Edmonton Journal: Edmontonians urged to protest Falun Gong deaths

The deaths of 14 female practitioners of Falun Gong in Edmonton's twin city in China should prompt Edmontonians to appeal to Mayor Bill Smith and city council, the organizer of a vigil said Saturday.

"It certainly gives us as Edmontonians the right to appeal to our government and expect action," said Tom Ozimek at the candlelight vigil on the legislature grounds, where practitioners called for an end to the persecution.

Members of the Falun Gong meditation movement, which is banned in China, say the 14 women were beaten with electric batons and tortured to death.

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They died around June 20 in the Wanjia labour camp in Harbin City, which was twinned with Edmonton in 1985. It is located in Heilongjiang province in northern China.

"I hope that because Edmonton is a sister city to Harbin we can use that relationship to try to effect what's going on in the Wanjia labour camp," said Ozimek.

"We cannot only appeal to our government federally but municipally and expect action. It gives us Edmontonians more power to effect change because such an atrocity happened in a sister city."

Ozimek said the 14 women died 10 days after the Chinese government initiated new laws making it legal to execute Falun Gong practitioners for even handing out flyers about the [group].

Ozimek said the Wanjia labour camp, which was set up in 1984, holds 300 Falun Gong prisoners and conditions are squalid.

He said Edmontonians should contact city council and write a letter to the mayor to get city officials to put pressure on their counterparts in Harbin.

Ozimek said the U.S. government issued an official statement Thursday that it is "deeply disturbed" by reports that China has intensified its harsh repression of Falun Gong and found the death of the practitioners in Wanjia labour camp "particularly troublesome."

"The Canadian government can and should absolutely issue a similar statement condemning the Chinese government for stepping up its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners," said Ozimek.

"If enough ordinary citizens step forward and speak out and write letters to MPs, it eventually can't help but have an effect because the voice of politicians becomes the voice of Canada on an international scale."

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