Belgium: Clarifying the facts at the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion and Belief

From September the 16th to the 18th 2003, a Non-Governmental Organisation called “The Institute of Religion and Public Policy” held an inter-parliamentary conference on human rights and the freedom of religion and belief. Diplomats from thirteen countries and representatives from over ten religious groups and human rights organisations, about a hundred in total, attended the conference; Falun Gong practitioners were also invited to attend.

The purpose of the conference was to discuss international violations of human rights and basic freedom, and in particular violations of freedom of religion and belief, and the issue of conscience. Of course, freedom of expression, religious tolerance, minorities groups, human rights of refugees, and how to promote and protect human rights were also included in the discussion.

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas said in his statement, “To endow people with the freedoms of religion and belief is every nation’s responsibility, and to safeguard basic human rights is also every nation’s responsibility.”

In a statement, Falun Dafa spokesperson Zhang Erping talked about the inhumane persecution that Falun Gong practitioners in China suffer because of their belief. On the subject of Jiang Zemin, who launched this brutal and inhumane persecution, he said, “Some people think that the accused Chinese officials have the privilege of ‘Head of State Immunity’. But human rights lawyers say that people who commit the crimes of torture and genocide are not entitled to the privilege of ‘Head of State Immunity’ on the basis of International Law and the Vienna Convention. To seek common peace, I think you all agree that murderers such as Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and Jiang Zemin should be arrested instead of having the privilege of ‘Head of State Immunity’, otherwise they will do more damage to the human society.”

Regarding those who believe in the lies forged by Jiang’s regime, he said, “Some Chinese people who have been poisoned by the propaganda machine of the Chinese government believe that those victims ‘deserve it’ because they ‘destabilise social security.’ I would like to ask them where their human nature is. When we no longer show sympathy for an old man who has received his son’s urn, after his son was cremated to cover up the police officers’ crimes and who had been unlawfully detained at a labour camp and tortured to death; when we show indifference to a pregnant woman in the sixth month of her pregnancy who was forced to undergo an abortion, I do not know if this kind of person can still be called a human.”

The attendees of the meeting understood the truth about Falun Gong after listening to practitioner’s statement and as a result all of the Falun Gong materials were handed out outside the meeting venue.

Translated from Chinese at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200309/24409.html