Sweden: The Swedish Parliament Holds a Seminar on China’s Human Rights

On June 16th, 2008, the Swedish Parliament held a seminar on China’s human rights in the capital Stockholm. According to participants, the purpose of the seminar was to raise awareness in the Swedish community about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s human rights abuses so that appropriate measures could be taken to force the CCP regime to respect freedom of expression and belief and to immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and human rights activities in the run-up to the Olympics.

The Vice-President of the European Parliamentary Assembly, Goran Lindblad and a member of the Swedish Parliament, Lennart Sacredeus, hosted the meeting. Representatives from some fifty organisations attended the seminar, e.g. Swedish Human Rights Organisation, Tibetan Association, Christian Underground Church, Free Writer Association, Falun Gong and those from Mongolia and Xinjiang Associations.

The director of International Human Rights Association, Mr. Man Yang, relayed recent incidents where the CCP, out of fear for the millions that quit its affiliated organisations, organised attacks on Falun Gong practitioners in New York and Warsaw, by inciting hatred.

A Falun Gong practitioner, Kong Bin, re-counted his own experience of being arrested five times for his beliefs in China and subjected to forced brainwashing and a year and a half in a labour camp. He was also threatened that if he did not give up his belief, he would be sent to a place of no return. Later, he realised that it was a place for live organ harvesting.

According to the seminar hosts, with the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, not only did the CCP government not improve human rights as promised, it accelerated the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, human rights activities and other religious groups in the name of the Olympics.

The Vice-President of the European Parliamentary Assembly and a member of the Swedish Parliament, Goran Lindblad, said during an interview, “We will continue to publish and discuss what is happening in Communist China and the Communist regime’s repression of its people. As such this seminar is very important.”

Lindblad also said that democratic countries are fed up with the CCP infiltration overseas in an attempt to stop western criticism. e said, “They (the CCP) use Confucius colleges in Universities as spy and propaganda centres to influence (western) students and governments. On one hand they play tough by planning demonstrations. On the other hand, they have these soft strategies. But they will never succeed!”