Nordic Falun Gong Association Calls Upon Swedish Government to Take a Righteous Stand for Hunger Strikers at the Masanjia Labor Camp

To Prime Minister G ran Persson, Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and the entire Swedish Government:

One hundred thirty people in the Masanjia Labor Camp are in acute danger. They are on hunger strike in order to ask the people of the world for help, and to show that all imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners are in danger. They do not want to die of starvation, but they have no other way of making their voices heard. In China, practitioners are being cruelly tortured, harassed and brainwashed because they believe in the principle Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. If they don't promise to stop practicing Falun Gong by writing a special "guarantee-letter," their prison sentences are repeatedly prolonged. These people will never be released if we don't reach out our hands to help them. They are in danger of being tortured to death! 130 people have been on a hunger strike for more than 3 weeks. How can we stand silently and let them die? Can we instead conjoin our efforts to release them?

Today, Swedish practitioners will start a 48 hour hunger strike outside the Chinese Embassy to symbolize and to focus on this extremely urgent situation. We demand that the Chinese Government immediately release these 130 practitioners and all the other imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. By this event we appeal to you, the Swedish Government, to make an open and official statement that clearly and specifically spells out your position on this issue.

You wrote to us in a letter "We all have a common responsibility to dare to stand up for religious freedom and human rights. Wherever human dignity is being violated we have to dare to defend it and rehabilitate it." We now ask you to: Show clearly to the Chinese Government and to all the world what Sweden stands for. Show that we dare to stand up for human rights in order to make a better world.

We appeal to you: take all the opportunities available in your contacts with the UN, the EU, and most importantly, with the Chinese Government, to act righteously and lead the way for other countries and all people. To stand up against the evil that cheats, destroys, creates chaos, rapes and even murders will help all human kind.

Our actions today make our future tomorrow.

Best regards

Nordic Falun Gong Association