The Human Rights Committee of the Foreign Affairs Commission...

The Human Rights Committee of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the Italian Chamber of representatives held the first ever hearing on religious freedom with particular emphasis on China and Vietnam. Committee chairperson, Gennaro Malgieri, said the Italian Parliament intends to act upon the representations made by Erping Zhang, international spokesperson for Falun Gong, Kok Ksor, president of the Montagnard Foundation, Quan Nguyen, chairman of the International Committee to support the non-violent movement for Human Rights in Vietnam and Enver Can, president of the East Turkestan National Congress. "We shall give due importance to the plight of oppressed populations and their dramatic circumstances. Respect for human rights is not and must not be treated as a rhetorical issue," Malgeri said. He also announced that the Committee intends to hold further hearing on the persecution of journalists and Christian minorities under Islamic regimes.
Committee member Claudio Azzolini, who also heads the Italian delegation to the Council of Europe pledged the commitment of his group to bring up the issue of religious repression at the Council. "The current developments on the world stage tends to focus public opinion more on talk of war, but the battles of oppressed groups must not be consigned to indifference and I pledge that we will pass on the testimonies heard here today to that forum."
Erping Zhang, international spokesperson of Falun Gong, spoke of the repression of the meditation movement adherents in China since the Communist authorities outlawed it in 1999, when the Chinese leadership - that had initially supported the meditation practice - realised that practitioners outnumbered the membership of the Communist party. Since then 492 practitioners have been killed in police custody and over 1,000 sent to labour camps and mental asylums.
Kok Ksor, founder of the Montagnard Foundation spoke of the repression of the Protestant Christian minority by the Vietnamese authorities, including torture, arrest, long jail terms without trial, disappearances and even crucifixion. "Why does Hanoi persecute us Christians? The reason Vietnam's religious persecution is about power and control by the communist party over the people. To keep their power they must repress us," Ksor told the Committee. (to be continued)