(Minghui.org) On New Year's Eve, Falun Gong practitioners held a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese embassy in Bratislava to protest the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong in China, and to remember those practitioners killed in the 15-year persecution. This symbolic time reminded practitioners to enter the new year with the wish to stop the inhumane persecution still ongoing in China.

The candles lit up a banner with the words “Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice,” which was made when the former Chinese president and head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin personally initiated and escalated the persecution of Falun Gong.

On June 10, 1999, Jiang Zemin established the "610 Office" specifically to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong. It overrides the Chinese Constitution and the law, with absolute power over all political and judicial systems. When Jiang formally launched the persecution on July 20, 1999, he ordered the "610 Office" to carry out a policy of annihilation against Falun Gong practitioners, including the following directives:

“Defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically”“If practitioners are beaten to death, it is nothing and shall be counted as suicide”“Cremate the body directly, no need to identify the person.”[Source: http://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2004/10/25/53799.html]

Since that day, more than 3,844 Falun Gong practitioners in China have been confirmed dead as a result of the persecution, with most having been tortured to death.

According to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), Jiang Zemin ordered the harvesting of organs from living practitioners to ensure their deaths. Fifty-two pieces of evidence gathered by independent investigators David Matas and David Kilgour show that, from 2000 to 2005, almost 41,500 unidentified organs were transplanted in China. The only plausible explanation for the source of those organs is that they came from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.

The practitioners in Bratislava seek to raise awareness of the brutal persecution and hope that Jiang Zemin and other perpetrators will be brought to justice for the atrocities they have committed.