的积极性迅速减退。听完对法轮功那些观点的介绍后,议会成员匆匆进行了表决。
 
  市政府文件表明,自从2001年以来,法轮功分子也频频出现在圣盖博山谷各个会议上,试图争取支持决议以反对中国。法轮功成员已经访问了包德温(Baldwin Park)、阿苏萨(Azusa)、拉朋地(La Puente)、阿罕布拉(Alhambra)和柯汶纳(Covina)各县,但波莫纳(Pomona)是唯一已通过谴责中国决议的城市。
 
  法轮功,也称为法轮大法,起源于中国20世纪90年代初,被看作是一个基于佛教教义的健身运动。但它也有宗教色彩,他的创办者谴责同性恋违反自然,并说不同种族将到不同的极乐世界。
 
  法轮功创始人李洪志于1999年逃离中国,当时在中国还有许多练习者。中国官员估计1998年法轮功在中国有4000万修炼者(应为200万,译者注),而据一个法轮功网站称,当时法轮功组织在全世界范围内约有1亿成员。但是,一些地方分会代表说,他们不知道在美国有多少修炼者。加州理工学院法轮功组织发言人李建中(John Li)称法轮功在加州理工学院大约有500个联系成员,但尚不确定在洛杉矶有修炼者。
 
  熟悉李洪志有关讲话和著作的专家们说,自从把美国作为他的组织基地以后,他对一些较具争议的观点已不再提及。加州大学伯克利分校的政治学教授玛丽亚·张(Maria Chang)曾写了一本关于法轮功的书籍。她说:“我的理解是,自1999年以来法轮功学员在北美正试图粉饰自己过去的观点,并试图规范在市民心目中的组织形象。”
 
  法轮功一直专注于培养世界各地各大城市的志愿者和活动家,把诉讼作为一种工具来保护其利益,并不以为耻。
 
  法轮功各地分会已对中国官员侵犯人权提出多项控告。一个亲中报纸《华侨时报》曾提出反法轮功观点。2003年,法轮功为此状告《华侨时报》并声称其犯有诽谤罪,但最终法轮功败诉。法轮功曾被旧金山新年游行拒之门外。随后他们对此提出控告,并威胁要起诉其他声称已采取了反法轮功行动的团体。法轮功成员也一直在积极抗议参加帕萨迪纳市玫瑰花车游行的北京奥运花车。
 
  阿罕布拉市前市长保罗·塔尔博特(Paul Talbot)表示,他已习惯在各市议会会议上看到法轮功成员的不时出现。“这些年来,他们越来越有规律地经常出现。……我们同情他们,但小城市不得参与外交政策。”2000年,塔尔博特曾宣布当地“法轮大法周”。但此后不久,塔尔博特向中国领事馆进行公开道歉,并表示(宣布法轮大法周)并不意味着阿罕布拉市赞同法轮功的观点。当提及此事时,塔尔博特说:“当年我宣告(法轮大法周)时,其实是把太极和法轮功混淆在一起了。我搞不清我陷进去的是什么。”
 
  阿罕布拉的官员也曾被法轮功要求参与2005年中国农历新年大游行的请求弄得焦头烂额。塔尔博特说因为法轮功的政治性质,商会官员拒绝了这一要求。在随后洛杉矶和旧金山的游行中,法轮功也由于同样的理由被拒绝。
 
  法轮功仅在旧金山以受到歧视为由提起诉讼。旧金山湾区法轮功志愿发言人雪莉·张(Sherry Zhang)在提起诉讼时说:“我们只想参与巡游,并不作政治声明。”她辩解法轮功于2004年以法轮大法的名义参与巡游,没有人指责法轮功在游行中的政治行为。虽然张表示他们计划提出上诉,但2月份法轮功败诉。
 
  纽约一个法轮功分会扬言状告一个域名提供商,因为他拥有一个反法轮功网站。
 
  来自旧金山的塞缪尔·罗(Samuel Luo),开通了网站www.exposingthefalungong.org。2005年其域名提供商收到一封信,要求他们透露塞缪尔·罗的身份和联系信息的信件。
 
  信中投诉内容更加侧重于声讨罗的网站内容,而不是提出法律异议。该信声称他在自己的网站上“诽谤”、“非常不道德”,并指责罗“认可对法轮功练习者的非人道待遇和杀害”。他们认为罗在他的网站上使用了术语法轮功,侵犯了他们的商标权。
 
  “他们要我关闭网站,只因为我批评他们。”罗称。于是他向美国公民自由联盟寻求帮助。美国公民自由联盟在给法轮功的回复中称这“显然并没有违反商标法”。
 
  2005年夏天,国际邪教研究协会在西班牙召开一项会议,罗和另一人被邀请在会议上就法轮功进行讨论。但会议召开前几个星期,协会官员告诉罗,他们被迫取消了他的讲话,因为一位代表西班牙法轮功组织的律师威胁要控告他们。律师卡洛斯·伊格莱西亚斯·希门尼斯(Carlos Iglesias Jimenez)在给该协会的信件中写道:“批准、支持,或者信任(中国共产党)关于练习法轮功的宣传、谎言和诽谤的任何行动,本身就是对种族灭绝和酷刑的合作。”
 
  纽约市立大学政治学教授夏明表示,极少有美国人了解法轮功:“政客们可以通过接受一个在中国不受欢迎的政治团体,来达到美化他们自身的目的。这就是为什么法轮功在这里发展顺利的原因。”(完)
 
Falun Gong activists make appeals
 

The Beijing 2008 Olympics float was focused during the 2008 New Year's Day Rose Parade. Tournament of Rose Parade and Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard has resisted the sabotages from Falun Gong. Media presuppose that the failed Falun Gong wouldn't be willing to give up, they would make appeals as usual. According to Whittier Daily News reported on December 29, 2007, they will be lost their lawsuit in the end.

Members of the Covina City Council heard a convincing plea last month familiar to many officials in San Gabriel Valley cities.

Bin Li, a local Falun Gong practitioner who was asking the City Council to pass a resolution condemning the Chinese government's persecution of her group. 

Reacting as most people would to Li's plea, Covina Mayor John King promised council members would vote on a resolution at the following meeting.

Two weeks later, enthusiasm for the resolution faded quickly after Councilman Walter Allen quoted passages from the group's founder that condemned marriage and reproduction between races.

After hearing those ideas, council members hastily voted the resolution down.

In the San Gabriel Valley, Falun Gong activists have appeared at meetings since at least 2001 trying to gain support for resolutions against China, according to city documents.

Baldwin Park, Azusa, La Puente, Alhambra and Covina are among the cities the group has visited, but Pomona is the only city that has passed a resolution condemning China.

John Li, a spokesman for local Falun Gong groups, said his group at Caltech has about 500 associated members, but was unsure how many practitioners there are in L.A. County.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, originated in the early 1990s in China as a health and exercise movement based on Buddhist teachings. But it also has religious overtones with a founder who has condemned homosexuality as "unnatural" and said that different races go to different heavens.

The group's founder, Li Hongzhi, fled the country in 1999, as did many other practitioners.

In 1998, Chinese officials estimated the group had 40million practitioners (Note: two million practitioners in authoritative source) in China, and the Falun Gong estimated its numbers at 100million worldwide, according to a Falun Gong Web site.

However, several regional representatives of the group said they have no idea how many practitioners there are in the United States.

Experts familiar with the speeches and writings of Li Hongzhi say he has dropped references to some of his more controversial views since establishing the United States as his group's home.

"My understanding is that since 1999 the Falun Gong in North America are trying to whitewash their past views and normalize the organization in the eyes of the public," said Maria Chang, a UC Berkeley political science professor who wrote a book on the Falun Gong.

Falun Gong has dedicated volunteers and activists in major cities across the world, and has not been shy about using litigation as a tool to protect its interests.

The group lacks a central national organization, according to Gail Rachlin, a volunteer spokeswoman in the New York organization, and lawyers who have represented Falun Gong groups usually work pro bono.

Local chapters have filed numerous lawsuits against Chinese officials for human-rights violations. They also sued the China Press, a pro-China paper that takes an anti-Falun Gong point of view, claiming defamation, in 2003, but lost.

They have also sued San Francisco after the group wasn't allowed to march in its Chinese New Year's parade and threatened lawsuits against other groups that they say have taken an anti-Falun Gong line.

Group members also have been active in protesting the Bedding Olympic Games float in Pasadena's Rose Parade.

Paul Talbot, the former mayor of Alhambra, said he was accustomed to seeing group members occasionally at City Council meetings.

"Over the years we'd have them show up regularly," said Talbot. "We sympathized, but a little city does not have to step into foreign policy."

Though Alhambra did not pass a resolution, Talbot did declare a Falun Gong week in 2000, honoring a local group that met regularly in the city.

Shortly thereafter, Talbot issued a public apology to the Chinese Consulate and said the city did not mean to endorse the views of the Falun Gong.

When asked to comment, Talbot answered: "I think I actually confused Tab Chi and the Falun Gong when we made the proclamation. ... I had no idea what I was getting into."

Alhambra officials also struggled with what to do about a Falun Gong request to march in a Chinese New Year's parade in 2005.

Chamber of Commerce officials denied the request, said Talbot, because of the political nature of the group.

The same rationale applied to denials of the group's annual request to march in parades in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Only in San Francisco did the group file a lawsuit, which claimed Falun Gong was being discriminated against.

"We just wanted to be in the parade, not to make a political statement," said Sherry Zhang, a volunteer spokeswoman for the Bay Area Falun Gong group that filed the lawsuit.

She noted that the group did participate in the 2004 parade when it applied under the name of "Falun Dafa," an alternate name used by the group. She argued that nobody accused Falun Gong of behaving politically in that parade.

The Falun Gong group lost the lawsuit in February, though Zhang said they plan to file an appeal.

A regional chapter in New York threatened a lawsuit against a domain name provider that hosted an anti-Falun Gong Web site.

Samuel Luo of San Francisco, who runs the Web site www. exposingthefalungong.org, sought help from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2005 after his domain provider received a letter demanding they reveal the identity and contact information of Luo.

The complaint was more focused on denouncing the content of Luo's Web site rather than raising a legal objection.

The letter called his Web site "defamatory" and "highly immoral," and accused Luo of "endorsing the inhumane treatments and killing of Falun Gong practitioners."

Their legal objection, according to the letter, was that Luo had infringed on their trademark by using the term "Falun Gong" on his Web site. That "clearly did not violate trademark law" the ACLU explained in its response to the group.

"They want to shut me down just because I criticize them," said Luo.

In the summer of 2005, Luo and another presenter were set to speak about the Falun Gong at a conference at the International Cultic Studies Association in Spain.

A few weeks before, group officials told Luo they were forced to cancel his speech because a lawyer representing the Falun Gong in Spain threatened to sue them.

"Any action that validates, supports, or gives credence to the (Chinese Communist Party's) propaganda, lies, and defamation about the practice of Falun Gong is in itself collaborating in the genocide and tortures," wrote attorney Carlos Iglesias Jimenez in a letter to the association.

Ming Xia, a political science professor at the City University of New York, said he thought few Americans know much about the Falun Gong.

"Politicians can make themselves look good by taking on a Chinese regime that is unpopular," said Xia. "That is why the Falun Gong have done very well here."

(Whittier Daily News, December 29, 2007)

Original text from: http://www.whittierdailynews.comews/ci_7840130

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