Victim:

1.      Mr. Ling Chunwang, male, 72, Chinese citizen, resident of Sydney, Australia

2.      Ms. Luo Runxiu, female, 66, Chinese citizen, resident of Sydney, Australia

Location:

Chinese Consulate, Sydney, Australia

Mr. Ling Chunwang’s and Ms. Luo Runxiu’s passports

Description:

My name is Ling Chunwang, and my wife’s name is Luo Runxiu. During the middle of 1996, we went to Sydney to visit my son. At that time we started to practice Falun Gong. As a result, our health has tremendously improved. Because the expiration date of our passports was August 18, 2001, we went to the Chinese Consulate in Sydney at the end of July 2001 to renew our passports. The clerk told us to come back and pick up our passports three days later; however, when we returned, instead of handing us our passports, a consul took us into a meeting room. He asked us whether we practiced Falun Gong. He said that we should write a statement that we would give up the practice of Falun Gong. Because we refused, he confiscated our passports.

We have been without passports for the past three years, and have been unable to return to China to see our sons. We tried several times to request the renewal of our passports, but each time the Chinese consulate would ask us to write a statement giving up Falun Gong. The staff did not return our already-expired passports until the end of 2003. In May 2004, the Australian Immigration Bureau requested that we have a physical examination; however, a valid passport was required in order to have the exam. In an attempt to comply with the Immigration Bureau, we returned again to the Chinese consulate to ask for  renewal of our passports. We were again refused and told the passports would not be processed unless we wrote the statement renouncing Falun Gong.