Chinese asylum seeker found guilty of murdering Irish postmaster

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/148728.html 

Dublin – A Chinese asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering an Irish postmaster, the Irish Times newspaper reported Tuesday. Shu Shen, 25, had admitted killing Alan Cunniffe, 32, after a robbery at a post office in Kilkenny, south-eastern Ireland in December 2006, but had denied the charge of murder.

The Chinese national shot Cunniffe in the stomach with a modified air pistol after the postmaster chased him following the robbery of 13,000 euros in cash.

Shu Shen claimed he was fleeing persecution in China because of his membership of the Falun Gong religious movement which is banned by Beijing.

However, representatives of Falun Gong in Ireland said they had never heard of him and added that killing is strictly forbidden under Falun Gong.

Shu Shen will be sentenced on Friday.  

Chinese asylum seeker found guilty of murdering Irish postmaster

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/148728.html 

Dublin – A Chinese asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering an Irish postmaster, the Irish Times newspaper reported Tuesday. Shu Shen, 25, had admitted killing Alan Cunniffe, 32, after a robbery at a post office in Kilkenny, south-eastern Ireland in December 2006, but had denied the charge of murder.

The Chinese national shot Cunniffe in the stomach with a modified air pistol after the postmaster chased him following the robbery of 13,000 euros in cash.

Shu Shen claimed he was fleeing persecution in China because of his membership of the Falun Gong religious movement which is banned by Beijing.

However, representatives of Falun Gong in Ireland said they had never heard of him and added that killing is strictly forbidden under Falun Gong.

Shu Shen will be sentenced on Friday.  

Kerre Woodham: Going, going, Gong

http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/200711/t71343.htm For self-proclaimed pacifists, the Falun Gong are pushy little buggers, aren’t they? When they were initially refused permission to take part in the Wellington Santa Parade, they threatened legal action – the grown-ups’ version of holding your breath until you turn blue. The Wellington organisers caved in and members of the Wellington Falun Gong movement pranced around on their float, smiling and waving to the kiddies of the Capital. However, the board members of the Auckland Children’s Christmas Parade Trust are made of sterner stuff than their Wellington counterparts, thank heavens. They’ve told Falun Gong to push off and to take their lawsuits and complaints to the Human Rights Commission with them.

And quite rightly so. I’ve nothing against the Falun Gong people who live in this country. The little shows they put on in Mission Bay now and then are diverting. The people dress in primary-coloured clothing, which is always uplifting, and although they exhibit very bad paintings – a sort of Chinese version of the bare-breasted dusky maiden on black velvet but without the breasts – really, that’s nothing to get terribly exercised about.

Santa rides in on his reindeer-pulled sleigh and waves to the crowds lining the parade route. Photo / Richard Robinson.

But why they want to rain on the Santa parade is beyond me. They claim they just want to entertain the children and have promised they won’t pass out pamphlets promoting their movement and denigrating China.

But they have form. The organiser of the Christmas parade in Dunedin says Falun Gong won’t be taking part this year after what he called dishonesty by the group in 2005.

What are the silly wee things thinking? The Falun Gong has no place in a Santa parade. Why not take a stall at the Chinese lantern festival? Or establish their own parade? The Farmers Santa Parade has been going now for more than 70 years and is a firm fixture on the family calendar. You cannot possibly consider yourself any sort of parent unless you have your Santa parade badge, and the Santa parade may well be the reason families stay together.

Over the years, when my daughter was little and I was on my own, living and working in Auckland, I would take her to the Santa parade and fight my way to the very front to get my girl the best position.

However, no sooner had I staked my claim for the prime possie, than the little one would want to go to the loo. Without a big burly husband to hold your place or to battle through the crowds to get to the minging portaloos, you were stuffed. And then there were the hours standing in one place, keeping the little one entertained until the floats started to come past. And the lifting of the child onto the shoulders. And the dealing with the sugar rush low as we walked the 10km back to where the car was parked.

The Santa parade is definitely one of those occasions for the nuclear family. It is not, however, an occasion for the Falun Gong. And they are doing their cause no end of harm by continuing to press for a place in the parade.

(The New Zealand Herald, Sunday November 25, 2007)

Spiritual group disappointed

http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/200711/t71080.htm

Angry Falun Gong members are meeting in Auckland this afternoon, disappointed at not being allowed to take part in Sunday’s Santa Parade. Chairman of the Auckland parade Michael Barnett is refusing to allow them to take part, because the group cannot assure him they will not hand out pamphlets.

Falun Gong spokesman Jay Zelaya says rather than promoting themselves, the group is more interested in entertaining the crowd. He says these parades are for the public, and the public should ultimately decide.

The Chinese spiritual group was allowed to take part in the Wellington parade on Sunday, after it threatened court action. Organisers of Dunedin’s Santa Parade say Falun Gong will not be taking part. Organiser Malcolm Dodds says after dishonesty by the group in the 2005 parade, they will not be allowed to participate there this year.

The Falun Gong is considering taking up their plight over the Auckland parade with the Human Rights Commission. Spokeswoman Margot MacVicar says they are a peaceful organisation and are being discriminated against.

(NZCity News, November 22, 2007)

Statement on Falun Gong exclusion

http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/200711/t71061.htm

Falun Gong know full well that it did not meet the participation criteria because it refused to assure parade organisers that it would not ambush the fun family Christmas occasion to promote its own political agenda.

In a previous parade Falun Gong distributed images of torture clearly inappropriate and unsuitable for a family occasion.
 
This week trust chairman Michael Barnett received a letter from the group confirming it would not distribute its propaganda if it were allowed in the parade.

Mr Barnett said that despite the sect’s belated assurances, the parade organisers could not accommodate the group with just five days notice.

Mr Barnett met with representatives of Falun Gong and its lawyer Kerry Gore to explain the situation and reinforced the festive nature of the parade and the need to keep it free of politics.

“In our meeting and subsequent conversation with Mr Jay Montana Zelaya the group gave every indication that they understood the scale of the logistics. They acknowledged that the parade takes thousands of hours of planning and that organisers are unable to manage last minute entries into the parade.

“Falun Gong is one of several applications that did not meet the participation criteria and entry deadlines. The group is now using publicity to try and manipulate the rules.

“I thought we had made good progress in the meeting. The group acknowledged the spirit of the event and agreed to apply within the required time frame for next year’s parade.

“I left that meeting believing that that we had reached an understanding that would see the way clear for them to participate in future parades.

“It is disappointing that the conciliatory nature of the discussion has been disregarded in the interest of further point scoring through the media.

“The trust is now convinced that today’s press conference is yet another attempt by the sect to ambush a proud 74 year old Christmas tradition to promote its own political agenda.

“The trustees will not be making any further comment on this issue. Right now all our attention is focused on hosting a successful parade for all of Auckland.”

(Press Release: Auckland Children’s Christmas Parade Trust, Thursday, 22 November 2007)

Some truth that they won’t tell you about Falun Gong

What is FaLun Gong (FLG)? It’s a hard question. Because the creator of FLG, Li Hongzhi, gave us different answers before and after he came to America: In China, he said, “FLG is the only truth of the universe that I discovered.” In America, he said, FLG is part of the ancient Chinese culture. Is it true? Please ask any Chinese people you know if he/she is not a FLGer, the answer will be NO. Who is Li Hongzhi? It’s a hard question too. Because Li Hongzhi gave us different answers about himself before and after he came to America: In China, he said, he is the highest God in the universe. Jesus Christ, Buddha and all other gods are quite a few levels below him. (Hongzhi, Li. “Zhuan Falun”, Vol.2, Chapter 3.) In America, he said to the western media, “I am an ordinary human being.” But, he still keeps telling his followers that he is the number-one god, and all his followers are protected by his “shadow god”, which is kind of a clone of him and there are billions of them. In his own words, “my shadow gods are in every single grain of sand”, so his followers can do whatever they want and not get hurt. (Hongzhi Li, “Zhuan Falun”, Chapter 3.) Is Falun Gong really about exercising? NO. Li Hongzhi demands his followers to believe in his “universal truth.” As Li Hongzhi told his followers: “You are not regular human beings. You are half gods who are on the way to other heavenly worlds to become their gods and lords.” The millions of FLGers are all waiting for the day when the universe ends and they all become real gods. (Ask any FLGer if this is true) The FLGers are willing to do anything that Li Hongzhi says without any question under any circumstances. What did FLGers do in China? FLG tells people that when they get sick, they shouldn’t go to hospital or take any medicine, they should keep practicing FLG (sometimes simply by repeating “Falun Dafa is good”) then the sickness will be gone. This cost quite a number of people’s lives in China. http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/flg_2001_5.htm#1 http://www.minghui.org, note: all those stories on the Chinese version website are neglected on the English version website) FLG didn’t tolerate any criticism and suspicion from the media in China. For dozens of times, thousands of FLGers blocked the newspaper offices or the TV stations who doubted them, demanding for an apology and a promise that the press would never publish or broadcast anything against them. In 1999, more than 10 thousand FLGers surrounded Zhong NanHai (China’s White House), demanding for a criticism-free privilege from the government. In a word, FLG couldn’t tolerate any negative comments, and ironically one of their three major principles is “tolerance.” On their website, there are many stories about how a person who gave negative opinion about FLG was killed by some God and their families were cursed to death. Other things that a FLGer won’t tell you about FLG: FLGers make all their children be FLGers. Go to their website (www.minghui.org), you can find hundreds of stories written by little children about how they saw gods fighting and mercilessly killing “evil spirits” in another space. If those are lies, they’ve never been told what the truth is; if those are hallucinations, its worse! SAVE THE KIDS! FLG believes that one must discard man-woman love to reach YuanMan (to become a god). FLG regards homosexuality as the dirt of human being; Li Hongzhi said that interracial children don’t have a place up in the “heaven (note: the FLG’s heaven).” FLG believes in “the end of the world”, and they are all happily waiting for it, and according to Li Hongzhi, by then everybody who doesn’t believe in FLG will be destroyed (including their souls) FLG doesn’t believe in science, according to Li Hongzhi, modern science and technology are all given to us from aliens. And the aliens control everybody who ever uses a computer. (http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990802/li1.html) What Li Hongzhi said about the genocide that Hitler did to Jews: “all those people who were killed in WWII, all those people who were killed by Hitler, I can tell you, in a word, it’s all brought up by the changing of the universal law.” (Transcribed from his speech) What Li Hongzhi said about SARS in China (2003): “You’ve all seen the plague (SARS) in China, right? It finally came. In human’s words, this is a penalty from the god. What does it come for? We FLGers all know – it came for those, in our FLGers’ words, those people who don’t deserve to be saved, cannot be saved, and even not useful to devils. This is the first round of cleaning. … Just wait to see, this year is a quite a busy year, many things would happen.” (April 20, 2003 in New York Falun Dafa Conference, http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/5/3/49624.html)

Auckland: No parade for Falun Gong

http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/200711/t70744.htm

The man in charge of Auckland’s Santa Parade is determined Falun Gong members will not take part in the event. The Wellington City Council decided to allow members of the Chinese spiritual group to participate in the capital’s parade at the weekend after they threatened court action.

But it will be a different story in Auckland. Chairman of the Santa Parade Trust in the Queen City, Michael Barnett, says the group cannot assure him they will not hand out pamphlets if they are in this Sunday’s parade, so he is not budging. He says the parade is about entertaining children, not propaganda.

Mr Barnett says he is quite happy to sit down with the Human Rights Commission to talk about the issue next year. He had been approached by the Commission about the issue, but says it is too late to do anything before this year’s parade.

Mr Barnett says there is a large representation from China in the parade anyway.

Meanwhile balmy weather conditions saw more than 70,000 thousand people gather in Wellington’s city centre to watch the annual Christmas Parade yesterday afternoon.

(NZPA, November 19, 2007)