South Africa: Protesting the Persecution of Falun Gong in Durban as South Africa Commemorates Human Rights Day

South Africa observed Human Rights Day on March 21st, 2011. This date marks fifty-one years since the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. On that fateful day, after a day of demonstrations at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 people.

Many local human rights groups held a series activities to mark this date. Falun Gong practitioners in South Africa gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in Durban on March 20th, 2011, to protest the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) eleven years of human rights abuses of Falun Gong practitioners and to call for an immediate end to the persecution. They also wanted to help local Chinese better understand the CCP's true evil nature, and provide them with the opportunity to quit the CCP and its affiliate organisations.

Falun Gong practitioners protest in front of the Chinese Consulate in Durban

On March 21st, 1960, a group of between 5,000 and 7,000 people converged in the town of Sharpeville, 50 km from Johannesburg, the country's largest city, protesting the Pass Laws that the apartheid government used as a tool to control the movement of black South Africans.

The police opened fire on the crowd at 1:00 p.m. that day. Sixty-nine people were killed and 180 wounded. Many were shot in the back as they turned to flee.

After years of struggle, apartheid was abolished in South Africa in March 1992. Nelson Mandela was democratically elected as the first black president of South Africa in 1994. He designated March 21 as Human Rights Day, a public holiday in South Africa.

On this special day full of historical and symbolic meaning, Falun Gong practitioners in South Africa wanted to spread awareness of the human rights abuses taking place in China.

On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong. More than 3400 practitioners are confirmed to have died as a result of the persecution. The atrocities are still ongoing.

Over the past eleven years, practitioners throughout the world have been speaking out about the truth of Falun Gong and exposing the CCP's crimes in a tireless effort to end the persecution. Practitioners in South Africa, made good use of “Human Rights Day” to raise awareness of more people about the persecution so as to end the ongoing castraphe soon.