Chinese NGO demonstrates anti-cult signatures in Geneva

A non-governmental organization from demonstrated with anti-cult banners signed by more than one million Chinese people in , on Monday. 

In conjunction with the beginning of the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the China Association for Cultic Studies (CACA) presented to people, from all walks of life, its collection of signatures for protecting human rights against evil cults, on the Place des Nations in front of the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG). 

Chinese religious leaders, Bishop Fu Tieshan and Buddhist Abbot Shengsang, formed part of the CACA delegation and were among the demonstrators at the square to provide explanations to the audience. 

"At a time when mankind is entering the 21st century, peace and development represent the current mainstream," the CACA said in its proposal in January 2001 for launching a drive to collect a million anti-cult signatures. 

"But at this turn of the century, evil cults are running rampant worldwide, bringing disasters to numerous individuals and families, inflicting a calamity on human rights." 

"Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong are exercising psychological control to desecrate human dignity, defying law, injuring and murdering people," it went on, "The Chinese government has banned Falun Gong and the evil cult according to law, winning heart-felt popular support." 

According to incomplete statistics, the Falun Gong cult has caused the deaths of about 1,700 people. On January 23, 2001, mentally poisoned and cheated by Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong, several Falun Gong addicts set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in central . Among the victims was a girl of only 12 years of age, who died on March 17. 

More than 1.5 million people around signed 100 banners of 100 meters in length. The banners will be submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, after a three-day demonstration in . 

(CCTV, March 20, 2001)