Ruml said he considered the ambassador's reaction, according to which the detainees breached Chinese law and Falun Gong was a heretic sect, a "tragic comedy evidence" of an unchanged perception of human rights in China.

We have serious concerns about human rights abuses against individual practitioners. We have made clear to the Chinese that, as the Foreign Affairs Committee pointed out in its report on China in November 2000, their actions contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which China has signed though not ratified). The treatment of Falun Gong adherents features prominently in our exchanges on human rights with the Chinese.

I cannot remain Insensitive to the repression campaign led against those people, for the mere reason that they belong to a spiritual movement, I was sincerely angered by the testimonies you recounted to me.

I am convinced that the duty of all people in the world is to fight for spreading of peace, tolerance and freedom.

Mrs. Robinson was moved by the account of the practitioner who had been thrown out of the window and she recalled the case of Zhao Ming. She explained to us that throughout her last visits to China she always spoke of Falun Gong ...

I was very concerned to hear that one of the practitioners was injured by police during arrest. These practitioners are being held by the authorities solely because of their expression of their beliefs. I know that in the past many Falun Gong detainee's have reportedly been tortured and in some cases deaths are said to have occurred because of torture and ill treatment by the police. China signed up to the UN Convention Against Torture in 1988 and is therefore obliged to investigate all allegations of torture and bring those responsible to justice.

Today’s event is extraordinarily serious and demands a forceful statement from the Swedish government saying that Sweden does not in anyway accept the way in which the Chinese regime handles peaceful demonstrators. The fact that it is also innocent Swedish citizens who have lost their freedom and have been beaten makes the question even more serious.

Our thanks, as well as our concrete solidarity and support, to the friends and sympathisers of the Falun Gong who demonstrated today in Beijing in favour of their companions who have been arrested and tortured by the Communist regime of Jang Zemin.

"It would also appear that the arrest of these peaceful demonstrators constitutes a violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which China is a signatory."

Two MEP's, Chris Heaton-Harris and Mr. Roger Helmer, show their support for Falun Gong and the ending of the persecution in China.

On Monday 8 October 2001, Alfredo Fava Minor, General Manager of Shanghai Famas & Hocks Technical Textiles Co. Ltd., a manufacturing company based in Jinshan (60 km from Shanghai), which employs around 35 people, was stopped at Pudong Airport by the Chinese authorities and immediately re-embarked and expelled without explanation. Was it because he was a practitioner of Falun Gong?

I and my colleagues on the Assembly are proud to have played some small part in publicising the unacceptable treatment of Falun Gong practitioners who routinely suffer torture and intimidation in China

"The Chinese community in France, very much affected by the atrocities that the members of Falun Gong are victim to, is waiting today for a diplomatic initiative to be made to the Chinese authorities so that they will cease their persecution." [excerpt from one of the letters]

Vice-Chairperson of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Greets Practitioners as They Complete the London to Brussels SOS RescueWalk

"Mr. Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong have been honored with over 600 proclamations and awards from Australia, Canada, China (before the persecution), Japan, Russia, and the United States. Also, according to media reports, Mr. Li Hongzhi has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is in a lead position among the candidates for this award."

News of the nomination of Mr Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong,for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize

Letter of support from the office of Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic.

Letter from a member of the French parliament to the French Foreign Ministry

Swedish Deputy Prime Minister's letter of support to Falun Gong practitioners in Sweden.

Letter from French deputy and Mayor, Andre Guerin, stating his intention to raise the issue of Falun Gong with the French Foreign Ministry

Letter from the President detailling the European Parliament's call on China to end the persecution of Falun Gong.

Questions raised by Irish and Swedish MEPs to the EU Council and the reply issued in response.

UN document showing their findings contradict the Chinese government's allegations against Falun Gong.

A letter from vice Prime Minister on behalf of the Swedish government and the Prime Minister

German MEP's letter of support

Letters and statements of support from governments and politicians in Europe