France: On International Human Rights Day Falun Gong Practitioners are Invited to City Hall in Paris to Expose the Persecution

On International Human Rights Day (December 10th) the French Falun Gong Association held an activity in front of City Hall in Paris at the invitation of the French branch of World Organisation Against the Death Penalty (ECPM France). The activity received strong support from the public.

Explaining and demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises	Many people are interested

The rally venue was on the square adjacent to Paris City Hall, the human rights organisations participating in the activity were divided into two groups. The Falun Gong group was on the eastern side of the square near the city hall, and other human rights groups were on the western side of the square.

Children earnestly read the display boards

Banners were displayed, which read “Falun Gong - Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance”, “Bring Jiang, Luo, Liu and Zhou to Justice”, “Rescue Orphaned Falun Gong Children” etc. A practitioner used a megaphone to explain the background of the persecution and also introduced Falun Gong. Other practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises. People in the square were gradually attracted and not willing to leave for a long time.

Please take a look at our leaflets, please help to stop the persecution

More and more people came to learn the facts of the persecution. The activity had not yet finished, but all kinds of leaflets had been distributed to passers-by. People gathered to watch Falun Gong exercise demonstrations and viewed the information on our display boards carefully; many of them signed their names to oppose the evil CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. Even after one hour, our activity finished, there were nearly one hundred Parisian citizens who signed their names on our petition form to support Falun Gong.

Mr. Michel Taube, the spokesman for ECPM France and organiser of this human rights rally was interviewed by the media. While talking about the human rights problems in China, Mr Taube pointed out: “The death penalties in China are 90% of total numbers of the death penalties in the whole world. In China many dissidents are sentenced to death, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners are sentenced to death and executed. The death penalty is therefore is the main point of China’s legal system. This should be strongly condemned. Now more and more organisations, similar to us, go to China to inspect certain aspects, the situation is especially so on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is the time to remind the world people to pay attention to the Chinese human rights issues. International human rights day is also a day for the Chinese people. The Chinese people should regard and firmly believe that, the respect of human rights, the equal opportunity of man and woman, the freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of association, as well as the abolishment of the death penalty, each individual should freely have those rights and be responsible for upholding those rights. These are the principles generally suitable for China, France, US, Africa and all over the world. I deeply believe that, in each Chinese person’s heart, International Human Rights Day should be also a day of celebration for the Chinese people."