Falungong members gather in Jakarta to share experiences

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some 700 members of the Falungong international spiritual movement from 10 countries are gathering here for their second conference, a forum for them to share their experiences.

During the conference's opening session on Saturday, the participants listened to testimony from their counterparts from the movement's place of origin in China.

The Chinese authorities have banned the Falungong organization and arrested many of its followers.

However, Joko Buntar, who chairs the Indonesian Falun Gong Association, asserted that the conference was not aimed at approving a stand to be taken in response to what was happening to members of the group in China.

"The conference has nothing to do with politics. What we are doing during the conference is sharing our experiences in studying and in practicing Falungong," Joko told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the conference, which runs through Sunday.

Titled "Indonesia Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference", the meeting is the second after the first was held last year. The international organization was established in 1996.

The main teachings of Falungong, which was introduced to the world in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, comprise truth, compassion and patience.

Members of Falungong are encouraged to uphold morality in every aspect of their lives. They practice meditation as a way to achieve moral virtue.

Apart from Indonesian members, the conference is being attended by foreign members from many countries, including China, the United States, Hong Kong and Australia, and from various ethnic backgrounds.

Head of the city administration's National Unity Office Effendy Annas officially opened the conference.

Joko claimed that in Indonesia alone, the number of Falun Gong members had reached 3,000, while the movement had millions of members worldwide.

Yoseph Agus, a member of Falungong in Indonesia, said that pursuing self-restraint was his main goal in joining the movement.

"Meditation has kept me healthy. I've never suffered from migraine since I started practicing Falungong in May 2001," he said.

The number of Falungong members in China have increased so rapidly that the government there fears the membership of the group could exceed that of the ruling Communist party.

Several Chinese attendees told the conference about the repressive measures their government had taken against them.

Lily Tung said that she was tortured by Chinese security officials last year after she refused to renounce her Falun Gong membership.

The 31-year-old woman, who claimed to be nearly crippled in both her legs after the torture, said that the level of repression had reached an alarming level.

"My case was one among thousands of other gross violations of human rights cases in China," she asserted.

She said that what they were doing was merely practicing Falun Gong, which had nothing to do with politics.

"Therefore, we demand that the Chinese government release the 200,000 of our fellow practitioners who remain in Chinese government detention, and that they stop the torture and killing of Falungong members," she said.