Falun Gong followers have likened Chinese officials to Hitler’s Nazis and urged
Prime Minister John Howard to challenge visiting Premier Wen Jiabao over human
rights abuses.
Just hours after Mr Howard signed a uranium export deal with
Premier Wen, Falun Gong practitioners converged outside federal parliament holding
banners and graphic photos, demanding an end to Chinese "concentration camps".
Protesters held up gruesome photos of bodies with organs removed, claiming
the practice targeting Falun Gong members was happening in China.
"They
use a mafia-style method … they kidnap dissidents," former Chinese diplomat
Chen Yonglin told the rally.
"There are over 4,000 people (that have)
already been used for organ harvesting and 2,000 others … their fate (is) uncertain."
Mr Chen, a former diplomat at China’s Consulate-General in Sydney, sought
asylum after claiming Beijing had up to 1,000 spies in Australia.
He was
granted a protection visa six weeks after he abandoned his posting last May.
Mr
Chen said China could not be trusted.
"We feel upset that the Australian
government is moving towards exporting uranium to the Chinese communist government,"
he said.
"We urge members of the Australian parliament, the prime
minister, to mention the human rights abuse in China before the Chinese premier.
"Stick to democracy and human rights values.
"(Do not)
allow the Chinese communist government to make nuclear bombs for Australian people."
Falun Gong member Michael Molnar said crimes against humanity must not
go unnoticed.
"The Chinese communist party is presiding over this
monstrous penal system and should be considered by the international community
as even worse than Hitler’s Nazis in view of the fact that they have embarked
on the genocide of up to 100 million innocent people," he said.
The
United Nations is looking into allegations by Falun Gong that thousands of its
followers are being held at a Chinese "concentration camp" and some
have been killed.
The spiritual movement, banned in China, alleges that
up to 6,000 people at a time are being kept at a state-run camp in the Sujiatun
district.
It says some had been taken to have their organs removed and
sold, others had their organs removed before they were killed.
Earlier,
Falun Gong members claimed victory in their legal battle against restrictions
on their protests outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer began signing certificates in March 2002, barring protesters
from displaying large banners and using loudspeakers outside the embassy to protest.
Lawyer Bernard Collaery, representing Falun Gong, told the ACT Supreme
Court that Mr Downer had stopped signing the certificates.
Under the agreement
which settled the case, Falun Gong promised to keep its protests within certain
constraints while Mr Downer reserved the right to reissue the certificates if
he believed it appropriate.
©AAP 2006
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=94130
Posting date: 3/April/2006
Original article date: 3/April/2006
Category:
Media Report