New York: Prior to the United Nations World Summit, Falun Gong Practitioners Appeal for an End to the Persecution (Photos)

American citizen Liang Xiaofeng lives in Hong Kong. Her mother Yuan Yuju and her elder brother Liang Jinghui were arrested on July 19, 2005 from their family's computer shop in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province. The reason for their arrest was that they practice Falun Gong. On August 17, Yuan Yuju was charged for selling MP3 players with Falun Gong music at the computer shop and distributing Falun Gong flyers. She was sentenced to one year of forced labor and is being detained at Zizhong City's Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Sichuan Province. Liang Jinghui is being detained at Luzhou City Detention Center. The police will not allow the lawyer his family hired to intervene, and refuse to let family members visit him.

Chinese American software engineer Zheng Wenli's parents Zheng Ruihuan and Liu Yinglan were both senior electric power engineers of Jidong Oilfield in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. At noon on July 8, 2005, they were abducted by officers from Zibo National Security Bureau and Binhai Police Department of Shengli Oilfield in Shandong Province. The police also confiscated computer equipment, Falun Dafa books and materials from their home. Zheng Ruihua and his wife Liu Yinglan are still being detained at Shengli Oilfield Detention Center (Binhai Police Department's detention center). They are conducting a hunger strike to protest the illegal persecution.

Appeal for people's concern and an end to the persecution

Overseas Falun Gong practitioners' family members in China are suffering persecution. This is only a small example of the brutal persecution happening in China. In the past six more years, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been sentenced to forced labor, sentenced to prison, forced to receive brainwashing and forced to become homeless. Nearly 3,000 practitioners are verified to have died as a result of the persecution. All this has been covered up by the CCP's lies and propaganda and information blockade.

As the United Nations World Summit is about to convene, Falun Gong practitioners will hold a 72-hour relay hunger strike in hopes of arousing more people's attention and support for stopping the persecution. Falun Gong practitioners also hope to caution Chinese leader Hu Jintao, who is about to come to America, not to continue following Jiang Zemin's persecution policies, but to immediately end the persecution of Falun Gong and release all Falun Gong practitioners who are illegally imprisoned.

Ms. Yeong-ching Foo stated that, but for the appeal of overseas Falun Gong practitioners, and the support and concern from the American people and people from all over the world, she dared not imagine what Charles Li's situation would be like. Charles Li, an American citizen, was sentenced to a lengthy prison terms by the CCP for his belief. Freedom of belief is the foundation for the establishment of the U.S; we should not allow the CCP to go on committing such crimes of trampling upon human rights. As Charles Li is still in prison, we should keep up our efforts until Charles and tens of thousands other Falun Gong practitioners obtain their freedom.

At the press conference, practitioners also read a letter to President Bush from U.S. Congressman Chris Smith. The letter requests that President Bush raise the topic of China's human rights, including the persecution of Falun Gong, when he meets with Hu Jintao.

Several Chinese and Western media outlets attended the press conference and conducted interviews.