Australia: Practitioners Rally in Sydney on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Thursday November 25th, 2004, was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Falun Gong practitioners held a rally in front of Federal Court in downtown Sydney to expose the violence against women practitioners in China and call attention to the persecution of Falun Gong in China, especially the persecution of women and children. Practitioners asked that the four chief culprits, Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkan, and Liu Jing, be brought to justice.

Rally venue	Rally organiser Ms. Sealand

Several practitioners dressed in white to signify mourning described how they suffered torture and violence in China. Australian Chinese artist Ms. Cuiying Zhang said in her speech that she was arrested several times for speaking out for Falun Gong. She was imprisoned for eight months after her last arrest. She suffered from severe violence and mental torture. She said for this painful suffering, she filed a lawsuit against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin and the 610 Office, and demanded appropriate compensation. She disclosed that there was progress in the case and the first court date was scheduled for December 10th, 2004.

Chinese artist Ms. Cuiying Zhang	Ms. Jinghang Liu, former research scientist at the Chinese Academy of Science, gives a speech

Ms. Jinghang Liu, a former research scientist at the Chinese Academy of Science, said that she was unlawfully imprisoned six times and sentenced to three years in prison for persisting in her practise of Falun Gong. She was tortured with various means, and force-fed many times. She was handcuffed and shackled, and almost suffocated.

Practitioner Ms. Kay said in her speech that she went to Beijing to appeal with over 30 other western practitioners. She and fellow practitioners were beaten during detention.

Ms. Ying Li, fianc騦e of an Australian citizen and a practitioner rescued with help from the Australian government, talked about how she was tortured when she was imprisoned in the Qingpu Labour Camp, Shanghai. She said that her sister, also a practitioner, was also tortured and released recently. Quite a few Australian citizens spoke of how their 'relatives, including mothers and sisters, were persecuted in China for not giving up their beliefs. Some even died from torture during police custody.

Ms. Sealand pointed out that the speakers at the rally represented only a small portion of the actual cases. Based on statistics from the Falun Dafa Information Centre, since July of 1999, 51.38% of death cases have been women. Their average age was 45 years old and many had children that were left without proper care. Many more women practitioners have been sexually harassed and raped.

The practitioners hoped that on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, more Australian people would come to know the facts about the persecution of hundreds of thousands of women practitioners in China. They also hope that more people with righteous minds will speak out against this brutal persecution, and that western countries will not ignore the human rights conditions in China while doing business and trading with China.