Sydney Practitioners Hold Press Conference and Candlelight Vigil Outside Chinese Consulate General

On the afternoon of January 14, over 100 practitioners held a press conference in front of Chinese Consulate General to disclose and strongly condemn the Jiang regime's escalating brutal persecution. They exposed these crimes to Australia and the whole world.

In a statement to the media, practitioners pointed out that the numbers of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death had increased to 343 from last month's 323. It is the direct result of new orders issued by Jiang and Luo's regime at the beginning of this year to step up its persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Reports of 20 murders of practitioners were uncovered in the last 22 days.

Spokesperson of Falun Dafa Association of Australia John Deller said that the actual number of practitioners who have died from police brutality since the persecution of Falun Gong began is believed to be much more than that; according to the news leaked out from within the government, the number of practitioners who were persecuted to death because they refused to give up practice is over 1,600. In today's China, simply because of believing in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, citizens were murdered by Jiang and Luo's regime. This kind of atrocity is unheard of.

Australian practitioner Dai Zhizhen is a mother of a 22-month baby girl. She said while choked up, "My husband was persecuted to death because he practiced Falun Gong. He had been detained and was interrogated and tortured with electric batons. Last time I saw him was on January 10 of last year. Then he disappeared in his hometown Guangzhou. In July 2001, his body was found in a deserted cottage. I hope the Australian government will help me get my husband's ashes back. I was afraid I would disappear also and nobody would know my whereabouts. I think the reason we had survived was because we are Australians."

Artist and practitioner Zhang Cuiying who had been detained in a Chinese jail for 8 months because she went to appeal for Falun Gong said, "These death cases are just the tip of the iceberg. In China, thousands upon thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners are illegally detained, jailed, thrown into forced labor camps, subjected to forced brainwashing and brutally tortured. Every minute they face threats of being persecuted to death. Their conditions are alarming. We appeal to governments of countries, human rights organizations and all kindhearted people to help stop the inhuman state terrorism happening in China."

After the press conference, practitioners once again sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate evils. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., practitioners held a candlelight vigil for the 343 practitioners killed in the persecution. At the top of each hour, 200 practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts. The energy field of righteous thoughts frightened and eradicated evil.