Indonesia: Falun Gong Practitioners Commemorate Liu Chengjun in Front of the Chinese Embassy

On January 14, 2003, Falun Gong practitioners in Indonesia gathered outside the Chinese Embassy to hold a memorial for Liu Chengjun, who died as a result of torture for broadcasting documentary videos clarifying the truth about Falun Gong on the cable TV network in Changchun City. They also called for bringing Jiang Zemin and the murderers to justice and stopping the persecution of Falun Gong.

The memorial began at 10:00 a.m. and lasted for three hours. Attending Falun Gong practitioners quietly performed the exercises and sent righteous thoughts. The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious. The activity attracted the attention from the media and people passing by. They were moved at seeing Liu Chengjun's photo with flowers and photos of dozens of practitioners who died of persecution and the photos of Falun Gong practitioners who were brutally tortured in China.

Over a dozen media outlets and a few TV stations covered the activity. Practitioners explained that they were there to commemorate Liu Chengjun and other Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death, demand immediate punishment of the murderers responsible for the death of Liu Chengjun, and call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong immediately.

Since July 1999 when Jiang's regime started the persecution of Falun Gong, more than 800 Falun Gong practitioners are verified to have been tortured to death. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been sentenced to prison or sent to forced labour camps. Many more Falun Gong practitioners are living under tremendous pressure from the persecution. People's basic rights cannot be guaranteed. In conjunction with the persecution campaign, Jiang's regime also manipulated the media to instil lies in people's minds in order to cover up the truth of the persecution. In order to set people free from the deception of the lies, Liu Chengjun and several other Falun Gong practitioners tapped into the cable TV network in Changhun City in March 2002 to broadcast the Falun Gong truth-clarifying programs, enabling many people to learn the true situation of Falun Gong's being slandered and persecuted, and sending big shockwaves over the whole country and abroad. Jiang, who relied on lies to sustain his persecution of Falun Gong, was extremely scared and issued an order to "kill without pardon," which resulted in the arrest of more than 5,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun City. Liu Chengjun is the eighth practitioner to have been tortured to death for this issue.

The practitioners unfolded a large banner reading "Bringing Jiang to justice." A coordinator of the activity said, "We will use the same method to put Jiang on trial, because Jiang cannot shirk his responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong in China."

The coordinator also clarified the case of "Chen Fuzhao who murdered 17 beggars with rat poison" that Jiang's regime recently tried to blame on Falun Gong. He said, "The case is obviously a frame-up, concocted by Jiang to deceive the public, because Falun Gong practitioners who cultivate 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance' would never commit such immoral deeds." This is a common method Jiang's regime often adopts to justify its persecution for example the "Self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square" happened two years ago is a typical example. This time, the Jiang regime's mouthpiece, Xinhua News Agency, had an obvious intention to bring up the murder case of Chen Fuzhao on December 31, 2003, to divert the attention of the media from Liu Chengjun's being tortured to death. Indonesia Falun Gong practitioners demanded that Chinese authorities stop the slander and fabrication against Falun Gong.

The police had a positive attitude towards the activity. One police officer gave a thumbs-up sign to express his support. It rained twice during the three-hour activity, but no practitioners left the site.

The staff in the Chinese Embassy watched the practitioners' activity from the distance.