"Free Zhao Ming"

Friday, April 27, 2001, there was a powerful rally to bring to the government's attention the plight of tortured Trinity College Dublin student Zhao Ming. The Students Union, the Graduate Student Union, One World Society, Friends of Zhao Ming (http://www.fozm.org) and Amnesty Trinity all collaborated on arranging the event.

Events have been running in the college for weeks to raise the student's awareness of Zhao's story. Amnesty Trinity group has acted for a weeklong letter writing campaign to help get their fellow student released. Another Letter writing campaign collected more that 2000 letters and signature collecting has been carried out for a week prior to the event.

The rally started outside the dinning hall of Trinity College Dublin where powerful speeches were delivered by representatives from each group. The vice Provost of Trinity and Ms Mary Lawlor (ex-director of Amnesty Irish Section), the Director of Frontline, a human rights organization, also were invited to give their speeches. The speeches drew a crowd of more than 100 people students and members of the public.

During the speeches two Chinese boys walked up to a practitioner and asked what was going on. A Falun Gong practitioner gave them a leaflet and told them the purpose of the march. When these boys saw that an Irish student was practicing Falun Gong they looked really surprised and asked about the benefits. After telling them the truth they said that the supported what we were doing but could not practice because it was illegal in china.

After the speeches the students marched to the Foreign Affairs Office. It was a 10-minute walk through the busiest streets in Dublin. The public was curious and asked for leaflets and information.

When we reached the Ministers offices members of the public had joined the march. At this stage the student president of Trinity encouraged the students to block the street. The students blocked the street on the busiest square in Dublin with assistance of the police. (One would be naturally comparing the Chinese police with them). The sounds of chanting "We won't go away, free our friend Zhao Ming TODAY" coupled with the deafening sound of car horns made for an electric atmosphere.

The disruption to traffic was short approximately 10 minutes. Some 600 letters (written by students asking the Minister to get Ming released) were delivered to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and then the students left.

It was a powerful, electric event that helped to raise the public's awareness of a trinity student who is being tortured because he practices Falun Gong. More and more kind Irish people are watching the abuses of human rights that are escalating in China, with growing concern.

Friends of Zhao Ming

27 April 2001