I became an Australian citizen in 2006 after having been granted asylum. I had been detained and tortured for more than one year in Chinese jails and a forced labor camp for practicing Falun Gong.
My autobiography Witnessing History: One Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong was published by Allen & Unwin in Australia and Soho Press in the United States .
I was nominated for the 2005 Human Rights Medal and Awards by Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and recognized as an Ambassador for Peace in September 2005 by The U.N. Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace.
On the occasion of your upcoming Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, I request that you urge Chinese leader Hu Jintao to end the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, to stop the harvesting of organs from, and the killing of, practitioners, and to release all imprisoned practitioners and their supporters.
In March 2006 the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture reported that 66 percent of the victims of alleged torture and ill-treatment in China were Falun Gong practitioners. "The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description," he said.
The U.S. State Department's 2006 annual report stated that "Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labor camps," while the real number could be even higher.
Hon. David Kilgour and Mr. David Matas concluded in their independent investigation report that in numerous places across China the Chinese communist regime is harvesting the organs of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and killing them in the process.
The persecution of Falun Gong is the largest and most severe human rights violation in China. I strongly believe that Australia has a moral obligation to help to stop this; and I know that many Australians share my view.
Please call on the Chinese leader to immediately end the persecution. Democratic nations have a responsibility to condemn crimes against humanity and disregard for human life wherever they occur. Australia should take the leadership in this matter as the host country of APEC.
21 member nations will gather in Australia starting Sept. 2 for the APEC meetings.
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