Joseph Fitzgerald, Staff Writer

June 30, 2001

WOONSOCKET -- Wearing vivid yellow shirts emblazoned with the words "Falun Gong," a group of young Chinese students passed City Hall on Main Street carrying a banner that read: "Stop the Killing in China." Greeted with quizzical looks from passersby, the students were traveling through Woonsocket on Thursday as part of a nationwide walk from Boston to Washington D.C. to raise awareness regarding China's human rights abuses against practitioners of Falun Gong, a meditation [group] targeted by the Chinese government as a subversive threat since 1999.

"This is a very peaceful protest and our goal is awareness," said Meng Yang-Jian of Boston, one of five Falun Gong practitioners in the group undertaking the 450-mile walk to Washington D.C. where more than a thousand Falun Gong practitioners are expected to gather on July 20.

In one hand, Jian holds a picture of Wang Lixuan, a 30-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, and her 8-month-old-son, Meng, both of whom died in a Chinese labor camp.

According to the Falun Gong Human Rights Update, a weekly newsletter reporting on human rights abuses against Falun Gong, Lixuan and her baby were tortured to death in police custody on Nov. 7, 2000. The coroner's examination revealed that Ms. Wang's neck and skull had been crushed. Her son's ankles had deep bruises presumably from being hung upside down by handcuffs. There were also bruises around his head and blood in his nose.

Falun Gong is an ancient Chinese exercise that improves health, reduces stress and increases energy. The practice involves slow, gentle movements of the body, while teaching the principals of truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance. Similar to Tai Chi and other popular practices, Falun Gong is easy to learn, enjoyable to do and enhances practitioners spiritually, mentally and physically.

Falun Gong was brought to the public in 1992 and became popular through word of mouth due to its many benefits. So far, Falun Gong has attracted over 70 million people around the world. Some people do the exercise alone, while others meet in parks to do the five exercises together.

While Falun Gong has received overwhelming support from the U.S. Congress, other governments and human rights groups, it remains a target of suppression by the [party' name omitted] regime in China.

"The totalitarian government, which rejects freedom of conscience, expression and assembly, groundlessly felt threatened by the growing number of Chinese who regularly do the ancient exercises. This led to the government's crackdown beginning in July of 1999," says a fact sheet prepared by the Falun Dafa Informational Center.

In the past year, the organization says, at least 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, over 10,000 sent to labor camps without trial, hundreds sentenced to prison terms up to 18 years, and more than 1,000 illegally imprisoned in mental hospitals where they suffer through forced injections and psychological torture. To date, more than 200 practitioners have died as a result of police brutality.

"In China there is no way to speak out and our voices can't be heard there," says walker Hao Wang, a high school sophomore from Boston. "This is our way of speaking out for those who can't."

According to Wang, those who practice Falun Gong worldwide, as well as international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, are calling for an open dialogue between the Chinese Government and its citizens who practice Falun Gong.

ŠThe Call 2001

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2025642&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=2 4361&rfi=6

Posting date: 7/2/2001
Original article date: 6/30/2001
Category: News & Media Reports

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