Ireland: Speech from Member of European Parliament Patricia MacKenna

This speech was given at Irish practitioners’ activities to commemorate four years of persecution on July 20th 2003.

It’s a great pleasure to be here today and I think one of the things, just listening to Jim Loughlin from Amnesty, that I feel is very important in any kind of democracy is freedom of expression. Freedom of expression in relation to what way you want to live your life. And what is really frightening about the persecution of Falun Gong is how clever the Chinese have been in actually encouraging people in other countries to be wary of Falun Gong. This has been raised in the European Parliament on many occasions in relation to Falun Gong. There seems to be a very clever tactic by the Chinese to more or less label Falun Gong as a cult, to try and frighten people away, to think yes, there must be something there, there has to be something to be wary of. But clearly, and everyone that is involved in Falun Gong knows this, there is nothing to be wary of, there is nothing to be afraid of. But one of the most clever ways of actually ensuring that you don’t get international support is to try and demonise people who you don’t trust, are afraid of or who you don’t agree with and the Chinese have been extremely successful in relation to Falun Gong in doing that. If you look at the number of countries and international governments, there is a lot of accountability in relation to international governments including our own. Why are they not speaking out at every single opportunity at the oppression that is taking place in China, and even outside China in relation to people who are practising Falun Gong?

There is a really worrying aspect to this whole issue in that many governments have basically remained silent and have said nothing. Even our own government here at the time that the Chinese Premier came could have been a lot more outspoken and should have actually raised the issue at the highest level. So should the European Union. I think that more needs to be done within the European Union to raise this issue, to be able to allow people to practise what they wish, to be able to live their life as they wish, and to be able to have the freedom that we enjoy in this country. I think it is up to all governments and all political leaders, both within the European Union, internationally and in China to realise that this must be the way forward.

I would also like to say that in relation to the numbers, just looking at the placards that are up here today, all of these issues are very important and every single one of the points from the first crime to the last. What strikes me most is the amount of resources that the Chinese are actually putting in to combating and to trying to stop Falun Gong. To think that a country, which should be using its money for much more important things, is putting a quarter of its resources into persecuting Falun Gong. This is unacceptable. This is not only a crime in relation to the repression of people, but also a crime in relation to resources of those very same people being used against them. I think it is also up to the international community to raise at every opportunity the issue of human rights in China. We shouldn’t be afraid to do it. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bullied or blackmailed with the issue of trade, money or financial resources or anything else to stay silent. Any democratic government in any democratic country must fight for the people of all countries regardless of where that country is and regardless of what they say; it is important for every government to speak out, that includes our own. I hope that in the future, our government at every opportunity, considering the amount of trade that this country does in connection with China, I think that at every opportunity the issue of Falun Gong and the issue of human rights in general should be brought up. We should not stay silent.

China is an extremely powerful country and if we are to move forward, we need to ensure that people’s rights are protected and that includes those Falun Gong practitioners. And it’s clear that the persecution of Falun Gong is attempting to try to repress and oppress people who are trying to live their lives in the way they wish and also to be able to be free. I think this is very important, so in the interest of freedom, I hope that the end of the persecution of Falun Gong will happen very soon. I think it will with everybody’s support. We all need to ensure that politicians and governments speak out loud and clear at every opportunity.

Thank you.