On August 23 (Wednesday), about one hundred Australian Falun Dafa practitioners went to the Chinese Embassy in the capital city of Canberra, and held a hearing and photo review regarding Falun Dafa. Reuters, as well as five other media groups came to report the event. Although some media groups did not attend, they managed to hold interviews by telephone. The first speaker at the hearing was an Australian woman, who was a member of Congress. She put her own work aside and came to the hearing. First she gave regards to Falun Dafa. She believed that establishing Canberra and Beijing as sister-cities is not proper, because there has been much evidence that the Chinese government had extended their human rights abuses to Australia. People understood the severity of the human rights abuse happening in China because of what she said; she was applauded for her speech.

After the speech, a practitioner gave a thorough review of the harassments that both practitioners and Australian government agencies received during the past year. The facts that he mentioned included that some communities received notices from the Chinese Embassy requesting the communities to deny facilities and services to Falun Gong practitioners. The representatives of the communities were enraged by such requests; such requests are very disrespectful to the dignity of Australians. It is an attempt to abuse the rights of Australians. For the past year, both the media and many bookstores received harassments from the Chinese Embassy, forcing many media groups to refuse to cover positive issues about Falun Dafa in this land where the press should have freedom. Many even feared and refused to accept requests to host paid-advertisements from Falun Dafa. Some bookstores used to sell Falun Dafa books, but under pressure from the Chinese Embassy, dared not to sell them anymore. Simply putting Falun Dafa related articles on shelves in front of their bookstores could mean trouble.

Many Chinese were refused visas to China because they were connected to Falun Gong. Some practitioners were refused the visas even when his/her family members were severely sick. One of the worst cases was denying requests for those that have relatives practicing Falun Dafa: A relative of a practitioner who doesn't practice Falun Dafa, was refused entrance into China to see her brother who was extremely sick with cancer. Simply because one of her relatives practiced Falun Gong, she was unable to see her brother before he passed away. During the review, a practitioner mentioned that some of the vehicles belonging to Falun Dafa practitioners who had participated in Falun Dafa activities were sabotaged. Some cars were broken into, but only Falun Dafa related materials were stolen. According to police reports, experts were responsible for this.

Also, numerous Australian Falun Dafa practitioners were held in custody, beaten, and jailed when they visited China. As we speak, there are still two practitioners being detained in China. We don't have information on one of them, and the other is being inhumanely abused. The situation is extremely severe: A practitioner is experiencing hair loss because he was forced to sleep on the cold cement floor. The review of these incidents shocked everyone that came to the hearing. Afterwards, a few practitioners went up and spoke about their own experiences. One mentioned an incident where a Chinese immigrant that has the same name as a practitioner was refused a visa simply because of the similarity of their names.

The speaker of the hearing, Tony, announced that he learned through the Minghui website that the Chinese government is planning to execute some of the practitioners that refuse to give up their practice. Such awful acts have created anger in the heavens; a hailstorm started right there on the spot. But there were still reporters taking photos during the hail.

The news of the plans for executions shocked the practitioners. The practitioners protested by holding a candle vigil that night. While the Chinese Embassy invited important politicians from the Australian government and the press to see a performance of Huang Mei Opera (a kind of Chinese opera), the practitioners used this chance to tell people the truth. That night, Hu Fa (safeguarding the principles and laws) was very serious and dignified. A few banners that read "Falun Dafa," "Stop the Abuse Towards Falun Dafa Practitioners" and "China Needs to Respect Human Rights," etc., were shown. Flower rings for those that died were made and used to tell the shocking facts to the people. There were candles in front of every ring, making the dark night more solemn. Pictures were placed in between the rings and the banners, practitioners held candles on this cold night; the situation was very moving. Some reporters took photos of this memorable historical event.

From the morning picture-shows in the civic center, to the hearings in the afternoon and the candle vigil at night, practitioners forgot about hunger and coldness. They did this to "assist the Teacher in the human world."

Sidney Falun Dafa Practitioners

August 23, 2000