Today was the 3rd day of the Hunger Strike by 14 Falun Gong practitioners outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

At 3pm this afternoon, a number of practitioners, an SBS television crew and three members of the local Canberra government attempted to deliver a letter of appeal to the Chinese Ambassador. The appeal letter called for a dialogue between the Chinese government and Falun Gong and requested the immediate release of the 130 detained practitioners.

The staff at the Chinese Embassy flatly refused to receive the letter as soon as the words 'Falun Gong' were mentioned. They had no answer when the question was asked, "Why will you not accept our letter?," and "Is the Ambassador afraid to accept our letter?." One of the members of the local government offered to deliver the letter to Canberra's chief minister, who will then pass it on to the Chinese Ambassador.

The Canberra government members were astonished at the complete lack of responsiveness and irrational fear shown by the staff at the Embassy.

In response to the Embassy's claimed fear of the Falun Gong practitioners, the Department of Foreign Affairs and trade has had a 24hr guard box installed at the entrance to the Embassy to "protect" the Embassy staff. It is difficult to understand why the Chinese Embassy would fear people who have done nothing but peacefully appeal for many months and attempted to comply with police instructions as much as possible.