(Minghui.org) On the evening of April 24, 2012, Falun Gong practitioners in Sydney, Australia held a candlelight vigil downtown in Belmore Park to observe the 13th anniversary of the April 25 appeal in Beijing. Large banners exclaimed: “Falun Dafa is Great”, “Commemorating the 13th Anniversary of April 25 appeal”, “The World needs Truth-Compassion-Forbearance,” and “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong.” Practitioners called for an end to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong and for the chief perpetrators to be brought to justice.

 
Falun Gong practitioners hold candlelight vigil in Belmore Park, Sydney

 
Practitioner Ray once went to China to explain the facts of Falun Gong

She started to practice Falun Gong due to April 25 appeal

Luan Shuang was a human resources manager of Shengang Corporation in Shenzhen, China. She was shocked at the CCP’s lies regarding the April 25 appeal. The CCP said that Falun Gong practitioners had “surrounded” the Zhongnanhai compound in 1999. She wondered who would risk losing their future in a society crazily seeking money and material possessions. She recalled, “I asked some Falun Gong practitioners and learned that practitioners were seeking lawful rights and freedom of belief. They had a peaceful appeal at the Beijing Appeals Office. I thought these people were so wonderful and I wanted to practice Falun Gong. So I started.”

She continued, “On January 1, 2001, I went to Tiananmen Square and shouted ‘Falun Dafa is great’ and ‘Truth-Compassion-Forbearance’. Police took me and detained me at the Chaoyang No.1 Detention Center. Many practitioners were detained there. Every prison in Beijing at that time was full of Falun Gong practitioners.”

In 2004, Shuang came to Australia. She said, “For the past ten years, like other practitioners, I have continuously explained the facts of Falun Gong to people to help stop the inhuman persecution.”

An Australian practitioner exposes the persecution in China

Australian practitioner Ray can speak Chinese fluently. He said he had sought the truth and the real meaning of life since he was 14 years old. He was shocked when he read the book Zhuan Falun in a library. The principles in the book are clear and profound. He felt a strong energy field when he practiced the exercises. He realized that Dafa is a great practice. Thus he started to learn Chinese whole-heartedly.

In August 2004, he went to China and taught English in a high school. But in his mind, he intended to take the opportunity to explain the facts to Chinese people who were misled by the CCP’s propaganda. He said that once there was a cartoon in his school that slandered Falun Gong. “Every night there were security guards walking around. I jumped down from the second floor of my dormitory when nobody was looking. I tore down the cartoon and burned it behind the building.”

He wanted people to know the facts about Falun Gong and so conducted many efforts, “The gate of the school was locked at night, but there was a hole in the wall surrounding the school. I crawled out through that hole and went downtown by taxi to post Falun Gong informational materials. I copied CDs with information exposing the CCP-staged Tiananmen self-immolation. I printed Falun Gong information on A4 size paper and posted them on walls. Sometimes I placed the information materials in front of a building. Three months later, the police found out I was a Falun Gong practitioner and started to investigate me. Once eight police officers entered my dormitory and took me to a house behind a hotel. They warned me not to tell people about Falun Gong and intimidated me, saying they would fire my boss and colleagues if I continued talking about Falun Gong.”

Ray said, “We won’t stop protesting the persecution or succumb to the CCP. We will continue our efforts until the end of the persecution.”

Supporting practitioners' protest

A tourist from Canada said he knew about the persecution of Falun Gong in China and had heard of the CCP’s organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners. He could not understand why the CCP conducted such acts. He wished the CCP’s inhuman violence would stop as soon as possible.

Practitioner Gao said many passersby accepted Falun Gong informational materials. Some Chinese people said that they hoped the persecution of Falun Gog would stop as soon as possible.

Background

On April 25, 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to the Beijing Appeals Office to appeal peacefully. They requested the release of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners unlawfully detained in Tianjin, an adjacent city about 60 miles east of Beijing. They demanded freedom to practice Falun Gong and publish Falun Gong books. Their peaceful and rational manner in the process impressed the world's people.