Australia: Falun Gong Practitioners Again Appeal for Freedom of Speech to Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs

On May 25, 2005, Falun Gong practitioners from Sydney went to the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Canberra to peacefully appeal to Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other officials. They asked Mr.Downer to stop signing the certificate banning Falun Gong practitioners from appealing outside the Chinese embassy.

The practitioners included Ms. Lisa Liang, younger sister of Falun Gong practitioner Tang Yiwen from China, who was forced into homelessness to escape persecution, and Ms. Esther Wang, an Australian citizen who, with her mother, was just rescued from China. Shortly after they arrived at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the weather became especially sunny.

During a lunch break, practitioners held a brief press conference. On behalf of her mother and herself, Ms. Wang said, "We came to the Foreign Affairs Ministry today to appeal to Minister Downer. We hope he will immediately lift the ban preventing Falun Gong practitioners from displaying banners outside the Chinese embassy calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government."

Ms. Wang went on to say, "My mother was unjustly imprisoned for three years just because she practised Falun Gong and handed out fliers to passersby to expose the facts of the persecution of Falun Gong. She never yielded to the pressure and persisted in her belief. She now lives in Australia. She is astonished and disappointed to learn that a democratic country would surrender to pressure and suppress free speech. She believes that this is an important window to expose the truth, because all the atrocities of the persecution of Falun Gong are being covered up in China and people have no way to know the truth."

Ms. Wang continued, "Falun Gong practitioners believe Mr. Downer has made such a wrong decision because of pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, we hope Mr. Downer will understand that people must uphold and support justice and not surrender to threats and enticements. We ask that Mr. Downer immediately stop signing this unreasonable banning order so that more Chinese people can know the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong in China and help to end the persecution sooner."

Representing practitioners, Ms. Kay Rubacek stated in her speech, "After the June 4th massacre in 1989, the Australian government chose to support the Chinese people, not the CCP government. Regarding the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, we hope that Australia's government will again choose to support the Chinese people, not the evil Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has slaughtered so many innocent and kind people in its history. It has completely lost its conscience. How can it have any dignity? Mr. Downer issued the banning order using the excuse of a foreign minister's dignity. But this decision essentially has damaged the Australian people's dignity. It assists the cover-up of the deeds of a murderer." Ms. Rubacek said Falun Gong practitioners will continue to appeal outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and call for all Australians' attention to this important issue.

Three NGOs--the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in Australia, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and the Australian Human Rights Council--have spoken out and publicly condemned another decision of Foreign Minister Downer. Mr. Downer withdrew an invitation to Falun Gong to meetings between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Australian human rights organisations. PIAC Director Robin Banks claimed that PIAC would decide whether it would accept or accept conditionally the invitation to attend meetings with DFAT based upon Minister Downer's attitude towards freedom of speech. She said that PIAC asked the government to affirm that it will invite Falun Gong to the consultation meetings and stated as clearly as possible that it supported the right to freedom of speech.

The Australian, one of most widely distributed newspapers in Australia, reported this event at great length. With the heading "Kowtowing to China," the newspaper printed a cartoon with Minister Alexander kowtowing to China and a person holding a "Falun Gong" sign being forcibly moved away. Mike Steketee, author of the article, criticised Mr. Downer and the government who handled Falun Gong practitioners' petition, stating that their decision was contrary to Australia's long-held democratic values.

During the lunch break, Falun Gong practitioners handed out leaflets and other materials to embassy staff on their lunch-break. The practitioners said that they were calling for the government and people to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong and to safeguard their basic rights. However, as Falun Dafa practitioners, they knew the importance of moral values to every person and country. What they truly cared about was for people not to yield to short-term benefits and lose their sense of morality, justice and conscience, values that have helped humanity to survive. They believed that, in all their activities to expose the persecution of Falun Gong to people, it was very important to help people distinguish good from evil, and to reinforce the meaning of virtue in their minds.