Calgary Herald: Falun Gong

Re: "Hong Kong walks a fine line between two worlds" Catherine Ford, Opinion, June 9.

It was nice that Ford saw a few Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong, but reading between the lines of Tung's recent announcements, I'm sure it won't be long before Hong Kong bows to Jiang Zemin's pressure to outlaw Falun Gong there, too.

I don't imagine Ford saw any Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China, a nation where some 100 million people were practicing every day in the parks less than two years ago.

They still come from all over to go to Tiananmen Square, though. Most are caught on the way, arrested, tortured and detained for weeks or years, but some still make it through to Tiananmen Square, where usually within 30 seconds, police beat them to the ground and haul them away to prison.

Efforts to reveal the truth to the public have met with some success, thanks largely to media participation and appeals for the release of Canadian citizens and residents who have been illegally jailed in China because they practice Falun Gong.

On June 25, a billboard will go up near Calgary's Chinese consulate, commemorating the 221 Falun Gong practitioners killed in China and asking the Chinese government to end their brutal repression.