Italy: Remembering the April 25 Appeal at the Rome Chinese Embassy Protest

On 25th April, Falun Gong practitioners in Italy protested near the Chinese Embassy in Rome to commemorate the April 25th appeal and to expose the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 9 years of human rights abuses against Falun Gong. The practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and displayed posters and banners to let passers by know about the persecution their fellow practitioners in China are suffering.

On April 25th 1999, after unjust maltreatment, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners exercised their constitutional right to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong to the State Appeals Office in Beijing. This was one of the largest and the most peaceful civil rights movements in Chinese history since the CCP took power. They peacefully and rationally safeguarded their rights and freedom of religion as Chinese citizens.

After this event the CCP started a wide-scale persecution against Falun Gong. 3,149 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed killed as a result of the persecution, while many thousands more death cases remain unconfirmed due to the CCP's tight control over the details of the persecution.

Witness of the 25th April Appeal 1999 affirm that the CCP called it a "siege" in order to justify the persecution against Falun Gong. "Falun Gong practitioners are cultivating themselves to become better people. They does not deserve to be treated that way," said one of the attendees at the Rome protest. "The practitioners at the appeal site were very peaceful and quiet. Whoever saw that scene would have been touched."