Washington D.C.—Over 3000 Falun Gong practitioners from more than 20 countries marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday July 17. July 20, 2009 will mark the 10th year of the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
The “Divine Land Marching Band,” 150 strong, marched to beats of hope as Falun Gong practitioners in white mourned the deaths of more than 3000 practitioners in China, holding their photos encased in funeral wreaths.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, combined with a set of meditative exercises.
43-year-old Myriam Chaulet from Guadeloupe, France, came to Washington, D.C. with her husband and young son. She came to give support to the millions of practitioners persecuted in China, saying that “10 years is too long.”
By 1999, Falun Gong was practiced by at least 70 million Chinese citizens, according to an official survey by the Sports Ministry at the time. Most learned about the practice through word of mouth.
Veronica Melelli, a 38-year-old structural designer who traveled to the rally from Rome, Italy, was introduced to Falun Gong by a friend in 2004 and began practicing for health benefits. She said that she suffered health problems for many years, but they disappeared in a few months after she took up Falun Gong, she says. She says that the three principles of Falun Gong—truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance—“are really something great.”
On July 20, 1999, the Communist government began a crackdown on the peaceful practice. Motives cited include the popularity of the practice, the attitude of the leader of the regime at the time, Jiang Zemin, who was said to be jealous of the success of Falun Gong, and ideological struggle generally associated with communist authorities.
Mr. Lee Chin Chai from Singapore described the contrast between conditions in China before and after the persecution. He went to China in 1995 and saw practice sites in every park in his neighborhood; this was a contrast to the situation four years later: “When I went to China in September of 1999, you could not freely do the exercises, and even when reading Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Gong], you had to be quiet or your neighbors would report you to the police.” Practice site coordinators and non-locals were followed under very tight surveillance, he said.
The “610 office” (named after the date of creation, June 10) was created by the regime with the goal of eradicating Falun Gong. Under its direction, the state employed all its resources—from media to police and army forces—to persecute practitioners.
Xinying Yu, 35, who began practicing Falun Gong in 1995, personally knows of countless cases of persecution. Prior to July 20, 1999, she joined thousands of practitioners each week at the Wuhan Central Science Academy to do the exercises. After returning from a business trip a few months after the campaign began, however, she found no one at her practice site. Her site coordinator told her she was being watched and her phone was tapped.
In Germany, Yu came into contact with a man who told her he had beaten more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners while working at a forced labor camp. He recounted torture methods used on practitioners in China that “cannot be imagined by people living under the sun.”
Before being released from the labor camp, the former persecutor witnessed Falun Gong practitioners being injected with mentally debilitating drugs which render them unable to act and speak rationally.
In response to the horror of the atrocities, Falun Gong practitioners dressed in their signature bright yellow shirts, marched with banners proclaiming the goodness of Falun Gong, and rallied support for an end to the persecution. They also actively urge Chinese people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Keith Ware, one of the organizers of the event, said that it was very important for America to know what is happening in China beneath the guise of great “financial opportunity.”
Ware said that the success of the Quitting the CCP movement, started by Falun Gong practitioners, “demonstrates to the world that the CCP no longer has a hold on its own people.”
Onlooker Harold Hughes, 57, Minister of Supply at the Federal Trade Commission, said that it’s “disturbing when people can’t practice [their] belief.” He thinks that the media either doesn’t know about the persecution or they are “keeping it quiet because of politics.”
“I see a lot of people with the same belief—that is strong,” he said. He will be praying for those persecuted in China.
With additional reporting by Stephanie Lam.
(All photos: Edward Dai/The Epoch Times)
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