Mar 14 2005

Liverpool Echo

SUPPORTERS of Chinese meditation practice Falun Gong acted out scenes of torture in Liverpool.

The group collected 1,700 signatures from shoppers on Church Street after the display to highlight persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China.

The display, attended by practitioners from across the UK, lasted for more than three hours.

Simon Gross, 32, a practitioner from Formby, said: "The human rights abuses going on in China against people who practice Falun Gong are inexcusable.

"It is a peaceful practice which has more than 70m practitioners in China.

"But it has been perceived as a threat by the communist government.

"The issue doesn't get much coverage in the UK but every day someone is tortured over there simply for being involved in meditation based on truth and compassion." "The issue doesn't get much coverage in the UK and displays like the one on Saturday are important because they show people what is going on.

"There are currently more than 100,000 practitioners of Falun Gong in forced labor camps in China.

"Thousands of others have been killed. It's something a lot of people feel very passionately about."

Source http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=15292463%26method=full%26siteid=50061-name_page.html