(Clearwisdom.net) The Colorado Highlands Ranch Herald published an article written by Robyn Lydick on April 27, 2006. It said that during the CCP leader Hu Jintao's visit at the White House, Ms. Sun from Colorado Highlands Ranch protested the persecution of Falun Gong happening in China. In other areas, people can freely do the exercises.

She and several hundred Falun Gong practitioners hope that the practitioners in China may no longer be detained, tortured and even tortured to death for practicing Falun Gong.

The article said that Ms. Sun was deeply concerned about freedom of belief in China. Despite the fact that she, her husband and son live in Highlands Ranch, Sun, a practitioner of Falun Gong, is active in applying pressure to her former country so that other Falun Gong practitioners can do so without the fear of arrest, torture or death.

During a visit with a friend in China 1999, Ms. Sun were arrested from her friend's home by Chinese Communist Party officials.

"They follow every (practitioner) around. We were arrested at midnight in a private apartment. I showed the police my U.S. passport and they finally deported me."

Sun lost her friend's information. She learned in April 2001 that the friend had been tortured to death in a camp in rural China, kept in an underground cell filled with dirty water.

Sun said, "All the officials wanted her to do was sign a form saying truth and compassion was evil, she wouldn't."

So Sun spent last week in passive protest while Hu Jintao, the head of the CCP, was visiting the White House. She sat meditating in the park facing the White House with hundreds of other practitioners from across the country.

"I was holding a sign with a Western woman meditating on one side and a photograph of a Chinese woman after torture" Sun said. "She had her face burned off. The sign also had the day and time she was tortured to death."

Another Falun Gong protester, Dr. Wenyi Wang of New York who arranged for press credentials, was arrested for shouting at Hu during the welcoming ceremony at the White House.

Since 1999, the CCP regime in China has cracked down on "unofficial" religious movements, from Christian churches to Falun Gong, an outgrowth of qigong and Confucian and Buddhist thought.

Practitioners in the United States allege concentration camps where the inmates are used for organ transplantation.

Sun has called herself to inquire about organs for transplant.

"They told me they would match me to a live donor, but they said that after May they would be short of supplies," Sun said. "They match people then kill them. They take the kidneys for one, the eyes for another."

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained in China since the spiritual movement was banned as a "threat to social and political stability" in July 1999. Some have been charged with crimes and sentenced after unfair trials, while others have been sent to labor camps without trial. Many of them are reported to have been tortured or ill-treated in detention and more than 350 Falun Gong practitioners reportedly died in custody between 1999 and 2002.

World of followers

In America, Falun Gong is a multi-ethnic movement. Julia Bani, a German national, began studying the system in Germany, before she moved to Highlands Ranch two years ago.

Always a spiritual searcher into yoga and Eastern philosophies, Bani had a high school classmate who was a Falun Gong practitioner. That young woman introduced Bani to the system.

"My family had a lot of stress. My father was ill, and we had a hard time with it." Bani said.

She began the meditation and exercises immediately and read the founder Li Hongzhi's books, Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong.

Bani said she started seeing physical benefits immediately. "I felt changed." She said. "I had backaches, headaches, I was pale and tired, I'd fall asleep in school all the time. When I started to do these exercises the pain was gone all of a sudden."

Her family conflict lessened as her mother and siblings began to meditate with her. Only her father stayed away.

"I could do much better dealing with my moods," Bani said. "As a family we could not look back and start over again putting those problems behind us. One year of practice goes so fast, so many changes. I learned how important truth, compassion and forbearance are. I'm less angry than before."

Also practicing the movements on a Monday evening at Northridge Recreation Center were a woman from Wales and a Parker woman who was born in Korea.

Practices are held weekly at recreation centers. The day and location vary quarterly. Contact Bani for information.

"Everybody is welcome," Bani said "Everything is free."