Gunnedah residents have been asked to join a world-wide condemnation of the Chinese Communist torture and persecution of practitioners of Falun Gong.

Four [adherents] of Falun Gong were in Gunnedah yesterday, seeking names on a petition calling on the Australian Government to support an international movement to force the Chinese Communist Party to open up concentration and forced labor camps throughout the People's Republic of China.

The petition also calls for the release of all Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong claims that thousands of practitioners are being tortured and killed and subjected to live organ removal for transplants.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice combining gentle exercises, meditation and a moral philosophy stressing the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance and has more than 100 millions devotees in 60 countries.

The Chinese Government is trying to ruthlessly stamp out the practice.

In Gunnedah yesterday, Julia Chan, Kevin Lau and Lin Zeng, all of Sydney, said the Communist Party did not allow any freedom of belief and was determined to obliterate the movement.

Julie Chan said, "The Communist Party fears losing control over people's minds.

"There are more people practicing Falun Gong in China than there are members of the Communist Party.

"Hundreds of thousands of Falun gong practitioners have been detained in prison camps, labor camps and so-called mental hospitals for refusing to denounce Falun Gong. They are beaten, tortured, raped and injected with nerve-damaging drugs."

Julie Chan said evidence has been uncovered that in at least 36 concentration camps in China. Falun Gong practitioners were being subjected to the forced removal of organs, including cornea, kidneys and bone marrow.

"These organs are then sold for transplants and the bodies are cremated to destroy evidence that this is happening."

Julie Chan said there is also evidence that Australians are going to China for organ transplants, quoting Dr. Scott Campbell, from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, who said he knew of "half a dozen" patients who had been there and there was "bound to be significantly more across the country."

The Falun Gong practitioners were accompanied by Amy Xu, who had been forced to flee from Jiangsu Province because of her beliefs.

Amy Xu does not speak English but, according to Julie Chan, she had to leave behind two clothing factories, where she had 80 employees, because she feared for her life.

"One of her workers was seized by the Communist regime and taken to a concentration camp.

"When the police took her, they left behind her eight-month-old baby, which starved to death and was not found until 10 days after her mother has been seized.

"Amy Xu's assets and bank accounts were frozen and she feared that she would be the next one taken, so she fled the country."

Falun Gong is initiating a world-wide human rights movement to bring pressure on the Chinese Government to remove the concentration camps and end the torture and killing of large numbers of people.