Falun Gong practitioners will stage an appeal outside of Parliament house on Tuesday 30 May 2006 calling for the Federal Government to participate in an investigation into organ harvesting from live Falun Gong detainees in China.
John Fitzgerald, a professor in Asia-Pacific studies at the Australian National University, told a federal parliamentary committee that many in leadership positions in China felt the Government’s banning of Falun Gong and its subsequent persecution was a terrible mistake.
Falun Gong practitioners in Canberra participated in Australia’s “National Folk Festival” on April 13-17, 2006. Most of the visitors had heard of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong, and they expressed their admiration for the practitioners’ uncompromising spirits and their best wishes to the practitioners.
Mr Collaery told reporters this was a sensible decision and inevitable because of the impact on freedom of expression. He said Mr Downer was apparently reluctant to justify his statements that noise and music from demonstrators was impeding the work of Chinese diplomats and offending the dignity of the mission.
Falun Gong practitioners converged outside federal parliament demanding an end to Chinese “concentration camps”. 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.
