The Global Human Rights Torch Relay is coming to Dublin. The ‘Torch Relay’ is an international campaign that aims to bring an end to all human rights abuses against people in China. It seeks, in particular, to highlight the persecution of those who practice Falun Gong by the Chinese authorities. Falun Gong is a system of personal improvement, introduced to the public in 1992 by Li Honzhi, involving meditation, exercises and moral teachings akin to Buddhism and Taoism, but with its roots in science as well as spirituality.

The relay, which began in Athens in August, is scheduled to pass through most major EU cities and will arrive in Dublin on October 17. The campaign is being run by the ‘Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong’ (CIPFG). It aims not just to raise international awareness of the “despicable human rights situation” in China, and to end the “intolerable” organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners, but also – in the event that no change is forthcoming in the short term – to promote a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

According to the Organ Harvest Investigation report, in China there have been over 40,000 organ transplant operations with “unexplainable organ sources” between 2000 and 2005.
Patricia McKenna harbours no doubts regarding the extent of the crisis. “It has been confirmed,” she insists, “that large number of hospitals in China, including military hospitals, have been harvesting vital organs of living Falun Gong practitioners to use in organ transplantation.”
Menawhile, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has reported that 66% of all alleged torture victims in China were Falun Gong practitioners. The US State Department’s annual report for 2006 pointed out that Falun Gong adherents “constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in the re-education-through-labour camps.”
CIPFG states that the figure is likely to be much higher.
McKenna pointed out that unless the situation improves CIPFG will shortly be calling for an international boycott of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing.

“The Olympics is a fine spirit that helps men and women to play and compete fairly, with respect and dignity,” McKenna says. “Bearing that in mind, we feel it is extremely inappropriate to hold the 2008 Games in Beijing in the present situation.
“If our athletes go there and participate in the games, it is in effect saying that they support – and agree with – the Chinese Communist regime’s human rights violations and crimes.
“If we keep silent this time, we may regret doing so in the future – like, for example, with what happened in the 1936 Berlin Games, after which the world fell into a state of remorse. We made the promise then, never to allow this kind of evil to happen again.”
Members of the public are being encouraged to join CIPFG in the human rights torch relay on October 17. The demonstration starts at 1pm on the top of Grafton Street, Dublin.
“We will be calling on the Irish government, the Olympic Council of Ireland and all Irish athletes to join our efforts to help China to improve its human rights situation,” McKenna concludes. “If the situation does not improve, Irish athletes must not participate in the Beijing Olympic Games.”

For further information on the campaign, log onto CIPFG’s website at www.cipfg.com