(By Father Peter Caruana from the Parish of the Catholic Church in Ingleburn,
NSW.)
24 June 2006
Dear Mr. Howard,
I am Father Peter Caruana
and I am the Parish Priest of the Catholic Church in Ingleburn, NSW. I am not
a Falun Gong practitioner but I became a member of the Coalition to Investigate
the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG). I am speaking as an Australian
citizen, a Catholic, and a human being, I would like to speak out on this great
significant issue that Falun Gong practitioners in China are being arrested, tortured
and harvested for human organs then left to die.
As a Christian, I heard
the Lord saying to me: "Treat others as you would like them to treat you;"
"do to others as you would want them to do to you." ?MT 7/12? If I have
a relative or friend in China that have been treated unjustly, I would be more
moved to speak out. But as a human being, all these people are human beings like
me, and I speak out strongly on their behalf. It is the Lord who also has said
to me if you have an animal an ox or a donkey, would you not untied that animal
and take it out for watering it on the Sabbath day. So if we have compassions
on the animals, how much more we should have for our fellow human beings. And
the Lord also speaks to us in the Gospel of the good Samaritan in Luke Chapter
10, when he sees the person who was beaten by robbers, and left to die on the
side of the road, he does not walk by on the other side, but he stops, and he
starts to attend to the wounds of the person and takes the person to an inn and
make sure that the person is looked after. The Lord is saying to us have compassion
on others, especially in the time of needed. And so while these people in China
are being mistreated, being unjustly imprisoned, being tortured, and being used
as a means of providing organs for transplantation against their will. I need
to speak out from my heart as a human being, a Christian, and a free citizen of
Australia.
I understand that you, our Prime Minister John Howard are going
to China soon to speak with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao. I would like you
not only to ask the President of China if these stories that are coming out of
China about the treatments of the practitioners of Falun Gong are truth, but also
request an independent CIPFG and UN investigation of numerous concentration camps,
of illegal transplantation of organs from these people and also the tortures that
are conducted in prisons. And unless an independent investigation is made, otherwise
the communists in China will continue with their regime of mistreating and being
violent towards these innocent people. So I speak out that the freedom will come
not only to the practitioners of Falun Gong in China but to all people in China
that they may be able to practice whatever religious belief that they have and
to practice whatever exercises they would like to perform. They are not a threat
to the society or the world in general and they deserve to live in peace.
I
also met two Australia Falun Gong practitioners Ying and Doris that both have
their relatives being illegally detained in labor camps at the moment.
Ying’s
brother, Li Liang, 36 years old, is detaining in Division 3 of Tianjin Shuangkou
Forced Labour Camp, Beichen District, Tianjin, China, since October 2004. He was
illegally detained because he refuses to give up his belief in Falun Gong. He
has been detained for long periods in different detention centers and Forced Labor
Camps since the year 1999.
Doris’s mother, Zeng Aihua was arrested on 22nd
May 2206 at home for printing clarifying the truth of Falun Gong’s material and
is still now detained in Shanghai, Pudong Detention Center.
I can understand
that how much worry can be with their families in Australia. So I also plead you,
our Prime Minister to request the Chinese President, Hu Jintao to release them
at once on no conditions because they did no harm to other people and society.
Your Sincerely,
Father Peter Caruana
This letter is support
by 98 local Australia residenters