(Clearwisdom.net) More than 2,500 Falun Gong practitioners and supporters held a rally in front of the Washington Monument in Washington DC on July 15, 2011, to condemn the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) brutality against Falun Gong practitioners over the past twelve years, and to celebrate the fact that more people have become aware of the true situation of Falun Gong.

Rally venue

Those who persecute will face trial

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) representative Mr. Li Dayong spoke at the rally. “On July 20, twelve years ago, the CCP started destroying the [sense of] justice and conscience of humanity, by starting a genocidal persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners.

“In mainland China, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested, beaten, and even had their organs harvested, only because they sought to conduct themselves to be better people according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Mr. Li said, “[The persecution] is an evil unprecedented in human history.”

As for those who have participated in the persecution, Mr. Li Dayong said, “What you face will be investigation, the condemnation of the entire society and a grand trial in history.”

Mr. Li said that the whole world is awakening. Falun Gong practitioners have filed more than 30 lawsuits in international courts, targeting the main perpetrators of the persecution. The courts of Spain and Argentina's pioneering support of Falun Gong practitioners' lawsuits against chief perpetrator Jiang Zemin, and the rise of upstanding lawyers defending Falun Gong practitioners in China over the past several years, shows that the grand tide has begun in which the entire international community will soon be comprehensively investigating the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong.

Co-sponsored by senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Tom Coburn (R-MD), S. Res. 232 was introduced in the Senate on July 13, 2011. The resolution supports the movement of the Chinese people's quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations, condemns the CCP's comprehensive and barbaric repression of Falun Gong, and calls for an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Patrick Forrest, Virginia Senate candidate, said at the rally that we need to speak out loudly and clearly for the protection of everyone's basic human rights and freedom.

Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful and rational efforts against the persecution impress people

Mr. Tang Boqiao, chairman of United China of Peace and Democracy, said in his speech that to uphold conscience and justice is a tremendous and unconquerable power.

“I have witnessed over the past more than ten years the Falun Gong practitioners' efforts against the persecution. From the beginning to now, you have remained unchanged in the approaches you've taken, only that your group is even larger, and your drum is even more resounding.” He said, “Your spirits are the same as they were at the beginning, neither overbearing nor servile, peaceful and rational. Such spirit will illuminate the heavens, and last forever.”

Representatives of the China Democracy Party and other groups representing communities from Vietnam, Laos, Uygur and other community leaders also came to the rally to express their support for Falun Gong. They condemned the CCP's brutality and recognized Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful and rational efforts against the persecution.

As long as the persecution continues, Falun Gong practitioners expose the CCP's brutality

Mr. Niu Jinping, his wife and their daughter came to the U.S. six months ago. Mr. Niu was arrested eleven times and spent four and a half years in CCP prisons. He said, “When my wife was persecuted in Beijing, I met with EU Vice-President Edward McMillan-Scott and many reporters. Mr. Cao Dong who met with the EU Vice-President with me was subsequently sentenced to five years of imprisonment.”

Mr. Niu's wife Ms. Zhang Lianying was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to two and a half years of forced labor. She was subjected to inhuman physical abuse and torture during her time in detention. She lost consciousness seven times as a result of severe physical abuse and torture, and she was on the verge of death. Mr. Niu met with EU Vice-president Edward McMillan-Scott on May 21, 2006, and revealed his wife's ordeals to the international community. He was soon placed under Beijing police surveillance.

On April 20, 2008, in front of their four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, more than a dozen police officers arrested Mr. Niu and his wife. Mr. Niu said that the police covered his head with a black hood and pushed him to the ground.

The couple was each sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment and suffered gross physical abuse and torture. Mr. Niu said that four criminal inmates stripped him of all his clothes, and instructed by a guard, they used four electric batons to shock him, including his mouth, anus and genitals. He lost consciousness after they added one more high-voltage electric baton.

When they arrived in the U.S. the three of them distributed information about Falun Gong on the street. Mr. Niu said that they want to raise people's awareness about the CCP's evil nature.

Niu Jinping told the reporter that Ms. Wang Junhua and Ms. Zhang Yinying, two Beijing practitioners that he knew, were arrested on June 29, 2011. “The CCP does bad deeds and arrests people covertly. All practitioners who haven't written a 'repentance statement' to give up practicing Falun Gong are under surveillance.”

Practitioners outside of China persist in their efforts to expose and end the persecution

Ms. Song from Australia flew 24 hours from Melbourne to Washington DC. She said that it's the seventh time that she has come to DC to participate in these activities, to help mainstream society and the American government learn about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Ms. Song was impressed by government officials and supporters at the rally held on July 14 in the U.S. Capitol. She said, “U.S. Members of Congress, religious groups, human rights groups, doctors, and lawyers, all spoke out to express their support for Falun Gong.” She said that practitioners' twelve-year-long tireless truth-clarification efforts have enabled more and more people to learn about Falun Gong and speak out for Falun Gong.

Ms. Wang from Sydney, Australia was in Washington DC for the first time. She said that she came to take part in the Divine Land Marching Band in the parade.

Ms. Wang, a former associate professor in China, went to Sydney in 2004. She met Falun Gong practitioners in Chinatown and started practicing. Shortly after she began her practice, her 800-degree myopia disappeared. She has been active in various truth-clarification activities, and became one of the members of the Divine Land Marching Band.

Ms. Wang carried her baritone horn all the way from Sydney to Washington DC. She felt that it was very worthwhile. She met many people on her way, and told them about Falun Gong. She felt that both she and the people she spoke to benefited greatly.