Australian Practitioners Return from Appeal in Tiananmen, Australian Media Give Unprecedented Coverage to the Event

By Melbourne Practitioners

Ten Australian western practitioners were deported back to Australia after a peaceful appeal on Tiananmen Square on March 7, 2002. Seven of them arrived in Melbourne on March 9, 2002 and were warmly welcomed by local practitioners. Many media agencies sent reporters to cover the event.

Despite the long flight, the seven Melbourne practitioners held a press conference at the biggest practice site, Flagstaff Gardens Park, as soon as they arrived in Melbourne. Reporters from ABC, Channel 7, Channel 9, Epoch Times and others attended the press conference.

The peaceful appeal by Australian practitioners echoed with "a magnificent act of mercy" (Look at Things with Righteous Thoughts) of Changchun practitioners, who broadcast Falun Gong truth-clarifying programs to hundreds of thousands of Chinese families. After the program's broadcast, the evil force was greatly frightened. Tiananmen Square was closed for a period of time, while uniformed and plain clothed police were everywhere in Beijing. Visitors were questioned and searched all the time. However with firm belief and righteous thoughts, ten practitioners broke through layers of barriers, successfully arrived at Tiananmen Square and unfurled Dafa banners.

Former Australian Olympian Jan Becker unfurled a banner she made and ran towards other practitioners who had already unfurled their banners. Her banner contained a Falun emblem, the Olympic symbol and "Zhen-Shan-Ren" in Chinese. Becker said that the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong is against the Olympic spirit. Her biggest concern is when the Olympic games are held in Beijing in 2008, how are they going to treat foreign Falun Gong practitioners that attend the games. However, she did not get any response from Chinese officials.

Jan was forced to take off all her clothes and was body searched. "If I do not cooperate, they are going to use violence." She said.

Michael Molnar was punched and kicked in the police van. The policeman said in English, "Teach you a lesson." His wife Candice Molner suffered a broken finger while being pushed into the police van.

When asked whether he regretted taking this trip, Michael said, "I do not regret the trip at all. Compared to what Chinese practitioners suffered, it is nothing. If they appeal like me, what faces them is forced labor camp or jail, even being tortured to death. The trip allowed me to witness Beijing police's cruelty. I will work harder to rescue practitioners being persecuted in China."

Denise Johnson and Stuart Martin are mother and son. They brought with them stickers that read "53 countries in the world over 100 millions of people practice Falun Gong" and once arriving in Beijing they posted and distributed the stickers everywhere. They also made a stamp with Zhen-Shan-Ren in Chinese and stamped the words everywhere they went. They told police who interrogated them that they just wanted to let the deceived Chinese people know that people in other countries are allowed to practice Falun Gong freely.

Marilyn Ford wore the banner "Falun Dafa Hao" she brought back from China. She said, "We have made lots of efforts in Australia. However, the persecution is still going on, women still are raped in forced labor camps, and an infant was killed. Recently police even opened fire on practitioners hanging up Dafa banners. I cannot bear to wear beautiful clothes and go to a party. Hitler once said that all Jews should be killed. Could we let that tragedy happen today in the 21st century?"

In the evening, all major media covered the interviews of practitioners. Australian people have gained more understanding of the truth of Falun Gong through the event. In the last several days, many practitioners received phone calls from readers and viewers, expressing their concern over the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners.

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version