The Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice Founded Yesterday

By World Journal reporters Lin Baoqing and Xu Huimin - Washington, DC - October 1, 2003

The Global CoalitionTo Bring Jiang To Justice was founded on September 30th, the day before Chinese National Day. On that day the Coalition held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. The purpose of the press conference was to call upon all supporters to attend the first public event organized by the Coalition planned for October 6th in New York. What the Coalition hopes to accomplish is to eventually put the former president of China, Jiang Zemin, in the court of conscience, the court of morality, the court of conscience and the court of law where he can be held accountable for the atrocities he has committed, including the massacre of students who appealed for democracy on June 4, 1989, and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Those Falun Gong practitioners who are the main activists within the Coalition pointed out, "the past thirteen years of Jiang Zemin's rule have been filled with violence and deception." Li Dayong, one of the contact persons for the Coalition also pointed out, "we know if these crimes continue and are not stopped, and if we still remain silent when faced with such atrocities and overt destruction of human morals, it's only a matter of time before the same disaster will befall us and the existence of civilization itself will face the most severe challenge."

Wei Jingsheng, a long time democratic activist said, "Although Jiang has been sued in courts all over the world, the current laws may not be enough to bring Jiang to trial. But I believe that even if Jiang can escape the court of law, he will not be able to escape judgment in the court of morals." Mr. Wei also stressed, "What the Coalition is doing holds significant purpose. It sends a strong message and instills a sense of dread in all communist officials that persecute innocent civilians, to limit their unjust actions and to reduce the number of persecutions taking place in mainland China today."

The Coalition currently involves almost one hundred organizations, including the Global Coalition Against Article 23 Legislation, The International Society of Human Rights, the Wei Jingsheng Foundation, the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in the US, and Friends of Falun Gong.

Personal accounts of Jiang's crimes were also given in the press conference. Mr. Chen Gang described his 18 months labor camp sentence for practicing Falun Gong and Mr. Tang Boqiao portrayed the brutal activities that occurred during the Tiananmen Massacre.

(Translated from http://www.grandtrial.org/Chinese/newsdetail.php?id=102)