(Clearwisdom.net) April 25, 2002 is the three-year anniversary of the beginning of Falun Gong's courageous and peaceful journey. On this day in 1999, more than ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside of Beijing's Appeal Bureau, requesting the release of Falun Gong practitioners illegally arrested in Tianjin.
In the last three years, Jiang Zemin and his accomplices have conducted an ongoing criminal persecution campaign against Falun Gong, an ancient, peaceful cultivation practice. In March 2002, terrified after the broadcast of the Falun Gong truth-clarifying TV programs in the city of Changchun exposed his regime's deceptive propaganda, Jiang Zemin issued the order to "kill without pardon" practitioners involved. Under these orders, two Falun Gong practitioners from Changchun have been sentenced to death, approximately 5000 have been arrested, and more than 100 have been murdered.
The Jiang regime is extending its persecution of Falun Gong to all over the world. During his visit to Berlin in the middle of this month, Jiang and his henchmen pressured the German police into using violence against the peacefully appealing Falun Gong practitioners. In the cities that he visited, even the colors favored by Falun Gong practitioners, yellow and blue, became "forbidden colors."
In order to commemorate the peace that this historic date of 4/25 symbolizes, to mourn those Falun Gong practitioners who have lost their lives during the brutal persecution, and to call for the rescue of those Falun Gong practitioners who are still being tortured in China and in dire danger, practitioners all over North America will hold assemblies and candlelight vigils on the evening of April 25, 2002.