United Kingdom: Proclamation Issued to Honour Falun Gong at the Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Art Exhibition in Ely

On December 14th, 2007, a female resident of Ely who has long been concerned about China's human rights and the persecution of Falun Gong in China, organised the "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance Art Exhibition" in Ely, Cambridgeshire. All the works on display were created by artists who practice Falun Gong. The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Government Office for the Eastern Region as well as the MP for the Ely Area also visited the exhibition in person and jointly signed a proclamation to recognise Falun Gong for bringing physical and mental health to human beings and promoting peace in society.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Government Office for the Eastern Region, the organiser of the exhibition and two Falun Gong practitioners posed for pictures at the exhibition hall

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Government Office for the Eastern Region attentively listen to the introduction given by the organiser of the exhibition

The MP for the Ely Area talks with the organiser of the painting exhibition

The organiser was from Iran; to evade religious persecution, she fled to the U.K. over ten years ago. As a victim of religious persecution, her sentiments were the same as persecuted Chinese Falun Gong practitioners when she learned that they are suffering the Chinese Communist regime's genocidal persecution simply because they believed in the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Over the past years, she has worked very hard to solicit support for putting an end to this disastrous persecution. She told our reporters that she was in tears when viewing the artistic works painted by Falun Gong practitioners, and that she was moved by Falun Gong practitioners' perseverance in staging peaceful petitions. She sincerely hoped that more people were able to view these paintings so as to know the truth about Falun Gong. To date, she has organised this kind of painting exhibition eight times in Cambridge area.

On the run-up to Christmas, government agencies were busy with many activities, but the Chairman and the Vice Chairman as well as the MP of the region still tried their best to make time for visiting the exhibition. Although they had heard of the persecution of Falun Gong in China in the past, when seeing the paintings and further understanding the truth about the persecution, they were very shocked. In particular, when listening to the story narrated by Mr. Jiang an elderly practitioner who just came there from China, about the persecution he personally experienced, they were deeply moved. They also extended their regards and appreciation to this elderly practitioner.

Mr. Jiang used to be a decent farmer suffering from various illnesses, but he regained his health after practicing Falun Gong. After the Chinese Communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested, fined and brainwashed many times because he insisted on practicing Falun Gong and going to Beijing to appeal to the authorities concerned. Moreover, he was persistently harassed by local police and agents from other government agencies that he lived in terror. In addition, a female practitioner who was only thirty three years old and was sent to a brainwashing centre where she was confined was persecuted to death.

During their visit to the exhibition, these two local government officials and the MP of the Ely region asked the practitioners to tell them more about a series of horrendous atrocities the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had committed in history, which were exposed in the Epoch Times newspaper editorial, the "Nine Commentaries on the CCP". They also talked about the on-going atrocity of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. They were worried about Chinaís worsening human right situation at the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Before leaving, they jointly signed a proclamation to honour the contribution Falun Gong has made to improve peopleís mental and physical health and promote peace in society.

That same day, a local religious leader in Ely also visited the exhibition. He said that he had heard of the Chinese Communist regime's religious persecution long ago, as almost every religion's followers have been persecuted in various ways to a certain extent. He strongly condemned all kinds of anti-human persecutions including the persecution of Falun Gong.