Press Statement at the European Parliament

September 12, 2000

We practitioners of Falun Gong have gathered here today from across Europe, having traveled from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Ireland and Belgium to ask for the European Parliament's support in urging China's totalitarian regime to stop its continued persecution of Falun Gong. We call on China's regime to do three things: firstly, to engage Falun Gong in genuine, peaceful dialogue; secondly, to end the persecution at home and abroad and lift the ban on Falun Gong without delay. And finally, to immediately release all jailed practitioners in China.

Since July 1999, the Chinese totalitarian regime's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has escalated. According to the world media and human rights groups, over 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested or detained. At least 10,000 have been sent to labor camps without trial, and some 600 persons have been forced into mental hospitals and abused by anti-psychotic or sedative drugs and electric shocks. At least 49 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in police custody. Millions of Falun Gong books, videotapes, and audiotapes have been confiscated and burned. China's regime has conducted show trials with no right to legal representation of over 500 practitioners, handing out stiff sentences of up to 18 years in prison.

Outside China, the regime has carried out a major campaign of disinformation, harassment and intimidation using all the means at its disposal. Practitioners throughout Europe have had e-mail addresses and websites destroyed; had their phone lines tapped; received threatening telephone calls; and Falun Gong meetings have been infiltrated by the Chinese regime's agents. This amounts to serious intimidation of European citizens.

Falun Gong is a peaceful practice of gentle exercises a meditation for tress relief and overall mental, physical and spiritual health. Practitioners live by the moral standards of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. It is popular throughout Europe with classes in most Europe cities and literature translated into the major European languages.

To this day, the only so-called crime the practitioners in China have committed was their attempt to exercise their rights to freedom of belief, assembly, and speech. These rights are constitutionally enshrined in China and are guaranteed by the two international treaties China signed in 1997 and 1998.

In Europe Falun Gong has received support from many Governments. For example, from Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister; Jean-Marie Magnien, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France; Lord Avebury and the member s of both Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

International organizations have expressed deep concern and opposition to China's behavior. These include Amnesty International in London, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House. The European Parliament and the Congress of the United States passed a resolution condemning China's violent persecution of Falun Gong.

China must be held to the same human rights standards as all U.N. member states. We thank the European Parliament for the resolution that they have already passed condemning China's human rights abuses. We urge the European Parliament to continue to help end these flagrant violations of human rights and to recognize that Falun Gong is a peaceful, non-political, spiritual practice which has brought immense benefits to millions worldwide.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My name is Cecilia Malmstrom. I am a Swedish MEP from the liberal group. Next to me is Ms. Yuhong Shi who is a representative of the Falun Gong in Belgium. Also present are several Falun Gong practitioners from different European countries.

I am proud to host this Falun Gong exhibition but also sad that it is needed. The reason we are organizing this is to focus on the massive violation of Human Rights that the Falun Gong is exposed to by the Chinese government.

The Falun Gong is a spiritual movement, created in 1992 and with more than 100 million practitioners over the world. It was prohibited in China last year, in July 1999.

Falun Gong is a peaceful movement of meditation and self-cultivation and has no political ambitions, no organization, no temples or priests. But by its large number of practitioners it is a threat to the Chinese communist regime. Since last year thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been harassed, arrested, tortured and sent to prison or even mental hospitals. There have even been some cases of death in custody.

The systematic crackdown of Falun Gong is a frightening and unacceptable element in the Chinese strategy to destroy what the regime call "heretical movements and evil cults in China". Also other spiritual and religious groups have been harassed.

The Parliament, together with the U.N., many governments and HR organizations such as Amnesty International, have on several occasions called upon China To respect the principles of freedom of belief, conscience and association To stop the violence and persecution and To start a dialogues with Falun Gong representatives With this initiative we hope to increase the international pressure on China.

Thank you all for coming. Please have a look at the exhibition. There are many practitioners here present who can answer your questions and tell you more about their experiences. I will now heave the floor to Ms. Yuhong Shi.

(This is the speech by Ms. Cecilia Malmstrom at the Press Conference and the Exhibition's Opening Ceremony. Ms. Cecilia Malmstrom is a member of EP. She is also Parliaments' reporter on Human Rights in the world.)