Monsieur le President de la Republique
Palais de l'Elysee 55
Rue du faubourg Saint-Honore 75008
Paris
France

Monsieur le President de la Republique,

We are deeply alarmed by reports that the French police have harassed and detained at least 50 Falun Gong practitioners in the Champs-Elysées area during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Paris this year for peacefully distributing Falun Gong information material, or merely for wearing yellow clothes. Among those abused by the French police were Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, American, English, Taiwanese, Australian and French citizens.

According to eyewitnesses some of the police officers searched and behaved aggressively towards Falun Gong practitioners. Although nothing illegal could be found in their possession the police still detained them, in some cases for more than 4 hours. If the police wanted to check a person’s identity it should not take more than a few minutes, so there was no reason to detain them at all. We are also shocked to learn that some of those people had been handcuffed like criminals. No proper reason was given for their arrest only irrational remarks like, “yellow is forbidden today.” The unreasonable action by the French authorities violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

We are all aware that the Chinese regime is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world. If European governments are willing to infringe upon the basic rights of their own citizens in the face of Chinese leadership, we will indeed be making a mockery of ourselves. Consequently, such irrational actions will destroy our traditional European heritage of ideals, freedom and the rule of law.

Our main concern is the violent persecution of Falun Gong in China. We, as citizens of Europe, and on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners of the Nordic countries, request that the French Government investigate this incident, as well as take corrective actions.

We are respectfully awaiting your answer in this urgent matter.

Yours sincerely,