Ireland: Letter from a Practitioner to a Member of Irish Parliament

RE: Support for Falun Gong

Dear Mr Naughten,

I am a Falun Gong practitioner and am writing in the hope that you can use your voice as public representative to speak out for the practice of Falun Gong, which is being brutally persecuted by the regime in Mainland China.

It would be a great support and benefit to these people who are suffering the most horrendous crimes as we speak in China, if the Irish Government could state explicitly that it does not consider Falun Gong to be a threat to any government or society.

This facts are self-explicit: the practice has received over 700 awards and proclamations for the benefits it brings to society. In fact, the founder of Falun Gong Mr Li Hongzhi is a two-time Noble Peace Prize nominee. Falun Gong is grounded on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Moreover, Mr Li has responded thus to the persecution by the Chinese authorities: “We are not against the government now nor will we be in the future. Other people may treat us badly but we do not treat others badly, nor do we treat people as enemies.”

The Chinese government’s policy towards Falun Gong is one of genocide - all means are being used to eradicate Falun Gong and its adherents. In March 2002, a direct order was given to ‘Kill them without mercy’. This is an extremely urgent matter. To date 565 death cases have been verified. Behind this number are thousands of kindhearted people being brutally tortured, forced out of their work and family, and being forced to drift around china to escape persecution.

In particular, with the upcoming Human Rights convention in Geneva the Irish government has a perfect opportunity to state its position on this issue very clearly.

Today I am writing mainly to give you an overview of the issue in the hope that you will strengthen your resolve to help us to bring about a concrete statement from the Dáil [Irish Parliament] in support of Falun Gong and the human rights of practitioners in China.

I thank you for your time and continued support and look forward to your reply on this urgent matter.

Is mise le meas [Yours sincerely],

[name omitted]