European Human Rights Organisations Commemorate the Fifteenth Anniversary of the "6.4" Incident and Condemn the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners

During the period of time around June the 4th, many organisations held activities calling on people to show concern for China's human rights problems.

On June the 3rd, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) released a report in Paris entitled "Fifteen Years After the '6.4' Event in Tiananmen Square Different Voices Are Still Not Allowed." The infringements of the freedoms of speech, assembly and information are still rampant in China; since the latter half of 1990s, the number of those subjected to labour 're-education' and the death penalty has not decreased. Falun Gong practitioners, followers of Christianity, work union leaders and those who criticise the government on the Internet have been brutally persecuted, the report was cited as saying. Sidiki Kaba, chair of the FIDH, said, "We hold that economic development must go hand in hand with political progress, or the majority of Chinese people will be victimised in the process of development and progress."

The activities held in Stockholm, Sweden on June the 4th in commemoration of the "6.4" incident, once more called on people to pay close attention to the bloody massacre in China fifteen years ago and China's present human rights situation. The General Secretary of the ICPC stated in his article, "On June 4th fifteen years ago, the Chinese Government ordered the army to shoot at those unarmed students, which resulted in the deaths of numerous students who held a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square. Nowadays the Chinese government is still violating human rights. Reporters and democracy activists who dared to tell the truth via the Internet, newspapers, or magazines were arrested and sentenced. Falun Gong practitioners, as well as followers of other religious groups, are deprived of the freedom of belief."

The IGFM and the Laogai Research Foundation jointly released reports and held activities in commemoration of the "6.4" incident, calling on people to express their concern over China's human rights situation.