Speech from Association for Threatened Peoples (Austria): This Persecution Is Completely Irrational and Illogical

The Association for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft fuer bedrohte Voelker) cannot see any logic in persecuting people for practicing Falun Gong - a completely non-political meditation system. The brutality that has been targeted at the practitioners is almost unbelievable: forced labour camps and reformation centres, unimaginably cruel torture methods and many other things. The results after three years of this: tens of thousands incarcerated; many hundreds dead as a result of torture while in police custody.

With such bloody repression China has not only violated Article 36 in her own constitution that specifically guarantees the freedom of belief, but also blatantly disregards basic human rights standards. Falun Gong practitioners are forcibly placed into mental institutions, subjected to "medical" treatment against their will and sentenced to often many years of incarceration in ad hoc trial procedures, all in complete disregard of the rule of law. The question of "why" is prominent in people's minds. This persecution is completely irrational and illogical. Falun Gong is a peaceful meditation practice that, in spite of three years of suppression, continues on its peaceful path and only wishes for a peaceful end to the persecution.
That is what the West is striving for as well. The influence of China reaches beyond her boundaries: in some other Western countries people are bowing to [the Chinese Regime's] influence. Chinese consulates immediately intervene any time people intercede for human rights in China.

It is time to say "NO" unequivocally to China's policies of persecution and suppression: three years of Falun Gong persecution is already way too long!

We in the West have the chance to intercede for human rights in China without fear of incarceration or torture. In China, intervening for human rights means taking a great personal risk. In addition, state propaganda in China is so widespread and prevalent that many Chinese people are not even aware that Falun Gong is welcome abroad!
Department of Human Rights in China
Association for Threatened Peoples

(Original text in German)