Report from Geneva Newspaper Le Courrier: The Falun Gong Association Appeal in Geneva Regarding Persecution in China

Denis Palma, journalist from the Geneva Newspaper “Le Courrier” reported on the Falun Gong Association appeal in Geneva and the Chinese Government’s continuing torture of Falun Gong practitioners:

Some five hundred Falun Gong practitioners petitioned in Geneva yesterday morning. During the opening ceremony of the UN Human Rights Congress they condemned the crackdown against Falun Gong launched by Mainland China. Falun Gong practitioners gathered in front of the Geneva-based U.N Headquarters. They held aloft banners and proclaimed that China exerted cruel penalties and beat their fellow practitioners to death.

Originating from the Chinese historical tradition, Falun Gong is a meditation and great cultivation way. Some people say that Falun Gong has strict teachings, but followers consider them a source that benefits them enormously.

After the Chinese authorities announced a crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999, plenty of human rights observers confirmed that there were Falun Gong practitioners who died during their detention.

According to Amnesty International, most arrested Falun Gong practitioners were sent to labour camps without charge. In addition some practitioners were sentenced to eighteen years in prison and some were detained in psychiatric hospitals. According to our information sources, 700 plus practitioners have died due to brutal torture and other appalling abuses.

Over 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners are still being held in labour camps. However, Amnesty International does not emphasise these figures because they do not have detailed data about these victims. It is necessary to point out that as one of the twenty-five members of the U.N. Human Rights Committee, China has not yet ratified the U.N. Human Rights Charter.