Scotland: Falun Gong Practitioner Invited to Attend Human Rights Art Exhibition Sponsored by Amnesty International (Photos)

5/17/2003

(Clearwisdom.net May 17, 2003) On May 9th 2003, a fund raising art exhibition sponsored by Amnesty International and the Scottish Refugee Council was unveiled in Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art. Upon Amnesty International's invitation, Falun Gong practitioner and Chinese traditional painting artist, Ms. Zhang Cuiying, came from Australia just to attend the exhibition.

Perform art painting on the spot	Visitors sign petition letters

About forty artists attended the exhibition. Most of them had suffered persecution in their own countries and thus have deep understandings of human rights and refugee issues. Many of their works depicted suppression and persecution.

Ms. Zhang Cuiying told the audience during the exhibition that she had suffered from severe arthritis and had once lost her ability to paint, but Falun Gong allowed her to recover and resume her art career. After Jiang's regime began persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Zhang went back to China to appeal for Falun Gong but was imprisoned and endured various tortures for eight months. The Australian government's vigorous rescue effort helped her regain her freedom. Ms. Zhang expressed her wish that attendees would also reach out their helping hands to uphold freedom of belief and to support Falun Gong practitioners' freedom.

Ms. Zhang created a painting on the spot for visitors and donated it to the human rights organization. The beauty of Chinese traditional culture and the special artistic conception manifested from the painting was highly praised by visitors.

During the exhibition, Ms. Zhang and three other practitioners demonstrated Falun Gong exercises to the audience. Another practitioner explained to the audience the facts about the persecution and the killing of practitioners in China. After practitioners finished the exercise demonstration, the audience warmly applauded.

The organizer enjoyed the Falun Gong exercises very much and commented, "I need this. It is so relaxed!" She told us that we could leave Falun Gong materials and a petition on a table in the exhibition room. "You can come whenever you want to sit at the table and tell visitors about Falun Gong."

Toby Bond, president of the Amnesty International Glasgow University Chapter stated that AI had collected many petition signatures for Falun Gong and sent them to the Chinese government, calling on them to stop persecuting Falun Gong, and they will continue to collect more.

Amnesty International Scotland director, Ms. Rosemary Burnett said during an interview that the purpose of this art exhibition was to let the people of Glasgow further learn about the human rights issues, to understand those who are forced to leave their motherlands, those who are suffering persecution and those whose lives are at risk. Ms. Burnett said that human rights violation are still very serious in China. China's totality of executed prisoners is the highest in the world. The Chinese government's suppression of freedom of speech is really disappointing. People can even be arrested and imprisoned for spreading normal information over the internet. Falun Gong practitioners are subject to ruthless persecution simply because of their belief, and a large number of people are detained. Amnesty International considers that they are all prisoners of conscience and human right organizations should help and support them.

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