(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners peacefully gathered in front of the Chinese embassy and Chinese consulate, in Jakarta and Surabaya respectively, on April 15, 2023. The events exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa and commemorated the “April 25^th Peaceful Appeal.” A representative from Global Human Rights Efforts (GHURE), a nonprofit, non-governmental organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia, spoke at the rally. 

Dafa practitioners peacefully gathered in front of the Chinese embassy in Jakarta on April 15, 2023.

Despite the steady rain, practitioners stood outside the Chinese consulate in Surabaya to let people know about the persecution. 

Practitioners in both cities, Jakarta and Surabaya, demonstrated Falun Dafa’s five sets of exercises. They held banners with messages that condemned the CCP’s persecution and gathered signatures on a petition to call for an end to the atrocities. They also chatted with passersby and policemen and told them about the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Jakarta: Peaceful Protest in Front of the Chinese Embassy

Hendra, a representative of the Falun Dafa Association in Indonesia, called for an end to the CCP’s ongoing 24-year-long persecution during the rally in Jakarta. 

“April 25, 1999 is a historic milestone,” he said. “Falun Dafa practitioners appealed peacefully, rationally and solemnly in Beijing for their basic rights. Though the freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Chinese constitution, the CCP still deliberately violates it. This cannot be tolerated by the international community.”

Hendra, representative of the Falun Dafa Association in Indonesia, addressed a peaceful protest in Jakarta. 

Fajar, a representative from the Global Human Rights Efforts (GHURE), a nonprofit organization based in Jakarta, spoke at the rally. He expressed support for Falun Dafa practitioners’ efforts to expose the persecution and called for an end to the persecution. “Persecuting the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is equivalent to destroying human moral values,” Fajar stated. “The CCP has completely lost its conscience.” 

Many Jakarta residents signed the petition to call for an end to the persecution. A westerner living in Jakarta said that he’d heard about the persecution but never had the chance to truly learn about Falun Dafa. He was happy to receive a paper lotus flower with the words, “Falun Dafa is good” written on it after a practitioner explained in detail about Falun Dafa. 

People sign the petition to help end the persecution. 

Surabaya: Peaceful Protest in Front of the Chinese Consulate

Despite the rain, practitioners held a peaceful protest on April 15, 2023 in front of the Chinese consulate. The traffic was heavy during the rally and many drivers and motorists got the opportunity to read the messages written on the banners. 

Practitioners distribute truth-clarification flyers to passing motorists. 

An Indonesian police officer who was stationed at the Chinese consulate for many years, was very touched by practitioners’ persistence. He said, “Falun Dafa practitioners’ activities are always very peaceful.”

Practitioners chat with police officers on duty and hand them information about Falun Dafa. 

Liing explained why she always participates in the peaceful protest to commemorate the annual April 25^th Peaceful Appeal, “It is necessary to awaken people’s conscience and tell them that the CCP’s inhuman acts against Falun Dafa practitioners are still ongoing in China.”

Background: What Is the April 25th Appeal?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first taught to the public in 1992. Nearly 100 million people across China were soon practicing after experiencing improvements in their health and morals.

On April 23 & 24, 1999, police officials in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, assaulted and arrested dozens of practitioners who had gathered outside a magazine office to discuss errors in a recently-published article attacking Falun Dafa. As word spread of the arrests and more practitioners inquired with officials, they were told to take their appeal to Beijing.

The following day, April 25, some 10,000 Falun Dafa practitioners spontaneously gathered at the Central Appeals office in Beijing, as they had been instructed by Tianjin officials. The gathering was peaceful and orderly. Several Falun Dafa representatives were called in to meet with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and members of his staff. That evening, practitioners’ concerns were answered. The arrested practitioners in Tianjin were released and everyone went home.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the CCP, perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and issued an order to ban Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners due to the persecution over the past 24 years, but due to the difficulty in getting information out of China, the actual number is suspected to be much higher. Many more have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.