02-06-2003

(Clearwisdom.net) On Sunday, 1 June 2003, a Human Rights Rally was successfully held at Town Hall Square in the center of Sydney.

This rally was organized by the "Anti Hong Kong Article 23 Association," in order to strongly raise the awareness that "Exposing Lies, Saving Lives" is a call for the freedom of basic human rights in Hong Kong and China. Many groups were invited and attended the rally, including the Chinese Labor Party, The Federation For A Democratic China (FDC), The Chinese Alliance For Democracy (CAD), World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), Academic Representatives, NSW State government M.L.C's and Falun Gong practitioners.

The rally was hosted by Mr Stephen Sim from Radio 2NBS FM NSW. He explained that the importance of the event was to bring a greater awareness of the facts about China's coverup of the SARS epidemic, the new draconian laws in Hong Kong known as "Article 23," and the former leader of China being globally sued for genocide. These are all matters that China does not want the world to know about.

From the recent SARS epidemic, people have awakened to how the Jiang regime's cover-up endangered the whole world. In addition to killing people globally, it was pointed out that SARS has aggravated Australia's worst trade deficit. We cannot stop the epidemic, but we can stop the lies by exposing them.

Participants wore masks during the event to symbolize the lies and the lack of freedom that cannot be expressed, and called it "Masked by Deception."

After the media event at Town Hall Square, the rally moved to Chinatown, where a forum was conducted in Chinese and Cantonese. At the end of the forum, the practitioners of Falun Gong continued the march to the Sydney Chinese Consulate and held a peaceful appeal. All participants in the rally were invited to accompany the practitioners on the last leg of their journey.

Many media attended the event, including AP, AFP, Reuters, Freelance, The Australian, 2GB, and Chinese media including Epochtimes, NTDTV, Sing Tao Newspaper, Central Association Newspaper, and VOH Radio. Many of the speakers were interviewed by the media.

Over seven thousand flyers explaining the lawsuit against the former Chinese leader were handed out during the event and many people were seen reading these with great interest.

Despite this being the first official day of winter, the importance of this rally to the general public was illustrated by the crowds of passers-by who stopped and listened to the speakers and applauded the freedom of speech and democracy that are enjoyed in Australia.