Amnesty International [AI] Invites Falun Gong to take Part in “Stamp out Torture” Theatre Event

Falun Gong practitioners in London were invited to put on a stage show at a “Stamp out Torture” event organized by AI. Lord Moyne made a speech and his wife Sue Guinness-Taylor sang a song. Practitioners also demonstrated the exercises on stage. Although the Falun Gong part of the show was only 15 minutes, it was three-dimensional showing the gentle exercise, the peace, and the evil persecution. Many people said to the practitioners that it was excellent and people were shocked at the persecution of such peaceful people who are merely doing some exercises and reading their books.

Lord Moyne made the following speech:

I would like to thank the “Stamp out Torture” campaign for the opportunity to speak to you all about Falun Gong.

These people are by far the largest single group being subjected globally to torture. The Chinese communists have traditionally always had a very bad record of human rights.[..]. At the moment, anyone who does Falun Gong, like these children on the stage are now doing, is put in jail, and sometimes put in jail indefinitely because very often, when someone should be released, they will give them an extra sentence. The Chinese government looks as though it will change its spots sometimes. In 1993, they actively encouraged the qi gong practitioners under their leader Mr Li Hongzhi. They encouraged them because even a communist government could not object to their principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. But such was a hunger for spirituality among the Chinese under their materialist government, that the Falun Gong became larger even than the communist party.

Then in July 1999 at the stroke of a pen, the government purported to abolish this. This was not possible because the spirituality was too strong. Once they had let that genie, one would have thought, harmless genie, out of the lamp, they could not put it back and since then in increasing desperation they have been jailing, they have been torturing, murdering and they have been putting Falun Gong practitioners in mental homes. These harmless people, that is all they do: doing the exercise and they have 3 books to study. There is nothing subversive in any way about them.

I am going to talk about 4 individual cases. First of all the Canadian-Chinese professor, Zhang Kunlun, a very outstanding artist, who once exhibited in China, now certainly in Canada, who I believed was sentenced for two years and was tortured. He was let out because he was a Canadian citizen. How many Chinese, who are not Canadian citizens, are still in there? Thousands and thousands.

The second is an Australian, again an artist, Zhang Cuiying, an Australian citizen, let out because she is Australian, but of a Chinese family.

The third is perhaps the most horrifying of all, an 8 month-old baby, hung up-side down by his feet and beaten, in order to impress on his mother, who was a practitioner, was killed like this. His mother still obviously did not recant, and she was then killed.

The 4th, and to me personally the most important case, is that of Zhao Ming, a post-graduate student at Trinity College, Dublin, whom I got to know and respect, and who unfortunately and perhaps rashly, went back to visit his family in China for Christmas in 1999, and has been in jail ever since, and has been repeatedly tortured. Now this is the horrifying present regime! There has been an awful lot of torture in the past which we have heard about, but this is happening now and it is happening to a large mass of people. There is pressure, fortunately from many countries. There are many people in many countries who have joined this movement, who are doing this exercise, who are reading the books. Falun Gong will not go away, and that is what has to be underlined to the Chinese communist authorities: they will not go away. And if the authorities continue in this fashion, they will never get Taiwan back, for example, because there are a mass of practitioners in Taiwan. Nearly every country in Europe has its group, including this country, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, there are masses also in America. The genie has got out of the bottle, and it cannot be put back.

The campaign will have its effect, but this must happen, I hope as soon as possible.

21st October 2001
Reported from the UK