Speech by Roger Helmer MEP at a Falun Gong Press Conference in the European Court of Human Rights

On 17 December 2003, European Dafa practitioners held a press conference outside the European Parliament Building in Strasbourg, France. Whilst a meeting took place inside the Parliament building, practitioners submitted a lawsuit against the chief criminals in the persecution of Falun Gong to the European Court of Human Rights. Here is a speech from Member of European Parliament Roger Helmer.

I am a Conservative member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom representing the East Midlands region. Before I became a member of the European Parliament, I had a long career in international businesses including about 12 years in East and Southeast Asia. During that time I lived in Hong Kong for more than a year and have visited Hong Kong many times since then. I also had the pleasure and privilege of visiting mainland China on a few occasions. I am a member of the European Parliament Inter-parliamentary Delegation to ASEAN and Korean. That of course doesn’t include Hong Kong specifically, but does mean that I am in the region every so often.

It is probably worth recalling that I was born in 1944 on the first day of the year of the Monkey, and if you do your arithmetic very quickly you will realise that I am just approaching a very significant and auspicious birthday when I complete my fifth 12-year-cycle and become 60. So I am looking forward to that.

I have followed developments in China and in Hong Kong very closely indeed. I have been speaking to representatives of Falun Gong over the last three or four years. I have been briefed on the sort of persecution that the Chinese practitioners of Falun Gong have faced on the Chinese mainland and I think nobody can hear those stories without being very distressed and saddened, both for the individual suffering of those people and also for the fact that in China there appears to be no freedom to practise religion and no freedom to take an alternative view.

I also followed events very closely in Hong Kong. Only yesterday I had a member of the Hong Kong legislative council Mr James Ho came to see me, and brief me on recent developments. I must say I was amazed to hear the enormous number of Hong Kong people who came out to protest against the proposed change to the Basic Law Article 23 recently. As far as I can see it, it must have been practically 20% of those people within the age group to protest. So, in pro rata terms, it must surely be one of the largest public demonstrations that has ever taken place. And Mr Ho also briefed me on the recent elections, the local elections in Hong Kong, where the Democratic candidate was overwhelmingly successful.

Now it is not my place to take a particular view on particular religious or philosophical points of view. What I am concerned about is the freedom of people throughout the world to practise their religion and indeed to hold their distinctive political view. I am concerned about, for example, the persecution of the Christians in the Malaccans just as I am concerned about the persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners in China. But what would I say now to the Chinese government? I would call upon them first of all in Hong Kong to respect their commitment to the one country two systems way of managing Hong Kong and I would call upon them to respect the democratic views and wishes of the people of Hong Kong. But even more so I would urge them change their attitude in Mainland China and recognise that you cannot run a successful country and a successful economy while not allow people to have their own opinions and their own views, especially when those people present no threat to the established order in any case.

It is not my place to comment on the particular legal case which I know is a great concern today, first because I am not a lawyer and secondly because it is not my business to interfere in the legal system of France or Belgium. But I do have great sympathy for the case that Falun Gong is bringing and I do think that all those who value peace, and freedom democracy should speak up when they see this sort of persecution taking place and cry out for freedom and for respect for human rights. Thank you!