UK Press Release: First Anniversary of 24 Hour Vigil by Falun Gong practitioners outside the Chinese Embassy

LONDON (EFGIC) Falun Gong practitioners around the UK will come together at 12.30pm on Thursday June 5, 2003 to hold a press conference opposite the Chinese Embassy, Portland Place, W1 at which Lord Thurlow will speak. For one year, UK Falun Gong practitioners have maintained a twenty-four hour peaceful protest opposite the Chinese Embassy to protest at the evil and inhumane treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China by the Chinese regime. Since the start of the 24 hour vigil there have been over 215 death cases that we have been able to verify – the true death total is much higher. In total there have been 720 deaths that we have been able to verify since the start of the persecution on 20 July 1999.

In China, if you hold up a banner in Tiananmen Square saying “Falun Dafa is good”, within just a few seconds, you would be wrestled into a van by awaiting police, detained, beaten and even taken to a labour camp to endure daily torture and violence. The contrast with the UK couldn’t be sharper. Here, Falun Gong practitioners have been able to do more than hold up their banners for a few seconds; on 5 June they will have held up their banners outside the Chinese Embassy for over one year, in an ongoing round-the-clock appeal.

In China, practitioners of Falun Gong have no voice. Every means of appeal has been blocked, and the whole machinery of the entire regime, in the hands of Jiang Zemin, has been brought to bear upon Falun Gong practitioners. One recent shocking story tells how a practitioner was arrested, but refused to cooperate with the police, shouting out to everyone around her about the facts of the persecution and about Falun Gong. Frightened of her voice, the police conspired with a hospital to have her larynx severed. She can no longer speak and is critically ill. Faced with such horrific stories, practitioners here in the UK have felt deeply compelled to use the freedom of expression and belief which we value so much in the West to speak out for those in China whose words cannot reach beyond their prison walls, whose swollen mouths, bloodied by fists and electric batons, have no way to speak of their suffering. Appealing outside the Embassy comes from a heart-felt conviction that the world should know about the terrible crimes of Jiang Zemin against Falun Gong, and that he must be held accountable for them. For nearly four years, the most despicable methods of torture and coercion have been used to try to force practitioners in China to give up their practise, yet with little success; astonishingly these vile means have never been able to overcome the practitioners’ determination to uphold their beliefs and principles. Here in the UK, this year-long 24 hour vigil has also become a demonstration of practitioners’ determination to uphold the most basic of human rights and to expose this brutal persecution.

Robert Gibson, the person who initiated the activity, says: “To maintain a constant presence outside of the Chinese embassy has not been easy, but those of us who regularly go there become only more determined to continue. Come rain or shine, sleet or snow, we will be there - this persecution is wrong and must end.”
Falun Gong is accepted worldwide in over 60 countries except in it’s country of origin, China. Originally valued by the Chinese Government for it’s positive and beneficial effect on society, a study showed the extent of the popularity of Falun Gong which had overtaken the Chinese Communist party in numbers.

This popularity was seen as a threat by the Chinese Government and spearheaded by the then leader of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, a cull was ordered to remove Falun Gong from China. For four years a campaign of lies, deceit and murder has been sanctioned by the Chinese Government against any human being who values the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, universal principles held by anyone who wants to be a good person in society.

The campaign of fear and persecution is not contained in China; Chinese agents have been targeting high level cabinet ministers and governments worldwide to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong and maintain a closed door mentality which has been in place since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

UK practitioners are also involved in a US based lawsuit against the former leader of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin in order to bring an end to the persecution and to say to the world that it is wrong to persecute Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.

Your participation in our press conference would be very much appreciated.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE UK FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE - Peter Jauhal 44 (0) 7739 172 452.