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Russian Authorities Bow to Chinese Communist Party and Disrupt Falun Gong Practitioners' Activities

Nov. 12, 2007

(Clearwisdom.net) According to the Russian Falun Gong Information Center, in the streets of Moscow, Russian Security and Police forcibly stopped Falun Gong practitioners from protesting against the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocities of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners. They also attempted to prevent the Russian Falun Gong Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference from going ahead as planned.

On the 19th of October 2007, Falun Gong practitioners from all over Russia and from other countries gathered in Moscow to participate in activities to expose the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong and to attend the 2007 Russian Falun Gong Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference. On the 19th of October, practitioners gathered in the streets of Moscow to demand an end to the CCP's atrocities of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners.

Even though the practitioners had gained prior permission from the local government and the event was peaceful, a few dozen police and plainclothes officers showed up and set up barriers to prevent the spectators from getting close to the banners. They also took photos and recorded the event.

When the event organizers showed documents certifying the local government's permission, they were told that the local government was preparing a new decision to cancel the gathering. Thus, the peaceful protest lasted only one out of the originally planned three hours before the Security Bureau and Police demanded an immediate stop, and produced a new decree to cancel the event.

On the same day, the contract with the conference venue was canceled. The manager of the venue informed conference organizers that the Police and Security Bureau demanded they refuse to accommodate the Falun Gong practitioners. He also mentioned that the place was filled with at least forty plainclothes police. Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world who came to Moscow that day were left stranded due to the unreasonable acts of the Russian Security and Police.

Organizers had to find a new venue, but several places canceled within ten minutes of booking, owing invariably to interference by the Security and Police. Apparently, the organizers' telephones were being monitored by the Russian authorities. With painstaking efforts, organizers finally secured a venue for the conference some one hundred miles away from Moscow.

The bus to transport practitioners was followed by the police and was constantly stopped for "routine" checkups by traffic wardens and plainclothes policemen. It took the bus six hours to cover one hundred miles. With no alternative, some practitioners stood in the cold streets of Moscow for a whole night waiting for the bus.

The conference started as planned on the 20th. A lot of uniformed and plainclothesmen gathered at the venue. During the conference, they even walked on to the stage demanding to check identifications, especially of foreigners.

Checking identification is a familiar pattern of human rights abuse by the Russian authorities. In this way they can supply the Chinese Embassy and Russian Customs with blacklists to facilitate the next round of persecution. During the conference, the Russian police illegally deported a practitioner from Ukraine.

The head of the Russian Falun Gong Association said, "The Security Bureau and the Police exceeded their jurisdiction. It was a violation of Falun Gong practitioners' human rights. We are not interested in politics. We do not have any political ambitions. We want to meditate peacefully in parks. However, when our fellow practitioners in China are brutally persecuted, and their organs harvested while they are still alive for huge profits, we feel obligated to expose the crimes of the CCP and its overseas institutions, and to call upon kind people in the world to help stop the atrocities."

Practitioners also said that after the CCP's brutality came to light, kind people all over the world condemned its crimes against humanity. The Russian authorities, on the other hand, acted in a way which aided the persecutors.

The Russian Falun Gong Information Center asks that the Russian authorities, including its Security and Police, stop violating Falun Gong practitioners' human rights and abusing the Russian Constitution in order to curry favor with the CCP. We hope that the Russian authorities can resist pressure from the CCP and its Embassy and Consulates.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200711/42016.html