June 6, 2006 Tuesday

Falun Gong practitioners in the Campbelltown area have lobbied local tiers of government in a bid to highlight alleged atrocities against their fellow members in China.

Ingleburn residents Julia Yi and Stacey Wang said recent reports revealed concentration camps where tens of thousands of falun gong practitioners were held and facing possible death. There were also allegations of organ harvesting.

The women, two of about 30 practitioners in the Campbelltown area, organised a display in Queen St some weeks ago to draw attention to the plight of the falun gong in China. They distributed 10,000 flyers and collected about 300 signatures and forwarded it to Werriwa Federal Labor MP Chris Hayes, asking him to present it to Federal Parliament.

A spokesman for Mr Hayes said he had made representations to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and asked a series of questions about the alleged concentration camps in China and the persecution of the falun gong there.

Campbelltown Mayor Russell Matheson said while he sympathised with the women's stories of atrocities, not much could be done at a local government level. ''No one likes to see any type of atrocities anywhere in the world,'' he said, ''but it must be raised at a federal level. These issues need to progress to a higher level to be dealt with.''

Julia Yi said her parents-in-law had recently been given refugee protection by the Australian Government. ''Falun gong practitioners lose their nationality; they can't go back to China,'' she said. ''There is a practitioner from Glenfield, a student, who cannot go back to China. There are a lot of sad stories.''