Australia News
Starting from April 22, Falun Gong practitioners in Australia held exercise demo sessions, displayed photos, demonstrated torture methods and held press conferences to recount the historical April 25 Appeal. More than a thousand signatures have been collected in support of the global legal actions against Jiang for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The “Petals of Peace” is a global event initiated last October in Australia. Its purpose is to encourage children all over the world to be closely connected and to promote tolerance and mutual understandings, as well as to improve creativity.
On April 25, 2004, Falun Gong practitioners in Melbourne held a series
of activities to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Zhongnanhai appeal.
The events were held at the Royal Exhibition Building, South Bank, Yarra River
Bridge and in front of the Chinese Consulate.
On the afternoon of April 24, 2004, in order to allow more people to learn about facts of the nearly five-year persecution, more than 60 Falun Gong practitioners from Melbourne went to the City Plaza in Downtown area to expose the Jiang’s group’s ruthless persecution of Falun Gong through a symbolic trial on the perpetrator Jiang Zemin.
Sydney Falun Gong practitioners came together the commemoration of the April 25 event in 1999. Lots of people were shocked that in the 21st century there are such human rights atrocities.
Celebrated UK Human Rights lawyer, author and playwright, Mr Geoffrey
Robertson QC, has joined forces with high profile Australian lawyer, author and
filmmaker, Mr Chris Nyst, and a group of Australian university students, to
compile a 500 page complaint to the Human Rights Commission detailing instances
of shocking abuse by Chinese prison guards and government officials perpetrated
on an Australian citizen.
Australian Falun Gong practitioner Phillip Law published an open letter
to the public on April 8. In the letter, he called for help rescuing his
fiancée, Shirley Sie, who has been falsely arrested and held by authorities
following the persecution policies of Jiang Zemin in China.
On April 15, 2004, the 60th session of
the United Nations Human Rights Commission entered its voting period. Sixteen democratic countries including the U.S., Australia, Japan and some
European countries voted against China’s “No-Action” measure, but
twenty-eight other countries voted for the measure.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)
ordered the Melbourne City Council (MCC) to publish an open apology within 14
days in three Chinese newspapers – the Chinese Melbourne Daily, SingTao Daily
and The Australian Chinese Daily – and to pay the Falun Dafa Association’s legal
costs. This ruling marked the end of a year long legal case.
Renowned Chinese Australian
artist and Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Cuiying filed a Petition
to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights via human rights attorney
Mr. Christ Nyst. Australian Nyst Attorney Firm accepted
and processed the petition.
