March 9, 2009

A Global Rescue Mission

Filed under: Headline   |   Tags>> |   |   March 9th, 2009  

By Jeff Chen 

RESCUE: Jeff Chen, Washington, D.C. Liaison of Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, speaks at a rally in Washington, D.C. on March 1. (Epoch Times)

 A rally, to honor the 50 million Chinese who have severed their ties to the Communist Party or one of its affiliated organizations, was held in Washington, D.C. on March 1. The Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners was a co-sponsor of the event. Its Washington, D.C. Liaison, Mr. Jeff Chen, made the following remarks on this occasion.

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Some fellow Chinese, both from inside and outside China, have said, “I thought the government is now treating Falun Gong practitioners nicely.”  Even some Western government officials have told asylum applicants, “You can safely return to China now and you won’t be persecuted.”  

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me tell you:
Just two weeks ago, 34-year-old Mr. Xu Dawei from Liaoning died from the suffering that he had endured during his 8-year-imprisonment.  Just two weeks ago, 40-year-old Ms. Hou Lihua from Heilongjiang died of the torture in her short  3-month detention.  

This persecution of Falun Gong has never stopped for a single day since it started in 1999.  In particular, in 2008, rather than improving its human rights situation as it promised the International Olympics Committee, the Chinese Communist regime used the Olympics as a pretext for intensifying the persecution of Falun Gong and others.  Just as the people around the world were enjoying the so-called “best opening ceremony in the Olympics’ history,” Falun Gong practitioners were paying a huge cost.  In just last year alone, over 8,000 practitioners were arrested and put into prisons and labor camps and 104 of them died of mistreatment — in many cases within weeks, days, or even hours of being taken into custody.

During the 10-year Persecution, as of today 3,251 Falun Gong practitioners have died of torture and other mistreatments. Hundreds of thousands were sent to prisons and labor camps. Thousands were sent to mental hospitals and injected with nerve-damaging drugs.

Yes, Falun Gong practitioners have been repeating these numbers over and over again.  They sound dull. But they are not.  They are the reflection of real experiences of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in their lives.

Let’s recall those moments when we would pick up our sons or daughters from kindergarten.  We remember the big hugs they gave us and the joyful smiles on our faces as young parents.  Let’s recall last Thanksgiving’s family reunion.  We still remember the laughs that we shared at the dinner table.  Let’s recall last time when we got sick.  We remember how much love and care that our husbands or wives gave us.  These moments can all be taken for granted by us here in the United States of America, but they happen to the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China only in their dreams.  

What is their life like in reality?  A 5-year-old daughter wakes up from her nightmare everyday crying, “Mom! Mom!”, only to find her mother is not around.  A young father is imprisoned for 3 years and has never seen his son ever since the boy was born.  The grandma travels hundreds of miles, taking the boy to the prison, only to be told by the guards, “You cannot see your son and the boy cannot see his father, because he
has not given up on practicing Falun Gong,” even though the old lady kneels down begging the young guards repeatedly.  

A village woman tells her mother, “Mom, I’ll go to Beijing to appeal to the Central Government and will be back in just a week.”  But after waiting for 5 years without
hearing a single word from her daughter, the elderly mother, one day, receives a visit by a government official, telling her, “Here, this is your daughter’s ashes.”  

Ladies and Gentlemen, these are all true stories that have been happening to Falun Gong practitioners since 1999 and are continuing today, all under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.   Should these stories be happening in the 21st century?  Should Falun Gong practitioners in China be entitled to the same rights that we enjoy here in the United States? Should this Chinese Communist Party disintegrate?  Ladies and Gentlemen, I leave the answers to these questions to you all.

Thank you.

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