Update on Yueli Yang
(Mother of Zhendong Yang, Toronto, Canada)

Provided by Z. Yang dd August 15, 2002

• I received a letter from the Honorable Bill Graham dated May 22, 2002 stating the following:
  

  "We will bring the name of your mother to the attention of the Embassy of Canada in Beijing, and they will enquire with the local authorities. Please be assured that we will continue to make our views known to Chinese authorities."
  

• Falun Gong practitioners in Canada launched a rescue campaign in July for those with relatives in China that have been incarcerated and abused. A number of press conferences were held in Toronto and Ottawa. My mother's case is also mentioned on the list. The CBC has interviewed our representative and broadcasted this issue on 18th July. Additionally, we also started collecting signatures of support from across the country and the international community; all the signatures will be presented to the Canadian Prime Minister, the Honorable Jean Cretien.
  
  
• VOA interviewed me and broadcasted my mother's story to China on 20th July.
  
  
• What I would like to share is that all these efforts have made an impact. My mother has recently been permitted a monthly visit by a friend and she is now allowed to write to me once a month although she may not disclose anything about her life in capitvity.
  
  
• My mother's friend called me on 6th August and shared that the treatment of my mother has improved. She has been moved to a hotel room with air-conditioning to escape from the long lasting heat wave in Beijing last month. The authorities started to ask the people in the labour camp who are over 60 years of age, who have family overseas, with professional titles, and who have higher educational backgrounds to register for filing. My mother is the only one who met all of the aforementioned criteria.
  
  
• Commencing this week, our goal is to visit the offices of MPs and local media in small groups in different cities and towns, to solicit support and increase public awareness of these human rights violations of Falun Gong practitioners in China. I will be going to Ottawa next week.

To add your name to the list of signatures to be presented to Prime Minister Cretien, email DAWN Ontario at dawn@thot.net

Yueli Yang
(Mother of Zhendong Yang, Toronto, Canada)

Yueli Yang, aged 62, was a retired senior engineer. She was arrested on December 7, 2001. On January 17, 2002, she was sent to labor camp and then without further information available. Her family member was informed by friends that she had gone through 8 days hunger strike after being detained. She had been detained in the 2nd division of Tuan He Labor camp, Da Xing County in Beijing 102614 (Tel 86-10-61292950 Mr. Zhang Jingsheng and Tel :010-61294586 leader)

On March 28, she was transferred to Xinan women labor camp Beijing.
(Tel 86-10-6027-5858/6484 leader Majie ,Lijing)