Chambersburg Public Opinion PA: Youngsters ride to call attention to torture

By KAREN L. CAMPBELL
Staff writer

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What you can do

For more information, log onto www.faluninfo.net or www.amnesty.org.

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They ride because children are being tied up, burned with cigarettes, forced to stand barefoot in the snow or punched and kicked for expressing their beliefs.

"A lot of people don't know (about the cruelties)," said Kevin Koo, 17. "We want to raise awareness."

The issue to which he wants to raise awareness: the torture being committed on people in China who practice Falun Gong, a movement that combines teaching of meditation and exercises as a method to improve health and moral standards based on truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

Koo, 17, and a group of 11 teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 17, stopped in Chambersburg while en route to Washington, D.C., from Toronto, Canada, on their bikes in hopes of spreading their knowledge to the public.

Their goal is to rescue the lives of children who are persecuted for their beliefs, Koo said.

According to Amnesty International, a human rights organization that has been documenting human rights violations in China for years, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, in July 1999, after seven years of being introduced to the public.

The government, concerned by the large number of followers, including government departments, [...] launched a nationwide propaganda campaign against it.

The Chinese government has implemented its practices to get the followers to renounce their faith.

"It's unimaginable," Koo said. "Here, you have democracy, but in China, they don't have a right to anything. They (police) just throw them in (labor) camps."

In China, more than 14 million children are subjected to the atrocities of torture and death.

"Kids are persecuted just because of their beliefs," said Manny Sandoval, also of Canada.

"We want the public to ask the Chinese government to stop the atrocity because it's out of control and it's scary," Sandoval said. "It's the worst thing a person can go through."

The bikers hope to arrive in Washington on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the start of the persecutions.

Although the youngsters might not change what's happening in China, they hope to speak to government officials to see what could be done.

"All we want is goodness," Sandoval said.

Source http://www.publicopiniononline.com/news/stories/20040717/localnews/861131.html

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