(Clearwisdom.net) City Council of Fairfield, Australia held the last regular meeting of
this year on the evening of December 10, 2002. Falun Gong practitioners were specially invited to
attend the meeting. The mayor was pleased to accept the banner that Falun Gong practitioners
presented to the city council. The city council temporarily decided to discuss the issue that the
Chinese Consulate refused to return the passport of a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner and
unanimously passed a resolution to ask the Australia Foreign Ministry to help getting back the
passport. During the meeting, many council members expressed their support of Falun Gong and the
motion of setting up a stele on which the words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance"
are written. From left to right: The Mayor, Organizers Ms. Wei Huang and Ms. Jiazhen Huang, and Councilman
Watkins In the scheduled agenda of the council meeting, there was no arrangement to discuss the issue of
Falun Gong and it was only arranged for the Falun Gong practitioners to present the banner to the
city council to express their appreciation to the long-term support of the city council. Under the
suggestion of councilman Mr. Robert Watkins, the mayor temporarily decided to make the banner
presentation as the first agenda. Councilman Watkins introduced Falun Gong first. He said, "Cabramatta was the first
Falun Gong practice site in Australia and then Falun Gong spread throughout Australia. Currently,
Falun Gong has spread to over 50 countries in the world. But only in China is Falun Gong being
persecuted." He said that he attended the activity of "World Needs Truthfulness,
Compassion, Forbearance" held on November 30 as a representative of the city mayor, who did not
attend due to health reasons. So he asked Falun Gong practitioners to present the banner on which
"We support Falun Dafa - Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" is written to the city
council. Mr. Watkins said that he received an anonymous email slandering Falun Gong and asking him to stay
away from Falun Gong. He believed it is someone's intentional slander and the person did not dare to
sign the message. He deleted the email right away. He said that he would continue to support Falun
Gong and the establishment of a stele in Cabramatta on which the words of "Truthfulness,
Compassion, Forbearance" are written. Before the end of the meeting, Mr. Watkins proposed to discuss the issue that the Chinese
Consulate withheld the passport of a local resident, Chinese citizen Ms. Jiazhen Huang. The mayor
and another councilman agreed immediately. Ms. Huang is from China and has a working visa. She has her own business. She went to the Chinese
Consulate to apply for an extension of her passport, but the consulate withheld her passport for no
reason. Mr. Watkins said that only because Ms. Huang is a Falun Gong practitioner, China [Jiang's
regime] deprived her basic rights of a Chinese citizen. After discussion, the mayor proposed to write to the minister of the Foreign Ministry and ask him
to get back Ms. Huang's passport through diplomatic channel. At the same time, the mayor will write
letters to the minister of the immigration department and ask him to issue an Australian passport to
Ms. Huang if she cannot get back her Chinese passport. The mayor will also write to Chinese
consulate to condemn its actions of ignoring law and human rights. The resolution was passed unanimously and the meeting ended peacefully. After the meeting, over
half of the council members asked more details about Ms. Huang's current situation. Many council
members said in humor, "The regular meetings of city council have never been so peaceful as
today."
Posting date: 12/16/2002
Original article date: 12/15/2002
Category: Worldwide Support
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2002/12/14/40957.html