Philadelphia: Practitioners Hold Press Conference In Front of "Liberty Bell" Asking to Bring Murderer to Justice (Photo)

(Clearwisdom.net) It was raining like the sky was crying for hero Liu Chengjun. The metro Philadelphia area Falun Gong practitioners held a press conference at noon on January 4 2003 in front of the "Liberty Bell" (which represents America's spirit of freedom) to commemorate Changchun practitioner Liu Chengjun who was tortured to death in custody for his courageous tapping into cable TV network to broadcast the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong. Practitioners call on all people to help to end the persecution against "Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance", support practitioners' appeals and to ask that the murderers be brought to justice.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime started the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They have mobilized state-run media, including TV station, radio station, newspaper, magazine and the Internet to fabricate lies to defame Falun Gong, disregarding hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners' unceasingly clarifying the facts. Countless people have been deceived by the false news and witnesses.

Considering the fact that lies prevail in China, Falun Gong practitioner Liu Chengjun and several other practitioners tapped into the cable TV signals in Changchun City to broadcast the truth about Falun Gong to tens of thousands of TV viewers in March 2002, breaking through Jiang regime's information blockade of the truth about Falun Gong. They safeguard the Chinese people's right to know the truth, allowing them to find out the facts of the persecution of innocent people who follow the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."

The police then carried out a mass arrest in Changchun. About 5,000 practitioners were illegally arrested, detained and suffered physical and mental torment to different extents. Eight of them were tortured to death in succession. More than a hundred practitioners who were detained in Jilin Prison, including Mr. Liu Chengjun, once held a hunger strike to protest for their basic right of livelihood.

Perhaps Liu Chengjun's act of tapping into the Chinese state-run TV network appears extreme to those of us living in an open and free democracy. However, his act should be understood in the context of a persecution which has been fuelled by a massive anti-Falun Gong propaganda campaign by the state-controlled media. In a society where every piece of news is tightly controlled and censored, we can begin to understand why such steps are necessary and more than justified.

Jiang Zemin ordered the Chinese media to incite hatred of Falun Gong practitioners with an endless barrage of fabrications and slander, and to block the truth from being broadcast. As a result, millions of people in China have been dragged into persecuting their own countrymen, or tricked into turning a blind-eye to the brutalities. They have been deceived into believing they are combating an "evil cult," when in fact, they are persecuting innocent people for their belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." The persecution is based entirely on lies and deceit, and the media in China has gone to such lengths that it is guilty of inciting genocide. If the public in China could know the truth, the persecution would collapse. From this perspective, Liu Chengjun's act was one of great humanity. It is a tragedy that he had to pay with his life for his courage.

After the press conference, the practitioners paraded to Chinatown with banners "Commemorate Liu Chengjun, Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice" and "Punish the Changchun Police Murderer" and clarified the truth to passersby. One Chinese said, "(Jiang) persecuted Falun Gong is too bad." He said the Chinese government should learn the truth earlier. Persecuting Falun Gong at any price was not acceptable.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/1/6/64181.html

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