Jul 22, 2005

PEACEFUL APPEAL: Local Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appeal in front of the Chinese Consulate on 42nd Street and 12th Avenue on July 20. Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese Communist Party six years ago on July 20, 1999. Wenyi Wang/Epoch Times

NEW YORK - As hundreds gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate on 42nd Street last Wednesday, the event's coordinator, Ms. Rong Yi, kneels on the sidewalk, doing last minute sewing of the group's banner.

The banner, later held facing the Chinese consulate across the street, read: "Stop the suppression of Falun Gong."

The group of people who practice Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice, gathered to commemorate six years since the practice was banned in China on July 20, 1999.

"This must be stopped," said Ms.Yi. Yi works for a non-profit human rights organization in Manhattan and practices Falun Gong herself. On July 20, 1999, she recalls being contacted in New York with news from China that Falun Gong practitioners were being arrested and beaten, and Falun Gong books were being destroyed and burned by the government.

In the past six years, the Chinese Communist Party has used its state-run media, its control over the Internet, and China's police and state security forces to suppress Falun Gong, according to Yi.

Now, human rights groups outside of China have confirmed that 2,700 Falun Gong practitioners have died because of the persecution, and hundreds of thousands more are being unlawfully held in prisons, mental hospitals, and labor camps.

July 20, 1999 "is the day the Chinese Communist Party signed its death certificate," said Eric Meltzer, 21, a student from Emerson University in Boston, who practices Falun Gong himself and came to support the event.

Meltzer's Caucasian face stands out among the mostly Chinese crowd. He said he has been interested in meditation since he was young and got into Falun Gong in high school. Now, during a summer internship in New York, he does Falun Gong meditation with a group in Central Park on the weekends and often comes to the Chinese consulate after work to meditate or hand out flyers.

"I'm sure the people in there [the Chinese Consulate] are frustrated with their government in China," said Meltzer, "I hope those officials come join us because soon the whole world will see what's happening in China and condemn the Chinese Communist Party for what it's done."

Passersby at the Chinese Consulate didn't look too shocked. For many, the sight of Falun Gong practitioners handing out flyers on New York street corners, meditating, or holding torture reenactments has become familiar.

Eyal Amiel, a bicycle taxi driver, said he has seen Falun Gong practitioners' torture reenactments around Times Square and Columbus Circle, as well as in London when he was traveling. He shared his sympathies with those appealing in front of the consulate and then drove away with a loud, "Good luck!"

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-7-22/30499.html