Campbell River Mirror, (British Columbia, Canada): Chinese persecution protested

Carole Collard (left), Bob Pratt and Jane Banks practice Falun Gong movements on the lawn in front of city hall Friday afternoon. The group was visiting Campbell River to raise awareness about the spiritual movement’s persecution in China.

Aug 23 2006

Peaceful music plays in the background while the wind rustles the flowers in front of city hall.

Three people stand on the grass with their eyes closed, the deep blue Discovery Passage visible behind them. They slowly go through their repertoire of Falun Gong movements, but the calm demeanor of the followers of the Chinese spiritual and physical discipline stands in stark contrast to the horrible images of pain, violence and despair displayed on stands beside them.

The stands hold photos of skeleton-thin men and women, people who have suffered severe beatings and even one dead man believed to have been used as an unwilling organ donor.

The images show the lengths to which the Chinese government is willing to go to suppress Falun Gong, says Matthew Simon of Victoria, who was in Campbell River Friday with several other followers to raise awareness of what is happening in China.

Falun Gong followers believe hundreds of thousands of their spiritual peers in Chinese prisons are being used as unwilling organ donors. They compare the situation to the way Nazis secretly persecuted, tortured and murdered Jews in Europe during the Second World War.

That’s why they’re traveling the Island and why other Falun Gong followers are doing the same thing across North America -- they want to pressure the Canadian and American governments to take a closer look at what the Chinese government [Chinese Communist Party regime] is doing to members of the sect[movement].

"Organ harvesting - you can’t not look at that," says Simon. "Governments

are going to put more pressure on China because of this."

Simon says public awareness is the best thing followers can strive for to force the Chinese government to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

"If we keep up the pressure things will have to change," he says.

Simon has been following the plight of Falun Gong followers in China for the past six years.

It’s just gotten worse and worse and worse," he says.

The discipline, founded in 1992 by Li Honzhi, is a system of meditation, physical exercises and spiritual philosophy which now has millions of followers worldwide.

The movement has drawn the ire of the Chinese communist government, which has responded with force on many occasions to peaceful Falun Gong demonstrations.

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A July 6 report by former Canadian independent MP David Kilgour and David Matas, a human rights lawyer, claims thousands of Falun Gong followers have been executed by the Chinese government and their internal organs taken for organ transplants.

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