“The regulations for permits should be applied in an equitable manner and should not discriminate. The same policies that govern the display of political and organizational banners and signs should be applied to the members of the Falun Dafa Association,” Doromal said.
Falun Dafa legal counsel Mark B. Hanson agreed with Doromal’s position and expressed his disappointment with the CNMI government’s unfair treatment of Falun Dafa members on Saipan.
“The circumstances in 2007 were suspect to say the least. Two separate agencies of the commonwealth government independently decided at the same time to give the Falun Dafa a hard time,” Hanson said.
He found it hard to believe that it was a coincidence, particularly given news reports later that year that CNMI officials were promising Chinese government officials that the commonwealth would turn over to Beijing Falun Dafa or Falun Gong practitioners seeking refugee protection in the Northern Marianas.
On Wednesday, Michelle Chen, an international artist and a Falun Dafa member on Saipan, said they still had to get an approval from the Department of Public Lands for application to use a portion of the public land on Banzai Hill in Marpi for their activities.
Chen told Variety that their group had been conducting exercises in the area, but DPL told to cease these activities and to secure a permit first.
The CNMI backed off in 2007, Hanson said, but it remains to be seen whether local officials have decided, again, to deny Falun Dafa practitioners their First Amendment rights to free speech and the right to assemble.
A former Rota teacher now based in Florida, Doromal questioned the sincerity of the CNMI government when it refused to reply to the Open Government Act request of Hanson regarding any agreement between the CNMI and Chinese governments regarding Falun Dafa.
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the request should be addressed to other government agencies as the governor’s office do not have such records.
Doromal said the governor’s office can make the request to other government agencies to determine if they have any agreements with the Chinese government concerning the Falun Dafa.
“This is a legitimate request that should be answered, especially since it is common knowledge worldwide that followers of Falun Dafa (or Falun Gong) are being persecuted in China,” Doromal said.
She said it would be in the best interest of CNMI government to reveal any agreements between the local and Chinese governments.
Reyes said the idea that CNMI government is in collusion with the Chinese government regarding Falun Dafa is preposterous.
Doromal said the recently released U.S. State Department 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices devoted several paragraphs of human right abuses against the Falun Gong.
The group’s sources, she added, estimated that since 1999 at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been sentenced to prison, more than 100,000 practitioners have been sentenced to re-education through labor, and almost 3,000 have died from torture while in custody.
Doromal said last year, the United Nations Committee Against Torture called for an immediate independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners have been “subjected to torture and used for organ transplants.”
