Editorial, Tribune de Genève: Falun Gong: the City's blunder

André Hediger continues to deny having bowed down before the Chinese authorities. Result: an unfortunate misunderstanding. Even so! Whatever the real reasons that incited the city's administrative council to deny Falun Gong practitioners the right to demonstrate at the Place des Nations, the authorities of the city are not emerging with increased stature, even if the city's executive council, following the example of the canton's green light, finally made amends by giving its permission yesterday morning for around 1,000 practitioners to assemble before UN headquarters.

The initial blunder remains nonetheless ridiculous, not to say outrageous! Ridiculous because our elected representatives uphold tirelessly - and rightly so - the right of all to freedom of expression. The administrative council, moreover, recently showed proof of its good intentions, despite the opposition of the canton, by giving permission for a hunger strike against the repression in Turkey.

Beyond the differences of opinion--as curious as incomprehensible--of the two political authorities, the city's blunder remains above all offensive. How was it possible, knowingly or not, to have played along with the Chinese regime at the opening of this fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights? Far be it from us to want to proselytise for Falun Gong. This movement, which combines gymnastics with spirituality, seems, in the event, sufficiently well organized and motivated to be able to speak for itself.[Editor's Note: Falun Gong's slow, flowing exercises should not be confused with gymnastics.]

No! What is abhorrent is [the idea] that --even should the future reveal to us Falun Gong's sectarian character--the practice of torture to death, of which its practitioners in China are the victims, should go unpunished. The victims of this repression hope simply to be heard this week in Geneva.