22nd January 2004

"We know for sure that almost 900 people have been killed by the Chinese authorities, simply because they practice Falun Gong," said Peder Giertsen to Stavanger Aftenblad. "100,000 Chinese people have been jailed or sent to labor camps. We hope to put this case on the international agenda with the conference that is to take place in Stockholm next week."

Several years

The persecution of Falun Gong has been going on for several years now. The Chinese authorities fear that it will develop and become a strong grass-roots movement, which could be hard to control. Practitioners say that they have no political agenda, and that they just want to help people become better human beings with this practice.

"There are several examples where western governments have kowtowed to the Chinese leaders, and prohibited demonstrations," says Giertsen. "This has happened in Iceland, Denmark and Germany."

Also in Norway the followers of Falun Gong have demonstrated outside the Chinese Embassy in Oslo, but this has not caused any trouble.

Large Conference

A large international conference has been arranged to discuss the crime of genocide in Stockholm next week. [...]

The Stockholm International Forum will gather representatives from sixty governments. Both the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and EU Secretary General Javier Solana will be there, as will many state leaders and ministers.

It is the first time since 1948 that such a broad conference on genocide has been arranged. The four main topics of the conference are "Threats", "Responsibility", "Prevention" and "Consciousness".

The Conference on genocide against Falun Gong, has been arranged in parallel with the Stockholm International Forum that is being held between the days of January 26th and 28th.

Source URL: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200401/17467.html