Physician Arrested for Practicing "Mongol Version of Falun Gong"

June 22, 2006

Chinese authorities arrested Mr. Naguunbilig, a popular ethnic Mongol medical specialist, and his wife Daguulaa on June 7 for practicing what the authorities call "a Mongol version of Falun Gong" and for holding "illegal gatherings," according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center.

Chinese authorities arrested Mr. Naguunbilig, a popular ethnic Mongol medical specialist, and his wife Daguulaa on June 7 for practicing what the authorities call "a Mongol version of Falun Gong" and for holding "illegal gatherings," according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. 41-year-old Naguunbilig is the author of 5 medical books and 11 scholarly papers, and a member of the Chinese Mental Health Society and Chinese Medical Qigong Institute. In 2002, he opened the "Inner Mongolia Aztai Mongol Senior's Health Center," which authorities shut down after his arrest in June. A former employee of the center denied any association with Falun Gong, stating that Mr. Naguunbilig practices "psychological and physical treatment based on the Mongolian medical tradition and European medical science." The Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law entitles minorities to advance both modern and traditional minority medicine. Naguunbilig's lectures on healing were attended by as many as 1,000 ethnic Mongols.

Several of the patients treated at the Center were under surveillance by the Chinese authorities for their association with the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (SMDA), suppressed by police in 1995 for peacefully demonstrating for rights promised Mongols in the national Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law and the Chinese Constitution. SMDA founder Hada and several others were arrested in December 1995. Hada is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence.