English Minghui.org

February 28, 2004

The 2004 Western United States Experience Sharing Conference Solemnly Commences, Master Li Arrives to Teach the Fa and Answers Questions

(Clearwisdom.net) On February 28, more than two thousand Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world gathered in L.A.'s Pasadena Convention Center to participate in the 2004 Western United States Experience Sharing Conference. At 2:10 pm, revered Teacher came to the conference site in person and taught the Fa for the disciples. The entire body of practitioners gave a standing ovation to greet Teacher. Teacher taught the Fa for about 30 minutes and then took more than two hours to explain the Fa for the disciples.

From the International Conference on "Genocide in the New Era": State Terrorism and Genocide (Excerpt)

By Peter Müller, Far East Desk, International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Germany

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a Human Rights Fighter it is my duty to inform you about the cruel, ugly, and inexcusable treatment which the People's Republic of China ("PRC") exercises against many of its own people, against the Falun Gong, the Uighurs, the Tibetans, and many different religious groups. These people are -- it can fairly be said - terrorized by their own national government.

From the International Conference on "Genocide in the New Era": Strengthening the Tools to Prevent and Punish Genocide

By Attorney Morton Sklar, Executive Director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, Judge of the Administrative (Labor) Tribunal of the Organization of American States

The understanding of the international and human rights communities about the nature of the crime of genocide has been changing radically in recent years, in recognition that the international treaty prohibiting this practice covers a much broader range of abuses than previously believed. The treaty prohibiting genocide and making it an international crime was first adopted in 1948 in direct response to the Holocaust -- a widespread campaign by the government of Germany to eradicate an ethnic and religious minority group through a carefully planned and executed campaign of extermination that resulted in the death of over 6 million Jewish people. What we have come to experience and to understand is that many of the more modern forms of the most serious human rights abuses that have been taking place, for example, in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Burma, China, Mexico and Iraq, do not have to involve the killing of millions of people on the scale of the Holocaust in order to be recognized as involving the international crime of genocide. Nor do they require specific laws and policies of a national government mandating the abuses of the type used by the German government to authorize the interment and execution of Jews. Instead, it is recognized that genocide can be carried out by private and paramilitary groups and individuals, not just government officials.