(Clearwisdom.net) Currently the 59^th United Nations General Assembly is being held in New York. Eight practitioners from New Zealand went to the UN Headquarters on the morning of September 23 and asked to meet UN Security Council President Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo. A practitioner representative submitted a letter of appeal calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China, along with a list of 2,158 signatures of New Zealanders who support bringing Jiang Zemin to justice. The secretary of the president met the practitioners and said that she would hand over the letter to the president.

Practitioners from New Zealand ask to meet UN Security Council President

Practitioners from New Zealand in front of the UN Headquarters to hand in the appeal document

A spokesperson for the practitioners, Ms. Ding Jiali said, "The secretary of the president met me. She said that she knew about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, and that she was moved since we came from thousands of miles away to hand in a letter. She said that she would transfer the document to the president very soon. She will also convey the voice of the New Zealand people in supporting Falun Gong, calling for an end to the persecution, and bringing Jiang to justice."

Ms. Ding said, "Though we had to prepare quickly, the New Zealand people support us very much. Within ten days, 2,158 signatures were collected. The signature collection is still going on in New Zealand. People signing their names knew that Falun Dafa is great, and said that the persecution must be stopped. They asked us to extend their voices to the United Nations."

Ms. Ding works in Hamilton City Library. Her supervisor approved her two-week yearly leave and specially granted her two more weeks of leave without pay.

Another practitioner, Mr. Shao Li, said that in New Zealand, the people and government support Falun Gong. Practitioners met several times with Minister Phil Goff, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Justice. The minister said that in the past he had mentioned the persecution of Falun Gong when he met Chinese delegations. But the delegations refused to talk about it. However, Chinese delegations currently do not evade talking about Falun Gong.