URGENT ACTION NEEDED PeaceLink - computer network - HUMAN RIGHTSVIOLATIONS IN ICELAND!

[info@peace2000.org]

Dear friends,
Please distribute this Press Release to your media list urgently.  Also
kindly publish it to any appropriate websites and mailing lists.  Please
see protest action instructions at bottom:
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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release 13. June 2001.
Issued by the Peace 2000 Institute - www.peace2000.org - Email:
info@peace.is
More Information: Thor Magnusson - Telephone Iceland: +354 557 1000, 552
2000, 896 1252

Icelandair separates a mother from children and refuses her boarding

[Thursday 13 June - New York, USA] - Icelandair have started to
discriminate people based on a black list distributed by the government of
Iceland.  Tourists and visitors to Iceland are being interrogated by
airline staff and policemen to seek out people that practice Falun Gong, a
Buddhist mediation based on ancient Chinese tradition.

The government of Iceland seem to be following orders from Communist China
whose President is to visit the island this week.  Two days ago the
Icelandic police started to conduct mass arrests of people suspected to be
Falun Gong practitioners.  A german citizen was arrested at a bus stop near
Keflavik International airport and policemen have been visiting hotels to
search guest records.  Seventy people were arrested at Keflavik
International airport upon arrival Tuesday and brought to a prison camp
established at former school buildings.  After hundreds of Icelanders
arrived at the camp to surrender to police as Falun Gong supporters, the
government finally released the group of 70 who are of various
nationalities including USA and Canada.

In order to stop peace and human rights activists or anyone suspected to
follow the Buddhist mediation practices of Falun Gong traveling to Iceland,
the Icelandic government has distributed their black list around the world
and instructed Icelandair to refuse boarding to anyone on those lists.
Wednesday a Canadian tourist planning a weekend break in Iceland and
participation in a peace conference organized by the Peace 2000 Institute
in Reykjavik, was taken aside in the transit area of Oslo airport and
refused boarding by an Icelandic policeman.  According to sources at the
airport, the policeman was sent from Reykjavik to Oslo by the immigration
police in Iceland to interrogate Icelandair passengers.  The Canadian was
not on the black list, but still refused boarding the aircraft as a person
traveling with him was said to be on the list.

Wednesday evening, at Kennedy International Airport in New York, a mother
was separated by airline staff from her children, and left behind while her
two children, five and nine years old, were sent on the flight to Iceland.

What's happening in Iceland today is unheard of in the civilized world.
The government of Iceland has taken up methods similar to what the Nazis
used in the last century when discriminating the Jewish population.
Iceland's leading human rights lawyer, Mr. Ragnar Adalsteinsson, has
demanded that the air operators certificate of Icelandair be suspended, as
the airline is participating in serious breaches of Icelandic law.  This
illegal activity of the Icelandic government has lead to massive
demonstrations being organized by various NGO's in Iceland this week.   The
anger these activities are creating amongst the Icelandic public is further
escalated by the fact that the current President of Iceland, Mr. Olafur
Ragnar Grimsson, was previously a peace activist and the president of an
international peace organization.  He is now playing host to the President
of China and seems to be following instructions to the letter by extending
Jiang Cemin persecutions and black lists to Iceland, a country boosting the
oldest democratic assembly on the planet.


Peace 2000 is a non-profit organization with associates in more than 40
countries. Founded 1995 at a town meeting set by the Icelandic Minister for
the Environment with 500 people and speakers from organizations around the
world, including UNESCO, World Court Project and the Chernobyl Childrens
Project. Peace 2000 has been awarded for its Santa aid flights to war torn
areas done under a special permission of the UN Security Council, by the
Gandhi Foundation, UNESCO and the Greek Orthodox Church who decorated its
founder with their Holy Gold Cross for humanitarian work at a ceremony in
memory of Mother Theresa and Princess Diana. Peace 2000 has worked together
with several other charities, including the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.

www.peace2000.org  - Email: info@peace.is  - Telephone: +354 552 2000

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