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| Voices of Support: Non-Governmental Organizations |
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T.
Kumar, Amnesty International USA's Advocacy Director
for Asia and the Pacific
This movement is not a political movement. This
is average citizens of China who are exercising
their fundamental rights. They've never done any
harm to other people...It's time the Chinese government
opened up, take this as an issue that is fundemental
to their country at large, and move forward with
dignity. In that sense, as a human rights organization,
we are demanding and urging the Chinese government
to release all the prisoners who are imprisoned
for the practice of Falun Gong |
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 Ambassador
Mark Palmer, board member, Friends of Falun
Gong
USA
excerpted from a speech at
a rally in support of Falun Gong, July 19, 2001
Let the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the world’s
100 democracies tell Jiang Zemin that he must personally
stop this barbarism or be held personally accountable
– as Milosevic is now being held accountable
for his crimes against humanity. Let the world’s
religious leaders unite in demanding tolerance for
all believers in China. Let men and women of goodwill
everywhere find their own ways to bear witness,
to say “I too am Falun Gong”. This, the
largest non-violent movement since Gandhi in India,
must say in words once spoken in this city “We
shall overcome”. And like Mahatma Gandhi and
Dr. King, and Solidarity in Poland and the ANC in
South Africa, this just cause will triumph. |
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Dr.
Abraham Halpern, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry,
New York Medical College; board member, Friends
of Falun Gong USA
excerpted from a speech at
a rally in support of Falun Gong, July 19, 2001
We are gathered here together today to give witness
to the brutal persecution of the innocent Falun Gong
practitioners in China, and to demand with one voice
that this must stop. Every feature of this persecution
is abhorrent. However, there is a special horror in
the way in which the Chinese government has perverted
psychiatry by making it into a tool of political terror.
Psychiatry in China has become a means of punishing
people simply because of what they believe, and of
trying to extinguish from the minds and hearts of
practitioners the beliefs the state otherwise cannot
change. |
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Nina
Shea, Director, Center for Religious Freedom,
Freedom
House
excerpted from a speech at a rally in support
of Falun Gong, July 23, 2002
We...are particularly shocked
and outraged by what China is doing to Falun Gong.
China began its severe persecution three years ago
and continues it unabated today. Hundred thousand
some prisoners, hundreds killed, thousands in psychiatric
institutes. In documents from the top levels of
the Chinese government that were leaked to the West
this past winter, we saw the declaration that Falun
Gong is China’s number one public enemy. This
is outrageous and must stop. |
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Michael
Horowitz, Director, Project for Civil Justice
Reform;
Director, Project for International Religious Liberty;
Senior Fellow, The Hudson Institute
excerpted from a statement
at a rally in support of Falun Gong, July 23, 2002
II think it is also important for you to know, that
your bravery, your hopes carry with them so much
more beyond the needs of your own faith. As you
are a witness for freedom in the face of tyranny,
you fight for and bring freedom and hope to the
Bahais in Iran, to the Animates in Sudan, to the
Christians in Indonesia. You help build a world
which will be free of the rivers of blood that characterize
the 21th century. And you help build a world that
will be worthy and a good place for my children
and grandchildren. |
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Rabbi
David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action
Center
for Reform Judaism
excerpted from a statement
at a rally in support of Falun Gong, July 23, 2002
Tragically, over many centuries, we Jews have been
among the quintessential victims of religious persecution,
precisely because, in the face of the oppression
and degradations visited upon us, good people stood
by silently and let it happen. We are here today
to say: we will not let this happen again. And over
the centuries we have learned, painfully, a crucial
paradox: anti-Semitism was unique, even while a
fundamental truth of the ages is that religious
tolerance and freedom is indivisible. It is for
these reasons that the organized Jewish community
has responded so strongly on the issue of religious
persecution, wherever it may occur. And few spiritual
or religious peoples in the world today face the
degree or depth of persecution as do the members
of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China. Indeed,
there is no place for me to be this afternoon, save
here. |
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Physicians
for Human Rights
excerpted from a statement at a rally in support
of Falun Gong, July 23, 2002
:There are many revolting human rights abuses in
the world. But there are none more despicable than
a government punishing people for their thoughts
and peacefully expressed religious views. The Chinese
government’s persecution of the Falun Gong
has earned it a disgraceful place in the world….Gone
are the days when governments can jail, torture,
and murder their citizens in secret. |
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Olga
Vives, Vice President, National Organization
for
Women
excerpted from a speech at
a DC rally before Jiang Zemin's US visit, October
9, 2002
… in a time when our leaders speaking on behalf
of the country have clearly expressed our refusal
as a nation to live in fear. … Isn’t it
time for the people of China to refuse to live in
fear? Isn’t it time Mr. President to demand
a halt to such terror, by the Chinese government
against its citizens? We speak of the horror of
Saddam Hussein against his people. Can we also speak
of Jiang Zemin- the horrors and violations he has
against his people? Can we also call this terror?
… No nation that loves freedom should reward
another that violates its people’s human rights
by giving them access to the largest consumer market
in the world. No nation who loves freedom should
walk away from the opportunity to defend its beliefs
with deeds not just words. A freedom-loving nation
must come to the rescue of oppressed people and
assure in this case, that the Chinese government
ends its oppression of Falun Gong now! |
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Kenneth
Brown, President, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
excerpted from a speech at
a rally in support of Falun Gong, July 19, 2001
Falun Gong is not an enemy of the government, but
a reflection of China’s rich history in self-discipline,
cultivation of inner spirit, self-awareness and
self-advancement. The Chinese government should
embrace Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners
as the intellectual offspring of its great beginnings. |
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