The Central YMCA in the UK Midlands city of Nottingham played host to the 2001 One World Christmas Fair which was attended by many well known peace, environmental and human rights organisations as well as musicians and artists. Children in Need, Christian Aid and the Amnesty International, among others, set up stands to promote good causes. The Amnesty stand displayed SOS leaflets on the severe human rights abuses suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China. A signature form for a petition for Trinity College Dublin student Zhao Ming was placed next to the leaflets. Many people were appalled to read the atrocities of the Jiang Zemin regime and signed the petition. Several people described the human rights abuses by the regime which they had read about in the media. One lady from the Children in Need stand also asked her colleague to come over to sign the petition. Several people took the leaflet without signing the petition but later returned to write down their signature after reading the flyer.
Earlier in the year, a Green Festival promoting positive living and environmental responsibility was held in the same city at a riverside open space. Local Amnesty International members set up a stand to promote human rights and displayed materials of the human rights violations by Jiang regime against Falun Gong practitioners both in China and in the local community. The display board attracted the attention of many people coming to the Festival and soon all the petition forms were used up and the petition letter box had to be opened to retrieve used petition forms so that people could put more signatures on them.
In the nearby city of Grantham, the local Amnesty International group invited a Falun Gong practitioner to talk about the human rights abuses in China. The members were shocked by the brutalities of the regime and warmly discussed ways of helping with the practitioner who also clarified the Chinese government's dirty smear campaign. Following the talk, the Group featured Falun Gong prominently in its monthly newsletter and adopted a petition letter for Falun Gong practitioners' rights as the Letter of the Month.
Author's note: a big thank you to all kind hearted local people especially those in the human rights groups for their valuable support!
UK Practitioner
6th January 2001
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