Friday, March 01, 2002

Firstly I would like to thank Dr Ladyman for organising today's seminar, and to thank all our speakers and everyone else for attending. I would also like to thank sincerely everyone who has given their patronage and support to Friends of Falun Gong Europe, to the cause of helping the campaign to change the Chinese government's attitude towards Falun Gong.

I don't think it is any exaggeration to say that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Jiang Zemin regime is the most serious example of human rights abuse in the world today. So far, 366 practitioners have been killed while in custody, and many more, whose names we do not know, are unaccounted for. Many more thousands have been illegally detained, sent to labour camps without trial or put in mental hospitals for what the Chinese authorities call 're-education' or 'corrective treatment'. Of course we know those expressions are simply euphemisms for torture, both mental and physical.

Recent events in Beijing have added extra poignancy to the situation. Four times western practitioners have used their own money to go there to appeal to the Chinese government to release all practitioners and to stop the torture and killing, 36 western practitioners in November, 3 in January and finally 60 on February 14th. These acts of selfless sacrifice have shown to the world and to the Chinese government that the persecution of Falun Gong is no longer merely a Chinese issue, but a world issue. China now knows that the rest of the world will not sit back and watch as they carry on their brutal persecution.

During the last year, Friends of Falun Gong Europe has encouraged major public figures to become involved in the campaign to end the torture. We have tried to increase public awareness of the plight of the practitioners in China by circulating leaflets, issuing a monthly newsletter, and by writing to institutions, governmental and otherwise, asking for help to put pressure on China. We have made public appeals in various places including Strasbourg, Brussels and outside the Chinese embassy in London.

One thing we in Europe can do is to keep up the economic pressure on China. As you know, China has recently acceded to the WTO, which will allow it to become more integrated into the world economy. China represents to the rest of the world a vast market for new areas of trade never before exploited. Large multi-national companies and international organisations such as the WTO must therefore exert more pressure on the Chinese government by making it plain that their human rights record is totally unacceptable, and that to allow Falun Gong practitioners to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of belief can only enhance China's standing on the world stage, and, furthermore, increase the nation's wealth and prosperity. Falun Gong practitioners, with their principles of 'Truth, Compassion and Forbearance', should be treasured by the government. Jiang Zemin must be made to understand that allowing Falun Gong practitioners to exercise freely can only help the nation to develop both morally and economically.

Whether you believe in Falun Gong or not is not the issue at stake. The issue is that an oppressive regime cannot be allowed to continue its policy of state terrorism against its own citizens. We must do all in our power to stop the killing, stop the torture and stop the persecution.

We need the British government's and all kind people's continuous support and efforts to call upon the Chinese authorities to release Zhao Ming, a student at Trinity College, Dublin; to give Minghui, a two-year old girl and daughter of Falun Gong practitioners, proper citizenship; to release Baolian Zhu, a UK Falun Gong practitioner's sister, who has been illegally given a 4-year sentence in Beijing after refusing to renounce her beliefs.

Friends of Falun Gong Europe