(Clearwisdom.net) At 8:00 p.m. on April 18, 2006, more than 400 Falun Gong practitioners lit candles in Washington DC, the capital of the USA, mourning with deep grief for Falun Gong practitioners who have died as a result of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution during the past seven years. They also called upon the international community to join the "Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" (CIPFG) to conduct a complete investigation into the CCP's criminal acts and immediately stop the inhuman persecution.

On the evening of April 18, 2006, Falun Gong practitioners in Freedom Park on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC commemorate fellow practitioners who have died as a result of persecution.

The opening speech of the candlelight vigil:

Thoroughly Investigate and Completely Stop the Persecution

Today, Falun Dafa disciples from around the world light candles, and kindle tears and deep grief.

In the past seven years, healthy live Falun Dafa disciples, one after another, have had their lives devastated and torn up by the vile CCP's evil talons.

Gao Rongrong, a pretty young woman, suffered electric baton shock for seven hours on end, severely disfiguring her face. After the case was exposed to the international community, the vile CCP blatantly abducted and murdered her.

Liu Jizhi, 51 years old, is the mother of two daughters. The morally bankrupt police officer He Xuejian raped her, a woman whose age is similar to that of his own mother. Liu Jizhi said in grief, "Kind-hearted people, what wrong have I done? Just because I want to be a good person, to be healthy, I was subjected to such humiliation."

Wang Lijun is a citizen from Dalian City. Three times the criminals in forced labor camps pulled the strips between her legs back and forth, causing bloody wounds on sensitive areas. Instigated by the division head, the criminals rammed brushes used for cleaning shoes into her vagina, causing massive vaginal bleeding.

University graduate Liu Haibo was stripped of all his clothes. Police pushed the longest electric baton they could find into his bottom and gave his organs electric shocks. Liu died immediately on the site.

Wang Yuhua, who is in her 60s, was immobilized on a tiger bench. The guards tortured her once every five minutes, and she repeatedly lost consciousness, but the torturers repeatedly doused her with cold water and boiling water to revive her so they could carry out further torture on her.

Heaven is crying. The merciless persecution of good people who cultivate "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" still continues. The revelation of the live organ harvests from Falun Gong practitioners in the secret Sujiatun concentration camp in Shenyang City further lifts the dark curtain on the harvesting and selling of Falun Gong practitioners' organs nationwide, including forced labor camps, prisons, police, hospitals, and gangsters. Falun Gong practitioners, one after another, are dismembered while they are still alive, and the remains of their bodies are cremated to destroy the evidence.

[...]

Right now, in order to destroy the evidence, the CCP is attempting to accelerate the mass killing of detained Falun Gong practitioners. Each minute of waiting means the killing of more innocent lives.

The Falun Dafa Association and Minghui/Clearwisdom Website has set up the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, demanding a comprehensive and independent investigation into all the crimes the CCP has committed in facilities where Falun Gong practitioners have been locked up during the past seven years. We call upon any international organization and government with conscience to join in this independent investigative organization to conduct a true investigation into the CCP's crimes and immediately stop the inhuman persecution.