Falun Gong Practitioners Continue to Die from Olympic Arrests

Falun Gong Practitioners Continue to Die from Olympic Arrests


SAN FRANCISCO—As the Beijing Olympics approaches, human rights in China is not improving, with Falun Gong practitioners being arrested in the thousands specifically because of the Olympics. A number of them have been killed by the Chinese regime already.

July 20 marked the ninth year of the persecution of Falun Gong—in the lead up to the Olympics, this ongoing tragedy, which has claimed at least 3,000 lives (the actual figure could be in the tens of thousands), must not be forgotten.

To mourn the practitioners who have died in the Olympic arrests, Falun Gong practitioners will be holding a rally at the Chinese Consulate and will have pictures of all those who have died laid out around the consulate. Among the recent deaths is Yu Zhou, a folk musician famous in China.

WHAT: Rally with photo display mourning those who have recently died from persecution

WHERE: 1450 Laguna St. San Francisco

WHEN: 2-4pm, Saturday, July 26, 2008

Contact: Dr. Sherry Zhang, 415.845.5295, Huy Lu 650.278.0394

What is Falun Gong?

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation and exercises from Buddha school, with teachings that emphasize living by three principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Practiced in over 70 countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong in China, in July 1999 China’s then-Communist leader launched a nationwide, brutal campaign to “eradicate” the practice. The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 3,168 deaths and over 44,000 cases of torture. Millions have been detained or sent to labor camps without trial.

The U.S. department of states country reports on human rights has confirmed and condemned the government of China’s wide spread use of arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture and execution resulting from torture associated with the 9 years campaign of persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners in China.