MAIN POST: Demonstration against mass murder ....

MAIN POST: Demonstration against mass murder of Falun Gong practitioners during activities in the German cities of Wuerzburg and Veitshoechheim
August 5th, 2001

Wuerzburg, Germany (PAT). “Rescue the Falun Gong practitioners in China from certain death!” With this slogan, forty Falun Gong practitioners took to the streets in Wuerzburg. They pointed out the bloody persecution of Chinese adherents to this practice, a persecution that has already lasted more than two years. A Falun Gong practitioner from Heidelberg, Mr. Hubert Koerper, said that the number of deaths of practitioners is climbing dramatically.

At least 263 practitioners have already succumbed to brutal abuse while in custody. Mass murders were carried out in forced labor camps in recent weeks. As Mr. Koerper stated during the event at Wuerzburg’s “Vierroehrenbrunnen” (“four pipes fountain”), over 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and over 20,000 are interned in “Re-education through forced labor” camps since the persecution began in July of 1999.

Mr. Koerper illustrated the gruesome methods by Chinese authorities against the Falun Gong practitioners by citing the example of two men who suffered fatal tortures. These two men were tied behind motorcycles and at high speeds dragged to their deaths. The Heidelberg spokesperson explained that Falun Gong is not an anti-Chinese government action group, but instead is a cultivation practice for body and mind, which has similarities to yoga. This practice has brought health and inner peace to millions of people all over the world.

Falun Gong teaches people, so he says, “to turn toward what is good.” Since there are no membership lists in existence, it is difficult to estimate the number of practitioners in Germany. He presumes there might be 1,500 followers who live by the practice’s tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. In China, in the month of June 2001 alone, fifty Falun Gong practitioners were murdered.

The demonstration in Wuerzburg and two “SOS-events in Veitshoechheim were an attempt to raise the awareness of all “peace-loving people” that the Falun Gong movement has led in a short period of time from persecution of its followers to mass murder of its followers in China. A few weeks ago, police still plied their inhumane actions against human rights behind closed doors. In the meantime, brutal acts are carried out in public, without any scruples.