(Clearwisdom.net) From noon to 2PM on March 7, 2003, several hundred Falun Gong practitioners from different states gathered in Washington DC and held a rally in front of the State Department. They appealed to the US State Department to send a request to the Chinese government to immediately release Dr. Charles Li, an American citizen and Falun Gong practitioner who is being illegally detained.

Dr. Li has studied and lived in the USA for many years. At the end of January, while visiting his family in China, he was arrested for no reason after he stepped off the plane. It has been 37 days since he was arrested.

The rally was organized by over 20 NGOs and independent organizations, and 16 government officials and representatives of different NGOs made speeches. The speakers included Mr. Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman of Freedom House, Mr. William Saunders, Human Rights Counsel of the Family Research Council, Legislative Assistant of Congressman Tom Lantos, Ms. Faith McDonnell, Director of Religious Liberty Program of The Institute on Religion and Democracy, and Mr. Morton Sklar, Executive Director of World Organization Against Torture USA. At the same time, several senators sent letters to show their support. Mr. Charles Li's fiance', Ms. Foo said tearfully that Charles has been detained for almost 40 days and she worries about his safety every minute.

At about 1:30PM, Mr. Scott Carpenter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Ms. Susan O'Sullivan, Senior Advisor on Asia came to the rally. Ms. Foo and Charles' friends delivered an appeal letter and over 20,000 signatures to Mr. Carpenter.

The practitioners in attendance came from Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, California and the Midwest. Some drove all night to attend the rally.

The rally was concluded with the song, "Free Charles".