Interview with an Irish Practitioner During the Appeal Outside the UN in Geneva

On the 15th of March 2004, over 500 Falun Gong practitioners held an appeal outside the UN building in Geneva, coinciding with the 60th Annual Human Rights Congress. A clearharmony reporter interviewed a western Falun Gong practitioner who had come from Ireland, to provide some insight into what was on the minds of the practitioners who had come to take part.

You’ve come a long way from Ireland to come to Geneva. What are your personal reasons for coming here?

This is my third year coming here. My reason for coming here is because this place, the UN, in Geneva, has the biggest meeting concerning human rights in the world. So I’ve come because of this to try and let the people know what is going on in China.

What do you hope the effects of this activity will be?

Well, from talking to the officials, I feel that they can push forward and get a deeper understanding of this persecution only when they can realise that everything the Chinese Government has said about Falun Gong are pure lies, when they can understand that everything that the Chinese Government has talked about with their progress is not true. Jiang and his accomplices have been persecuting Falun Gong using the entire country's resources. The more the Western Governments try and appease China and try to build up an economic relationship with them while ignoring human rights, the worse this is going to be. Because this is just fuelling the persecution without standing up and openly condemning the persecution.

I come from Ireland so I went to see the Irish mission here to explain to them the facts about Falun Gong and I found they had a fairly good understanding of Falun Gong and the nature of the persecution. But I feel the reason they haven’t been able to push forward is because of the angles the Chinese Government has taken with them. In their closed-door talks they tend to talk of the progress that’s happening, when the progress on the ground is very little actually.

The reason I come here is not because I particularly want to try to get the UN to do something. I just feel these people should know the real nature of Falun Gong and then we can leave these people decide for themselves what they want to do, how they want to position themselves in this situation.

I feel when history looks back on this… If I hadn’t come and done everything I could to let them know, I wouldn’t feel right.

What do you think the Jiang’s regime’s reaction to today’s appeal outside the UN would be?

I would think they would be very frightened. See these banners here, “Bring Jiang Zemin to justice, bring Luo Gan to justice, bring Zhou Yongkang to justice, bring Liu Jing to justice” I think they would be very frightened to see these. In lots of countries around the world, these people are being sued for their actions, their genocide, their crimes against humanity in persecuting Falun Gong. I think the wheel of justice is going to turn.

Do you think the feeling would have been the same three of fours years ago when you made the appeal?

The environment was different back then because all of the western governments and media could hear was the Chinese regime’s slander about Falun Gong. Now you see so many positive media reports, so many people learning the truth about Falun Gong that this evil has no place to go any more. So I would see practitioners as having the upper hand in terms of letting people know the true nature of what is going on now.

So what kind of things can you do to let them know about the facts?

I’ve gone to contact VIPS and officials. But also we had a huge parade here through Geneva., and also we’ve been on the streets with the people of Geneva, giving them flyers, telling them the facts of the persecution, explaining to them what we are doing. I think that the righteous field is very good here in Geneva these past couple of days.

So the activities here are also for the benefit of the people of Geneva?

(Laughing) I think the people of Geneva are very lucky to have so many practitioners in one city. To me, the field here feels very very righteous. These people are all genuine, they come from all around the world, because from their hearts they really want the leaders of the world to look at and position themselves in the right way regarding this persecution. It’s not just about a bunch of people in China who are being persecuted. The reason they are being persecuted is because they practise Truthfulness Compassion and Tolerance. We’re giving the international community the chance to stand up and say, “these three principles of Truthfulness Compassion and Tolerance, you can’t persecute them. Don’t do that”

For the last 5 years, practitioners have come to this place outside the UN and sat on the grass and meditated and practised the Falun Gong exercises. How does it feel to be there?

I can remember three years ago I came for the first time and it was the first time I had practised the exercises together with so may practitioners all together. It was great and it reminded me of those pictures you see on the websites of the environment that was in China back then before the persecution began when they would all go and practise together in the mornings and you would have hundreds of people practising together every morning. The energy field is very strong and it is very good to practise the exercises like that.

Do you feel self-conscious at all practising here in public?

No. In Ireland for a while we had a practice-site right in the city centre and we would come from 7-9am with all the rush hour traffic going by on either side of the street. If you’re not embarrassed by that you won’t be embarrassed here with such a beautiful scene with so many people.

Is doing the exercises here as part of the appeal much different from practising for the sake of your own personal practice?

Yes. This event is very different. We’re surrounded by banners here and pictures of all of those practitioners in China who were tortured to death. It is a very solemn event. We are here for the purpose of letting people know the truth rather than for our own personal cultivation.

How did you find the parade this morning?

Well, the last couple of years I was here I was walking in the parade holding a big banner, but this year I was sending flyers, so I got to see the whole parade and it was absolutely massive. People were so interested in seeing what was passing by and reading the flyers. So I felt it was very good today.

Yesterday there were some activities along by the lake. How was that? How was the response?

Actually it was a real tourist area where we were. It was a very scenic spot right by the lake with the mountains in the background. It looked very beautiful. We had groups of about twenty practitioners or so doing the exercises. The response was very, very good. A lot of people were interested. As well as displaying the exercises, we had information display boards about the persecution. People would spend a long time reading them as they were passing by. Some of the comments were very supportive. They were very disgusted by what is going on in China. There was a sharp contrast between the pictures of the persecution and the beautiful nature of the exercises.