(Clearwisdom.net) The following speech was given by a Falun Gong practitioner at a press conference in Bremen on the 10th of December, World Human Rights Day.

Honored Ladies and Gentlemen, today is World Human Rights Day.

The right to live, the right to think and the right to form a personal opinion are rights we in Germany take for granted. Sadly, these rights are forbidden to Chinese citizens living in their homeland.

It's now been twelve years since Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, came to the public. It's been five years since the persecution started. Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese qigong practice and its practitioners follow the principles "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance."

Today, we find that Falun Gong is being persecuted in China without cause. Practitioners are tortured and sent to slave labor camps. The Chinese media disseminates fabricated stories to suppress information about this groundless persecution. We even find that the German media repeats the stories and distorted subject matter about Falun Gong disseminated by the Chinese regime. I'm sad to say that this is the same regime that perpetrates the persecution.

For a long time, China has inhumanly persecuted many groups of people, be it Christians, Buddhists, democracy advocates or Falun Gong. The persecution of Falun Gong has extended into each facet of life, work and family. People are even persecuted because they are friends with a Falun Gong practitioner. This persecution is aimed at peaceful people who only wish to practice their belief freely.

Such injustice does not occur anywhere else in the world, only in China where medieval torture instruments are used to break the will of practitioners. This is happening now! This is happening today! This is happening at this very moment!

The originator of this state terrorism is the former head of state and chief of China's Communist Party, Jiang Zemin. He has to assume responsibility for instigating the genocide perpetrated against Falun Gong practitioners, and for the deaths of over 1,150 practitioners and the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of practitioners in slave labor camps.

Countries such as Canada and Ireland, as well as other countries, have clearly shown that it is possible to maintain a stable commercial relationship with China, while at the same time espousing advocacy for human rights. We hope that Germany will be able to stand up for human rights as well.

The Chinese regime has promised its citizens human rights, but has not granted them. Johannes Rau said during his China state visit that a large country like China "can no longer be governed solely by an authoritarian regime." Rau continued that human rights have "universal application" and "must be applicable worldwide." "No compromises are acceptable when it comes to the fundamental rights of an individual: living in freedom and being safe from arbitrary torture, arbitrary loss of freedom and discrimination. Such rights are not negotiable."

Can we have commerce with China? Yes, but we cannot and must not sell our fundamental values and beliefs. This is the only way for Germany to deal with China in an upright and credible way. Do you know that many of the products we find during this Christmas season in the stores, such as toys, technical components and jewelry, are mass-produced in China's slave labor camps - some of these cheap goods are probably produced with the hands of slave laborers? The laborers are those detained in slave labor camps, and eighty percent of these slaves are Falun Gong practitioners.

For those who think that they are unable to help in this matter, please listen to the following. In September, Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wei was set free. Xiong Wei is a former student of the Technical University of Berlin who suffered two long years in a forced labor camp because she practices Falun Gong. Many people participated in our petition drive and signed their names, and many of them were locals from Bremen. Therefore, we thank the people of Bremen from the bottom of our hearts.

One can ignore it; one can give up in the face of this overwhelming suffering and believe that a single individual from this world cannot eradicate suffering. Or one can become a part of this effort, and do as much as one can. One can feel compassion and do something.

If you decide to support us, please view the petition signature lists, sign and be a part of ending the persecution of Falun Gong.

Thank you for listening to me.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200412/23930.html