Human Rights Torch Relay Comes to San Diego

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Please keep our Chinese brothers and sisters in "Burma" (Myanmar) in your prayers. Human Rights Torch Relay Comes to San DiegoBy PhilippEpoch Times San Diego StaffMay 09, 2008SAN DIEGO, CA—Beneath the blue skies of San Diego, onlookers and supporters, gathered at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park for the arrival of the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR). Giving voice to those silenced by the

Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a vast array of speakers and musicians assisted upheld the relay's message that, "The Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China."With the torch held high, Chen Kai, a former Chinese national basketball player, jogged toward the stage, symbolizing the start of the day's event on Saturday, May 3. Moving to the microphone, Gisela Sommer, the coordinator of the HRTR in San Diego spoke to introduce the purpose of the event. "This event today is one of the most significant and far reaching human rights events of this decade. The reason for the human rights torch relay

around the world is to expose the repetitive atrocities that the Chinese communist regime has been committing for decades and especially now."Sommer continued, "Many times when kind-hearted, courageous people stand up for human rights in China and around the world they are labeled as being political, but this is very far from the truth. This is not an event to promote some kind of political agenda. We are here today to help stop the atrocities that the Chinese Communist Regime is committing."Amidst banners and signs, various groups came together to expose China's numerous human rights abuses including the persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) practitioners, house Christians, the Uighur Muslims, human rights lawyers, democracy activists, and Tibetan Buddhists. Also discussed

was the CCP's ties to human rights abuses in other countries such as Darfur, Burma, Zimbabwe, and North Korea.Chen Kai, the event's runner of the torch, spoke about his wish for freedom in China. He is the initiator of the Olympic Freedom T-Shirt Global Movement. Kai began his speech by sharing some of his father's last words to him. "My father passed away about twenty years ago. Before he passed he said this to me, 'After I lived in the United States for two years I suddenly realized that there's something

wrong with the Chinese political culture. The Chinese have an unlimited tolerance for evil and a zero tolerance for being different,'" said Kai."When I thought about what my father said, a few days before he passed I realized what despotism and tyranny does to a person. Mostly it's not material, it's something spiritual, and it takes away your capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, between good and evil. It damages human souls. So this is what despotism and tyranny does," Kai said.Initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, the original flame for the HRTR was lit during a ceremony in Athens, Greece on August 9, 2007. The HRTR is scheduled to

have similar events in 37 countries and 6 continents, with the goal of shining light on China's human rights abuses.Imprisoned and Tortured in ChinaAnother speaker at the event, Geng Sa, shared his experiences of being persecuted in China. Sa had been a teacher at Henan Normal University in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, efore he had been targeted for persecution by the Communist regime in China for

his beliefs in Falun Gong. Sa said that from the beginning of the persecution in July 1999, he and his wife were often detained and followed by agents of the Beijing State Security Bureau and the CCP committee.On May 30, 2001, both he and his wife were illegally imprisoned and sent to the Xinxiang County Detention Center by the local branch of the National Security Bureau and police station. "My wife was brutally beaten and illegally imprisoned for the next two years. I was detained for just over two months. During my detention, I was forced to work over ten hours daily, making paper medicine

boxes. When I refused to do the slave labor, the police beat me and broke my ribs," said Sa. "The pain nearly made me unable to breathe, and I endured terrible pain each night and morning trying to lay down or get up from the board where I slept at night. I went on a hunger strike to protest against the persecution. The guards force-fed me, causing me great pain and injury. Almost all of my teeth were knocked out from their violence, and I now have to wear dentures."Sa went on to mention that his wife had been sent to the Shibalihe Female Forced Labor Camp in Zhengzhou City, where she endured even more brutal treatment. "When I went to visit her, I often found her hands so weak that she could not lift anything. I later came to know that she had often been tortured with the 'killer rope'

because she refused to be brainwashed or 'transformed,'" said Sa. "With both her hands tied behind her back and feet lifted off the ground, she was hung for very long periods of time until she passed out because of pain. These were all recorded in her letter she managed to pass to me."Sa said that his wife was eventually tortured to death on June 4, 2003 with an extremely cruel method known as "strapped clothes," in which the victims are forced to wear a straight jacket. The victims hands are tied behind their backs, brought up over their shoulders, and then tied to their legs. They are then hung up on a window frame and forced to listen to headphones broadcasting propaganda which slanders their faith in Falun Dafa."The experiences of being persecuted in China still haunts me even though I am now in

the United States and I know I am free," said Sa. "I take it as my responsibility to call for an end of the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China by exposing the evil crimes of the Chinese Communist Party which is the chief culprit that launched the persecution of Falun Dafa."Sa continued, saying, "The Chinese people have been lied to and brainwashed by the CCP. I believe that the Chinese people too will soon know the truth and will take the initiative to abandon the CCP."For the latest news and the next stops of the HRTR see www.humanrightstorch.org/http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-5-9/70474.html