January 25, 2001

SANTEE -- Local Falun Gong activists celebrated yesterday's start of the Lunar New Year at an unlikely venue.

Several showed up at the Santee City Council chambers last night to thank Mayor Randy Voepel for defying the Chinese government and issuing a proclamation supporting their practices.

"Issuing a proclamation, on the surface, is a very simple act. It's so simple we take it for granted,'' said Arleen Freeman, 58, a Falun Gong practitioner who works as a real estate agent in San Diego.

"But at the heart of this simple act is something very powerful and very beautiful, a guarantee of individual freedom, a guarantee we can cherish because in Falun Gong in China, we've had a vivid example of what happens when that guarantee is absent."

Kevin Irwin, 31, a vocational nurse from Chula Vista, also told the mayor how much the proclamation meant. He said it "demonstrates your commitment to basic human rights and liberty, something to be applauded. It has sent a great example to the mayors around the world what a good mayor should do in upholding truth and justice."

Since China banned Falun Gong in July 1999, the two sides have waged a propaganda war in China and abroad.

Last year, California activists began asking cities to issue proclamations supporting the spiritual movement. The Chinese Consulate sent letters to Southern California cities asking officials to avoid any type of recognition.

Voepel may have been the first mayor to issue a supportive proclamation.

Chinese officials say [Chinese government's slanderous words].

Practitioners dispute the charge, saying they follow centralized teachings about spiritual and physical enhancement.

They say the Chinese government has tortured to death 120 Falun Gong practitioners.