Curious passers-by stopped to watch the procession, led by a brass band, as it wound its way along Willis Street in downtown Wellington.
Banners held aloft read: “Stop the persecution of Falun Gong “
The Falun Gong, followers of a Buddhist-origin practice outlawed in China, marked its 30th anniversary with a protest march in Wellington on April 30.
Pamphlets distributed to the public claim Falun Gong members suffer persecution by Chinese authorities for practising their faith.
Founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992, Falun Gong is based on his teachings and health practices set out in his seminal work, Zhuan Falun.
Li, who left China in 1996, lives in the US, according to Falun Gong members.
His departure from his homeland proved fortuitous. It preceded what Auckland-based human rights lawyer Kerry Gore calls “an unprecedented persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.”
Gore alleges the persecution involves the full range of state-sponsored repression from unlawful arrest and illegal detention to forced labour and custodial torture. Gore also accuses the Chinese authorities of engaging in “involuntary live organ harvesting of vital organs”.
Amnesty International appears to back the Falun Gong’s claims.
The human rights watchdog says Falun Gong practitioners were “held in psychiatric hospitals, in Re-education Through Labour (RTL) facilities or sentenced to long prison terms.”
“Torture and other ill-treatment are endemic in all forms of detention, despite China’s ratification of the UN Convention against Torture in 1968,” Amnesty International adds.
However, Dr. Heather Kavan, a Massey University academic, is sceptical. Kavan says that the “Western governments’ policies regarding human rights issues in China are often largely based on media reports (or on the reports of agencies, such as Amnesty International, who use the media as a source), so the information’s credibility is vital.”
Kavan maintains that Amnesty International’s reports are not independently verified, and mainly come from Falun Gong sources.
But personal anecdotes abound. David Huang, 50, who runs a small business in Auckland, arrived in NZ in 2006 as a refugee. David told Indian Weekender that he was detained at the Guang Zhou City No.1 Labour Camp for three years between 2001 and 2004.
David’s wife, Zhixiang Luo, was detained in Guang Zhou City Huang Pu District Brainwashing Centre, where she went on a hunger strike. She was shifted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guang Zhou City, where she died. David claims his wife had head injuries at the time of her death.
Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Wellington were not available for comment. The Embassy is temporarily closed.
Attempts by Indian Weekender to contact the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s office at Hill St in Wellington were also unsuccessful. A staff who answered the door bell said the Counsellor was out of the country indefinitely