July 21, 2001

A Chinese meditation group marked the second anniversary of the political crackdown of its movement Friday camped outside the Chinese consulate.

"We are here to appeal to the people of the world to help end the mass slaughter in China," said Huishar Chen, holding a banner at the corner of 10th Street and 6th Avenue southwest.

Falun Gong, which practices a system of meditation and exercise based on the principles of "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance," is banned in China.

During the week-long, round-the-clock sit-in that ended Friday, Calgary practitioners showed photographs of people that had been tortured and killed for belonging to what is considered to be a [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] in China.

Chen says that since July 20, 1999, when Chinese President Jiang Zemin loosed a campaign against practitioners, 262 people are known to have been killed.

She says more than 50,000 have been tortured and jailed, and believes the violence has escalated since China received the bid for the 2008 Olympics.

"We hope that officers in the Chinese consulate will pass on our message to leaders in the Chinese government, " said Chen.

Their message -- "China: Stop Persecuting Falun Gong" -- was spelled out on bright yellow T-shirts, but protesters had also hoped to deliver a letter to the consulate.

According to Kai Liu, who practices Falun Gong in Calgary, consulate officials refused to meet with the group. Earlier in the week, Falun Gong were asked to leave the premises at night.

The consulate did not return the Herald's calls.

Ian Oliver, who left Thursday for a Washington, D.C. rally that is expected to attract 3,000 Falun Gong supporters said he is reeling from news last week that 25 practitioners had been killed in Heilongjiang.

"In Heilongjiang, Alberta's so-called sister province, the authorities could arrest and murder you for practicing Falun Gong out in the open."