Letter: Acknowledge persecution of Falun Gong

CSM: Regarding the May 2 article, "Cheers outweigh protests at Hong Kong's Olympic torch relay": From this article and others, I have noticed that it is common to characterize Falun Gong "as a "spiritual movement banned elsewhere in China as a deviant cult." But this is not an accurate characterisation of the situation.

Falun Gong is not just "banned," it is mercilessly persecuted in China. Adherents are tortured to death, shocked with electric batons, put into psychiatric facilities, and injected with nerve-damaging drugs. They are put into forced labor camps for years without trial, their houses are ransacked, their families destroyed, and there is evidence that they are systematically killed for their organs to be sold, on a mass scale.

To say the practice is merely "banned" is ridiculous. If Falun Gong were only banned there would not be such a mass movement around the world to stop the persecution.

Besides that, when you refer to the Dalai Lama, you would use a neutral description. You would definitely not use the violent language of the Communist Party to describe him.

Matt Robertson
Wanniassa, Australia