Human rights campaigners have visited Bendigo to voice protests over alleged mistreatment of Chinese political prisoners.
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The campaigners aim to visit 200 Australian towns and cities, raising awareness about alleged persecution and torture.
They also want to bring attention to allegations of state-sanctioned, forced live organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience, including those who practice Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation movement that became popular in China during the 1990s. In 1999 China banned it, branding it a cult.
Falun Gong practitioner Lucy Lie said as many as 1 million prisoners of conscience may have been killed for organs.
She hoped Australian politicians would follow the lead of colleagues in Europe and the United States of America.
The US congress condemned China for state-sanctioned forced-organ harvesting in June.
“We hope the federal government will introduce a similar call for the communist regime will stop persecuting the Falun Gong and stop the killing,” she said.
Many Falun Gong followers say while in prison they were tortured, recounting stories that included beatings, electrocutions, sexual abuse, solitary confinement and sleep deprivation.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
