TIMISOARA—For the first time in humankind's history, a second Olympic Torch was lit in Athens—the torch of human rights.
On the 9th of August 2007, the human rights torch relay was launched in Greece. This torch will visit five continents, stopping at cities in thirty-seven nations to bring the message that China needs human rights.
On the tenth of September the Torch of Human Rights arrived in Timisoara, Romania.
The Human Rights Torch Relay is the creation of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG), an NGO established in Great Britain, with the headquarters in London. Its 350 members, mostly politicians, human rights activists, and celebrities, are dedicated to stopping the persecution against Falun Gong in China.
As a new member of the European Union, Romania is eager to show that it has learned the lessons of democracy, respecting and supporting human rights for all.
The town of Timisoara was the birthplace of Romania's 1989 freedom movement, which started in December 1989 and ended with the dissolution of Romania's communist government. Timisoara sustained its reputation as town friendly towards freedom. Professors, athletes, political and cultural personalities, and also the citizens of this town expressed their support for the cause: ending the crimes against humanity regularly perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Human Rights Torch received important support from the mayor of Timisoara, Mr.Gheorghe Ciuhandu; renowned Romanian gymnast Maria Olaru, a gold and silver medallist from the Summer Olympic Games in 2000 (Sydney, Australia); Mr. Ducu Darie, director of the European Theatres Union; Mr. Vasile Docea, a university lecturer; Dogar Tabita, triple Balkan champion at the 4x100 meter relay race and 100 meter sprint, Rosenblum Aida, national co-champion in the 300 meter sprint; Mr. Tiberiu Toro's deputy; Simona Pele from Radio Timisoara; Mr.Balescu Sevastian, the general secretary of "The Organization For Revering the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights" as well as many others citizens of Timisoara.
The Romanian co-organizers are Inter-cultural Institute and the "AvangArt" Association — both from Timisoara.
When it received the honour of hosting the Olympic Games in 2008, the communist government promised to improve the human rights situation in China.
With less than a year to go until the Olympics, those promises remain unfulfilled. On the contrary, the CCP has increased its suppression, trying to silence all of what it calls "dissident groups"—independent Christians, democracy advocates, reformers, human rights supporters, Falun Gong practitioners, labor unions, and Muslim Uighurs. Illegal arrests, crimes, rapes, forced indoctrination, and murder by torture have all increased.
The CCP allows police to arrest citizens without warrants and imprison them without trial in slave labor camps. Currently there are millions of innocent Chinese in these slave labor camps, facing a daily regimen of overwork, near-starvation diets, beatings, and sleep deprivation.
According to the U.N. the vast majority of torture victims in China are Falun gong practitioners. Independent investigations have shown that at approximately forty thousand Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to vivisection—dissection while still alive—and their organs sold to support China's growing overseas transplant industry.
The support shown by the people and the government of Romania for improved human rights in China shows clearly that people who have lived under communism well understand how much people who still live under a communist regime, desperately need the free world's support.