KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy on Friday morning, raising concerns of intensified persecution of the group in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by using the Olympics as justification.
Thirty local and Chinese Falun Gong practitioners carried banners and read statements outside the embassy in an event covered by many major local and international media. The banners read "Falun Dafa is Good", "Release Falun Gong Practitioners: Liu Guo Rong, Li Zhi Hong, Zhang Guo Tong", "Protest CCP's Unlawful Arrest of Falun Gong Practitioners".
The protest spokesperson, 24-year-old Chinese student Ms. Li ChiYue, said the CCP has intensified the persecution of Falun Gong ahead of the Olympics game.
"We want the CCP to stop using the Olympic Games as excuse and reason to continue persecuting Falun Gong practitioners," said Li.
Li further explained the intensified arrests and persecution of Falun Gong in China is because the CCP does not want the truth to be exposed in front of the world.
According to statistics from Clearwisdom website, from January 1 to March 11, 2008 (71 days), there were 1,878 arrests in 29 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions.
Jia Jia, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner studying in Malaysia, said that her parents in ChangSha City, Hu Nan Province, were illegally kidnapped by police on March 25th, 2008.
"This is a difficult time for me. I have to stand the pressure alone, I have lost my financial support, and I haven't heard from them since the illegal arrest," said Jia Jia.
Another Chinese Falun Gong practitioner Zhang ZiJian said that his father Zhang GuoDong was arrested in Wei Hai, China on 11th October 2007. His mother was told by the police that she can only visit Zhang GuoDong after the Beijing Olympic game. Zhang said that the CCP is increasing the persecution because of the Beijing games.
"We appeal to international communities to help save Falun Gong practitioners in China; we also strongly protest to the CCP to release them immediately," said Zhang.
The protest took place ahead of the Olympic torch relay in Kuala Lumpur on April 21. The fear of interruptions by protesters in the Kuala Lumpur torch relay has focused Malaysian's attention on CCP's severe human rights violations.
However, Li ChiYue said the Falun Gong group will not protest during the torch relay. Li said they are waiting for the CCP to fulfill their Olympic promise made in 2001, to improve the human rights conditions inside China.
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