【大紀元4月25日訊】（譯文）1999年4月25日，數以千計的法輪功學員平靜地在北京聚集，要求當局釋放在一個鄰近城市遭到毆打及關押的同修。更廣泛而言，針對有少數高層官員一手策劃對法輪功進行持續的騷擾，他們希望藉此喚起政府領導的關注。
這次事件成為世界各地媒體的頭條新聞，但對那些置身其中的人們來說，更重要的是：這是一個機會向中國領導層講明法輪功是如何為他們的生命帶來健康與和諧，某些中共官員（對法輪功）的攻擊是毫無根據的。
十年後的今天，法輪功學員與他們的支持者，正在此向那次請願所秉持的和平理性、正義和慈悲精神致敬。同樣重要的是，我們還要憶念中國的法輪功修煉者與他們的家人，在面對無情暴力時不屈不撓的堅持信仰以及真、善、忍的根本原則而付出的巨大代價。
數以十萬計的法輪功學員——也許是上百萬人——仍然被非法囚禁在中國的勞教所及監獄，成為國內最大一群良心犯。數以萬計的學員遭受中共警察及國安特務的酷刑折磨。已有超過3,200位修煉者被確認在迫害中失去生命，但在中共長達十年的迫害運動中，真實的死亡人數肯定遠遠不止此數。數以百萬的其他修煉者，則被剝奪生計、失去工作、被開除學籍和其他形式的系統性不公平對待。
面對國家機器空前強橫的鎮壓，中國內地的法輪功學員依舊每天冒著生命危險，不只是為了煉功和學法以求自身的提高，還要去告訴別人，他們所遭遇的不公正對待以及當局的暴行。在中國以外，世界各地的學員舉辦燭光晚會、集會、派發傳單、徵簽，並採取一切非暴力的途徑，讓世人了解到身在中國的同修的遭遇。
這些行動的最終目的，由十年前到今天都未有改變，就是要結束迫害，說服人們不要參與傷害我們的姐妹、丈夫、母親和朋友。這不只是為了保護我們所愛的人，也是為了其他民眾，讓他們免於在強加的沉默中，有意或無意地參與了這場恐怖的罪行。因此整體來看，法輪功修煉者的行動是以社會的利益為依歸，去最終結束這個在中國大陸無辜老百姓經久不息的遭受殘暴對待的漩渦。
因此，我們希望在這一天，全世界的人能與我們一起，向十年前那個北京的春日所展現的精神致敬與憶念，並讓他長存不息。我們希望他們不要因為共產黨虛有其表的極權控制，而簡單接受不公正的現實；希望他們努力看穿中共宣傳的帷幕，用自己的思考了解法輪功到底是什麼；希望他們向我們的和平努力給予支持，恢復億萬中國人的希望、尊嚴與基本人權。
有了這樣的共同努力，十年後的今天，我們可能正在慶祝法輪功在中國得到自由，中國社會也可以不再背負這場持續的暴力運動的沉重負擔。
法輪大法信息中心
2009年4月23日
（原文）
Honoring Falun Gong’s April 25th Appeal, Ten Years On
Falun Dafa Information Center Press Release
23 Apr 2009
On April 25, 1999 thousands of Falun Gong practitioners gathered quietly in Beijing to ask for the release of adherents who had been beaten and detained in a nearby city. More broadly, they sought to raise concerns with government leaders about ongoing harassment of Falun Gong at the hands of a few high-ranking officials.
The event captured headlines around the world, but more importantly to those who were there, it was a chance to explain to the Chinese leadership how Falun Gong had brought health and harmony to their lives, and that the attacks by some Chinese officials were unwarranted.
Ten years later, Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters are honoring the spirit of peace, justice, and compassion with which that appeal was held. Equally important, we are remembering the tremendous price Falun Gong adherents and their families in China have paid for their unyielding dedication to their faith and its underlying principles of honesty, kindness, and forbearance in the face of unrelenting brutality.
Hundreds of thousands—if not millions—remain unlawfully imprisoned in Chinese labor camps and prisons, the largest single population of prisoners of conscience in the country. Tens of thousands have suffered torture at the hands of police and security agents. Over 3,200 identified adherents have lost their lives, though the true death toll of the decade-long persecutory campaign is almost certainly much higher. Millions of others face destitution, job loss, expulsion from school, and other forms of systematic discrimination.
With the machinery of the state turned against them as forcefully as ever, practitioners in China continue to risk their lives on a daily basis, not only to practice Falun Gong’s exercises and study its teachings for their own self-improvement, but also to inform others of the injustice done to them, of the atrocities happening in their own backyard. Outside China, practitioners around the world hold vigils and rallies, distribute leaflets, circulate petitions, and take whatever non-violent avenues might help raise awareness of what is happening to fellow adherents in the Middle Kingdom.
The ultimate aim of such actions remains the same today as it was ten years ago—to end the persecution, to convince people not to participate in harming our sisters, husbands, mothers, and friends. This is not only for the protection of our loved ones, but also for the sake of other members of the public, lest they willingly or not participate in terrible crimes, if only via forcibly imposed silence. It is thus with an eye towards the benefit of society as a whole that adherents act—to finally stop the cycle of violence against innocent people that has engulfed China for too long.
For this reason, we hope that on this day, people the world over may join us in honoring, remembering, and keeping alive the spirit of that spring day in Beijing ten years ago; that they not accept the reality of injustice simply because of the Communist Party’s seemingly tight grip on power; that they strive to see through the veil of Party propaganda and understand for themselves what Falun Gong is; that they lend their support to our peaceful efforts to restore hope, dignity, and basic rights to tens of millions in China.
For with such collective dedication, we might just find ourselves ten years from now celebrating freedom for Falun Gong in China and with that, the relief for Chinese society of no longer bearing the burden of a violent, ongoing campaign.
(http://www.dajiyuan.com)
