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EDMONTON, Alberta—Edmonton was the latest city in Canada to host a rally to welcome the Global Human Rights Torch (HRTR) relay on Wednesday, May 21. The relay, which started in Athens last August and will travel in all to over 150 cities on five continents, delivers the message that "Olympics and Crimes against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China." An initiative of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), HRTR is a global grassroots campaign calling for an end to all human rights atrocities in China before the Beijing Olympics in August. The event in Edmonton began with opening remarks by host Chi Yeh who, on behalf of event organizers and participants, sent "heartfelt condolences" to the victims of the Sichuan earthquake and their families. "We are gathered here today in peace and solidarity to promote human rights for the Chinese people; we are not against China," Yeh said before introducing the first speaker.
Dr. Minnan Liu, representing CIPFG, pointed out that China was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games on the condition that it improve human rights. "But since then, exactly the opposite has happened. The Chinese regime hijacked the Games to have an excuse to intensify its persecution of peaceful people," Liu said. "In 1936, the world was duped by the Nazis' glittering Olympic mask. In August, the Chinese regime will try to do the same thing, but we know better this time. We will not allow ourselves to become silent accomplices this time," she said. Scott Fenwick, the incoming president of Walk for Darfur, spoke of the crimes committed by China outside of its borders by supporting genocidal regimes. Fenwick said China helps feed a "genocidal economy" by investing in Sudan and also supplies Sudan with weapons. "Over the past five years, China has been the lead protector of the Khartoum regime, emboldening them to defy U.N. demands to stop the killing," he said. "The Olympics provide a great opportunity to raise awareness to China's human rights abuses inside and outside its borders. But we must also look to beyond the Games to ensure that the abuses do, in fact, end once and for all." Abe Silverman, Vice President of B'nai Brith, told the crowd that moments before the rally was about to commence, an acquaintance gave him two bricks from a crematorium in the Auschwitz concentration camp that he will later present to the greater Jewish community. "I think it's a little more than coincidence that I should have received these artifacts from the death camps, where a million and a half little children died, and on the day that we're all gathered here to talk about human rights," he said. Silverman went on to say that today, many people including Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners are being repressed in China, and that the Chinese regime "enables dictators to commit their atrocities in Sudan and Rwanda." "The Jewish experience has all too often been that when we faced persecution, we faced it alone. That is why, today, B'nai Brith Canada stands in solidarity with all the victims of Chinese oppression around the world who yearn for the respect, tolerance, and freedom they deserve. We ask China to improve its record of human rights, and respect for human life," Silverman said.
Chunyan Huang, who has experienced first-hand persecution in China because of her belief in Falun Gong, said that China's human rights abuses have "substantially" increased ahead of the Olympics. She presented reports stating that 1,878 more Falun Gong practitioners have been detained this year within a span of only two months. "It is not acceptable that a country hosting the summer Olympic Games behaves without any principles before the Games. The Olympic Charter, which is founded on human dignity, must be respected, instead of using the Olympics as an excuse to persecute Falun Gong practitioners and other repressed groups," she said. Huang referred to an investigation by former Edmonton MP and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour and prominent human rights lawyer David Matas which presents compelling evidence that the Chinese regime has been harvesting and selling organs from Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale since 2001. "I call on all people of justice and conscience to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong before the Olympic Games," Huang said. Speaking on behalf of the Canada Tibet Committee, Foster Goudwhil said that the Tibetan people have been oppressed by the Chinese regime and that their culture is under threat of being "extinguished". "Their religion is totally suppressed, and only the superficial persona of Buddhism is allowed to go on there. Other than that, there is continued repression of the monks and the nuns," Goudwhil said. Goudwhil also talked about the recent violence and killings in Tibet and said the international community should not stand by quietly while hundreds of people are being killed there. "It has been confirmed that over150 Tibetan people, were killed," said Goudwhil, noting that the actual number might be higher since Chinese authorities did not allow media coverage. "I just wonder if we have the Olympic Games in the United States again or in North America or a Western country, and…several hundred people were killed a few months before the Olympic Games, would there not be an international investigation about this?" Goudwhil said. "The Chinese government has to be pressured to change, and it's up to the international community to respond from a stance of conscience and demand that china change if it wants to be a part of an international community. We want to see a China that's free." The event concluded with a symbolic torch walk by the participants. The torch will make its next stop in Vancouver on Sunday May 25.
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