Australia: Practitioners Hold Candlelight Vigil to Commemorate Gao Rongrong and a Press Conference to Call for Justice

The murder of Shenyang Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong on June 16, 2005 shocked the world. In the evening of June 22, Sydney practitioners held a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to memorialise Ms. Gao. Practitioners also held a press conference to strongly condemn the CCP's murder of practitioners, and called to severely punish Tang Yubao and Jiang Zhaohua, the prison guards who shocked Ms. Gao's face repeatedly with electric batons, resulting in her severe disfigurement.

Candlelight vigil to memorialise Gao Rongrong	Candlelight vigil to memorialise Gao Rongrong	Press conference calling for punishment of the murderers

John Deller, representative of the New South Wales Falun Dafa Association, talked about the severe torture Ms. Gao was subjected to. On May 7, 2004, at approximately 3:00 p.m., Tang Yubao, the deputy head of the No. 2 Brigade, along with team leader Jiang Zhaohua, summoned Ms. Gao to the duty office and began to torture her by means of electric batons for some 7 hours. Ms. Gao's face was covered with blisters and her hair was matted with pus and blood. So severe were the injuries that she was left disfigured and had difficulty seeing. After the shocking photos of her disfigured face made their way overseas, Ms. Gao's case received great concern and was submitted to related government offices in the U.S. and other nations and presented to the United Nations. On October 5, 2004, Ms. Gao - having recovered sufficiently to be moved - was able to leave the hospital with the help of a small group of friends. As international pressure mounted concerning Gao Rongrong's case, one of China's highest-ranking officials stepped in: Politburo Standing Committee member Luo Gan. Luo proceeded to order the Liaoning Province Chinese Communist Party Political Judiciary Committee, the Procuratorate, the Department of Justice, and the Police Department to conceal any and all information about Ms. Gao's case. On March 6 Ms. Gao was located by police and again arrested. Neither her location nor her condition was revealed to family members until June 12, when they learned that she was being held at Masanjia Hospital. According to Ms. Gao's family, by the time they reached the hospital on June 12, Gao Rongrong had lost consciousness, her organs were atrophying, and she was hooked up to a respirator. They say she was little more than "skin and bones." Ms. Gao was then transferred to China Medical University Hospital, where she died four days later, on June 16.

Despite the fact that the CCP has denied that it had established 610 Office in order to implement the persecution against Falun Gong, Mr. Deller said that Chen Yonglin and another former "610 Office" member who had recently defected to Australia both confirmed the existence of the "610 Office." The two officials also confirmed that the persecution of Falun Gong is very systematic and is very widespread, with suppression and arbitrary killing in China. The CCP has also exported the persecution overseas by creating blacklists, conducting harassment and even paying thugs to carry out violence against practitioners in countries outside of China.

In her speech, practitioner Jane Dai said: "The persecution made me a widow with a baby of just one year old. My husband was persecuted to death four years ago and the killing of practitioners is still ongoing. The death of Ms. Gao has just confirmed this sad fact. I want to take this opportunity to warn all officials who are still participating in the persecution: you should follow what Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun have done, to denounce the CCP and step forward to expose the persecution. I also call upon the Australian government and all Australians to face this unprecedented genocide against innocent civilians and help end this persecution against good people."

Australian citizen Rui Jun said with great sorrow: "My heart was broken when I heard about the death of Gao Rongrong. It reminded of my mother. For refusing to give up her belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," my mother was detained at Qingpu Forced Labour Camp in Shanghai and was subjected to brainwashing and physical torture. The authorities even fabricated a letter of my handwriting, claiming that I returned China and was detained in another labour camp in order to force her to denounce Falun Gong. My mother couldn't bear such a pressure and was on the brink of mental collapse. She was soon found to have cancer, but she was not released until she was in critical condition. The Chinese Consulate in Sydney, however, unreasonably refused to issue me a visa. Even though I am the only child, I could not pay a last visit to my mom."

As three former Chinese CCP officials have in succession defected to Australia recently, and then revealed many shocking details of the CCP's overseas persecution of Falun Gong and dissidents, the Australian mainstream media has started to report on how practitioners have been harassed and threatened. The facts enumerated by practitioners have shocked many kind-hearted Australians.

David Liang narrated how he and eight other practitioners were attacked in South Africa when they were on their way to file a lawsuit against Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong: "We were driving on the highway from the airport to the city. A white passenger car followed us from behind and forced our car to pull over, and thugs in the car then shot at us. My ankles were hit by the bullets. They didn't rob us. The South African police has classified this case as an assassination attempt. I believe that only the CCP would do this, as they wanted to stop us from suing one of its leaders. My experience tells me how evil the CCP is and I have tried my best to tell the public about how the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong. For this very reason, someone recently broke into my house in China and repeatedly slammed my father's head against the wall. My father is now still in the hospital. However, I want to tell the CCP: 'You are so stupid. This only confirms the charges against you by the three officials who have defected.' "

Li Ying, a Mainland practitioner rescued to Australia, told the reporter: "This persecution is among the most brutal and vicious in the history of mankind. However, the CCP has been exhausting all possible resources to cover up its crimes. Consequently, many Chinese people don't know the truth, and many kind-hearted people overseas have been misled by the CCP's propaganda. As they don't know the truth, they can't offer help to practitioners, and the persecution manages to survive. However, as the three former Chinese officials have recently defected to Australia, the curtain of persecution has been torn slightly, so that people can now see the evil nature of the CCP. Though I have been in Australia for a rather short time, I have discovered that Australians are very pure and kind. I believe that more and more people will step forward to condemn and help us stop this persecution once they learn the truth."