Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong said yesterday it would file charges of human rights violations under international law in SA against China’s communist leaders.
This follows a two-day visit to SA by Chinese Vice-President Qinghong Zeng. The planned action is part of a strategy to prevent future visits to SA of senior Chinese public figures.
The movement, which says that it is also a pro-democracy group, is waging an international campaign to expose China’s alleged “extensive and severe” human rights violations against millions of practitioners of their spiritual lifestyle.
As a result, it has filed similar charges in 14 other countries including the UK , US , Spain, Germany Switzerland, Australia and Iceland.
The group’s protest in SA during Zeng’s visit was marred by an alleged attempted assassination of five of their members, when the vehicle carrying them from Johannesburg International Airport was shot at and forced off the road on Monday, leaving the driver seriously wounded.
Grant Lu, who survived the alleged attack, said yesterday that they found it strange that after their assailants had shot at and forced their car to stop on the way from Johannesburg International Airport on Monday there was no attempt to rob them.
The Chinese embassy in SA yesterday rejected claims its government was behind the attack.
Sen Supt Selby Bokaba said the police were investigating a case of attempted murder.
He said it had also been established that on the way from the airport the men took the N1 south to Bloemfontein instead of taking the N1 north.