Texas: Practitioners Appeal to Austin City Council to Help Rescue Charles Li

Last Thursday, April 3, 2003, the Austin City Council had a regular wekly meeting. All seven Council members including the Mayor and a mayoral candidate attended the meeting. As the meeting was open to the public, local practitioners took this opportunity to make speeches and appeal concerning the illegal detention of American citizen Charles Li in China. The practitioners also held a press conference in front of the City Hall one hour before the meeting.

Austin is the capital of Texas. It is also a place where President Bush previously served as State Governor. It plays a pivotal role in aspects of economy, culture, and politics. The press conference was very successful. We continually sent righteous thoughts [using upright thoughts to purify oneself and one's surroundings] while clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa to officials in the building, and explained to them why we appeal for Charles Li. All people who listened to us tell stories about Charles Li showed their support for us. They expressed immediately upon hearing the news that they would try all means to rescue Charles Li. Some of them noted the addresses of congressmen and telephone numbers and addresses of governmental departments and expressed that they would write to them to inquire about the situation of Dr. Charles Li, and urge the American government to exert all effort to rescue him.

When practitioners gave speeches at the meeting, all Council members listened attentively. Some of them have shown continued support for Falun Dafa and think the Chinese regime's suppression of Falun Gong is unreasonable and inhumane. Ms. Wang Xiaodan from the Civil Engineering Department of Austin University appealed against the unjust treatment of her father, Mr. Wang Zhiwen, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. A local TV station made a live broadcast of the entire process of the meeting. The practitioners' concerns, and the message of Dr. Charles Li's illegal detention, were conveyed to local people through TV. What moved us most was Mr. Will Wynn, a mayoral candidate, and another council member, Mr. Daryl Slusher, expressed their concerns and decided to write to the federal government to request help for the release of Charles Li and Xiaodan's father.

We expressed our sincere gratitude for the support of the Austin city government and we believe that with the support and appeals from all kind-hearted people of the world, Dr. Charles Li will be released unconditionally. We want to solemnly reiterate our advice to the Chinese government: Those who persecute people who have a sense of conscience and righteous beliefs have never succeeded in history. We hope that they will stop before it is too late, and recover all the bad influence and damage caused in this matter. We will continue exposing Jiang regime's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners both in China and abroad, calling upon more people to work together to stop the inhumane persecution, until the day when Dr. Charles Li and all Falun Gong practitioners who are being detained in China regain their freedom!

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/4/11/48126.html