More than 700 human rights activists from over 35 countries gathered together
in Thailand to raise the awareness of the violation of women’s rights and to look
for joint effort to achieve a solution for human rights improvement, particularly
in the Asia Pacific region.
After applying at the last moment for the AP-NGO
Forum film festival, the Australian film “Three Women” by XV Production
was chosen among 18 other films to be shown during this grand event.
As
the introduction from the forum program booklet stated, “Three Women”
focuses on the current issue of the inhumane persecution of Falun Gong practitioners,
their touching real life story of joys prior to the crackdown, and their families’
experience of being shattered because of the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Upon meeting these survivors, who are now living in Australia, the filmmaker was
inspired by the brave hearts of these three women in their decision to speak out
about their experiences and to actively advocate for justice and respect of human
rights in their home country.
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The
movie’s producer; Vina Lee and one of the three women in the film; Esther Wang,
immediately prepared for their trip and arrived at the Asia Pacific event at Mahidol
University in Thailand.
“Three Women” was shown on the first
night of the forum. The often touching and comparing structure of the real life
story of these three women attracted all the audience. Some participants at the
back row of the room even stood up to watch the movie in order not to miss out
on any words of the story. At the conclusion of the movie, many people were in
tears and still could not withdraw from the touching story. Most of the audience
could not believe there is such serious persecution happening in China. They were
in shock and anger of being unaware of such severe human rights violations against
innocent people.
The producer Vina told the audience that her intention
of making this film is to help raise the awareness of the serious human rights
violations on Falun Gong practitioners in China. One thing always makes her wonder
is why Falun Gong practitioners can be free from torture or be released from prison
if they sign a renouncement, but if they do not sign it their fate is completely
different. She stated that this is the act of controlling people’s minds, which
is only done by dictator Jiang Zemin, who insisted on the crackdown, even against
the advice and better judgement of his own party.
Esther’s mother, sister
and brother-in-law were all put into jail for a few years because of their belief
in Falun Gong, which teaches people to be Truthful, Compassionate and Tolerant.
On the night of the movie show, Esther, one of the characters of the film, addressed
the audience and said that because of the information blockade in China and the
extreme pressure of the Chinese authorities on the Falun Gong issue, she has to
step out to speak up not just for her loved family members but also for those
innocent Chinese Falun Gong practitioners who are suffering much worse situations
but have no chance to speak up for themselves. Esther told the audience that because
the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin sees his own power more important than anything
else, he instigated this senseless persecution harming both their own people and
China itself. In order for China to continue with its rapid development into the
global market, its own internal human rights improvement has to be viewed as first
priority. She asked the audience to spread the story to more people and to help
put effort into ending this persecution as soon as possible.
Encouraged
by the movie show, and the people’s rightful heart of trying to bring the issue
of the persecution of Falun Gong in China to more organisations, in the days following
the film, discussions and conference workshops brought the problem out in front
of people. Whether in the tour bus or at the restaurant table, people started
to talk about the Falun Gong persecution in China. Also, because the “Three
Women” movie was watched by the organisers on the first night, they came
up to the producer and offered help to spread the material of the persecution
of Falun Gong to all the representatives of the countries who came to the forum
event. Many of these delegates wanted to help spread this issue to their own country.
It
was indeed a golden opportunity to meet so many people and raise the issue of
the persecution of Falun Gong. These people are all willing to help and can provide
assistance to raise this issue to the United Nations and to the NGOs. These people
came from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, The Philippines, Thailand, Burma,
Laos, Iran, Turkey, Nepal, Malaysia, Fiji, East Timor and many other countries
and regions. There are many places that the truth cannot be conveyed because of the geographic reasons, yet now, many of these people can take the truth back to their own country. It is believed that the more the truth can be delivered to the people of the world, the sooner the persecution will come to an end.
Posting date: 9/Jul/2004
Original
article date: 8/Jul/2004
Category: World News
