VIPs use 20th Anniversary of Beijing’s Persecution Against Falun Dafa to Demand Freedom for Adherents

The Chinese regime should apologise and release all detained Falun Dafa practitioners, Australian VIPs said at a vigil commemorating the 20th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Dafa at Queensland’s Gold Coast on July 26.

Michael Kaff, who ran as an independent candidate for the seat of McPherson at the 2019 federal election, called on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to apologise and make amends with practitioners it has arbitrarily detained, tortured, organ harvested and killed since July 20, 1999.

CCP should admit persecution was wrong

“Say to move away from Falun Dafa and to repress them was the wrong thing to do [and] say ‘we have done this for 20 years and we are so sorry,’” said Kaff who posted a statement to his Facebook page. “Support those who are practitioners and to embrace it, you need to then have some sort of retribution and payment to those who have suffered and release them from prison.”

Kaff made the remarks at a quiet vigil practitioners organised at the touristic Cavill Mall in the heart of the Surfers Paradise entertainment district. Practitioners held banners, demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises, handed out fliers and collected petition signatures. More than 1000 fliers were handed out within just a few hours.

Onlookers and passerbys at the Falun Dafa stall.

No reason to continue bloodshed

Having experienced the Falun Dafa exercises first-hand, Kaff believes there is no legitimate reason for the Chinese regime to continue persecuting peaceful Falun Dafa practitioners who the regime estimated to total between 70 million and 100 million people in Mainland China alone.

“I know it’s a peaceful, meditation healing practice and they truly are there for the good of themselves and everybody around them,” he said. “It’s a peaceful, wonderful, loving and beautifully energetic practice that helps people and it is so encompassing and it brings people together and why anyone would want to harass or oppress that is way beyond me.”

Persecution is a ‘terrible policy’

Great Australian Party Senate candidate Arjay Martin described the CCP’s decision to initially support Falun Dafa practitioners and later persecute and organ harvest them due to the fast-growing practice’s rising popularity as “terrible”.

“People are being killed for their organs,” said Martin who previously supported practitioners at an election candidates evening back in May. “[CCP-funded institutions] cut them open while they are alive and don’t even have any anaesthetic at all … it’s terrible in itself and terrible where people seen with a healthy lifestyle are particularly targeted.”

As a law student, Martin considers the CCP’s persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners to be a direct breach of article 36 in China’s constitution, which guarantees citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief” and forbids the state and individuals from forcing someone not to believe in any particular faith.

“[The persecution is] a terrible policy and it shows that China just follows what law they want to, whatever suits the person enforcing the law,” he said.

Falun Dafa practitioners talking to visitors.

‘Ban’ aims to disperse people

Martin also questioned the real motive behind the CCP’s so-called ban on Falun Dafa activities when anyone in detention can simply sign a declaration that they renounce their beliefs and be quickly released.

“They want to break them apart, so they are trying to make people break up from a group as opposed to people being bad in themselves,” he said.

Organs removed without permission

Drug Law Reform Australia Senate Candidate Deb Lynch, who is a qualified health professional, believes it is “absolutely disgraceful” that Mainland Chinese health institutions are harvesting the organs of Falun Dafa practitioners.

“They are forcibly incarcerating people and they are organ harvesting from healthy people who have not given their permission, and it is being used to fund goodness knows what,” said Lynch who posted photos from the event on her Facebook page.

Lynch was horrified to hear a Falun Dafa practitioner’s account in a news story on SBS Television that he was never taken to hospital for medical examinations and instead forced to give two vials of blood while detained in Mainland China.

“They were doing tissue typing and trying to match people to unload their [harvested] organs on, [which] is wrong,” she said. “There should be more media coverage about this, there is some media coverage coming through the social media but mainstream media in Australia is very silent about it and I think it is disgraceful.”

Falun Dafa practitioners peacefully hold up banners.

End of persecution cannot come a day too soon

Greens candidate for the seat of Fadden Scott Turner believes the day the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioner ends cannot come a moment too soon.

“Every day more people are taken from their families and tortured, so it can’t come a day too soon,” said Turner who showed his support for practitioners in a Facebook post about the Confucius Institute.

Chinese regime can learn from other nations

When the persecution ends, the Chinese regime should learn from the experiences of other conflict-ravaged countries that have shown good leadership in reconciling with all victims.

“There are some excellent examples in places like South Africa where they had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and people sat down, told their stories, admitted what they had done and, in most cases, they were given an amnesty,” Turner said. “It actually had a very positive social effect [and] people who had been in conflict with each other, or ostracising each other, rebuilt the bonds and society became stronger and grew because of that.”

Practitioners thanked all VIPs for the continued support and solidarity with practitioners on this sombre anniversary.

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