Falun Gong protest at Chinese Embassy receives first NCA approval since
2002
On Tuesday 8 August, erected mass banners will be included
in the ongoing protest by Falun Gong practitioners outside the Chinese Embassy
in Canberra for the first time in four years – a peaceful act that Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer had prohibited from March 2002 until March 2006. Mr
Downer’s certificates also prevented the demonstrators to apply under local
National Capital Authority guidelines.
”I believe that Mr Downer has
stopped signing prohibitive certificates as he has no evidence to provide the
court to validate his actions. A declaration from Mr Downer or the court is vital
to prove that the certificates were groundless and that peaceful Australians should
be protected over the political interests of a foreign mission,” said Jane
Dai, one of the two plaintiffs for the case.
Current
status of ACT Supreme Court action against Mr Downer:
· Mr Downer
has continually failed to provide evidence of his accusation that the Falun Gong
protests “impair the dignity of the Chinese Mission” and insists that
his accusations towards the protest were not wrong.
· Mr Downer
voluntarily stopped issuing the prohibitive certificates and agreed to pay the
plaintiffs’ costs in an attempt to settle the case.
· Mr Downer
continually described the protest as “loudspeakers blaring loud slogans and
music into the Chinese Embassy through the day and the night”, complaints
which the Australian Federal Police have verified as unsubstantiated.
·
At a directions hearing on 24th July 2006, the Registrar again ordered Mr Downer
to provide his affidavit on the 4th September, before the next directions hearing
on the 11th September 2006.
· While the plaintiffs realise Mr Downer
has the full armoury of the government legal system at his disposal, they simply
wish the court to examine the truth of what has occurred.
Background
information: During the past seven years, reports of torture and killing
of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist regime, and recently, in
March 2006, the disclosure of “organ harvesting” from live Falun Gong
practitioners, severely distressed millions of Falun Gong practitioners, and traumatised
relatives, friends and millions of kind hearted people around the world. After
the cruelty of the persecution was disclosed, Falun Gong practitioners have held
peaceful protests in front of the Chinese embassies or consulates all over the
world. Mr Downer is the only Foreign minister who misused the Vienna Convention
to restrict Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful protest against the killing
by the Chinese Communist Regime.
Posting date: 8/Aug/2006
Original
article date: 7/Aug/2006
Category: Australian News