Italian News Agency Report on Falun Gong Demonstration in Florence

(ANSA) Florence, Italy, January 18th, 2002

In Florence today a peaceful event took place in front of the Chinese Consulate. Followers of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, which was banned in China in July of 1999, participated in this event.

A similar event had already taken place in Milan and will take place in Rome tomorrow. The backbone of this campaign are thirty followers of this movement from Taiwan, Italy and also representatives from the Radical Party who are joining their disapproval of the Chinese government’s misuse of human rights against the movement, which was begun in 1992, with those of the demonstrators

This spiritual system claims 100 million followers worldwide, including China. People participate neither in religious nor political activities, but rather live by the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.” "In spite of that," said Italian spokesperson Mr. Alfredo Fava, “350 documented deaths among the practitioners of this system in China have occurred, due to torture, while these people were in police custody.” [Mr. Fava, as you might recall, is the Italian business man with a factory in Shanghai who was denied entry into China last year because he practices Falun Gong’ a move the government later rescinded]. ”Even if there were already 1,600 murdered followers who are mostly women, in the last twenty days alone, 20 more victims have succumbed,” added Mr. Diego Manca, press liaison of the movement in Italy. To give credence to these persecution claims, as proof, the demonstrators in Florence provided several photographs. They waved banners and carried a flower wreath for the 350 murdered victims. The demonstrators further provided a copy of a letter from a woman who was already detained three times, being charged with “disturbing the public order” because she and her husband, who is still incarcerated, are practitioners of this system.

Mr. Massimo Lensi, general advisor to the non-partisan Radical Party underscored the importance [of the disapproval], because, as will become evident, it is necessary in all future dealings, even in politics, with countries like China to include in any dialogue the subject of “democratic conditions,” for instance to provide [open societies] with plans of all prisons, a roster of all the prisoners and political detainees and that one should publicly expose the number of people who participate in these injustices, especially in those countries where the respect for these conditions is absent.

The promoters of this event also performed some of the exercise movements that are part of this meditation system. This took place in front of the [Chinese] Consulate, at the “Place of the Republic,” and during two meetings with the regional council and in the neighbourhood.