Czech Republic and Slovakia: Exposing the Persecution and Promoting Falun Gong (IV)

Between 16th and 22nd of June 2005, for the first time Falun Gong practitioners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia made wide contact with the mainstream media, exposing the brutal persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist regime. They also hosted various activities to introduce Falun Gong to the general public. Practitioners invited Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wei from Germany as a special guest. Xiong Wei was imprisoned for two years in a Chinese forced labour camp after being arrested for distributing leaflets exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses aginast Falun Gong practitioners. This article is the fourth part in the series recording their experiences. To read previous parts of this report, please see http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200507/27993.html.

In Bratislava, Xiong-Wei had a room-mate, Ying, a Chinese practitioner. People say that Ying is fifty years old. However, looking at her from the back she looks slim and graceful, just like a young girl. Because of the persecution in China, she is now far away from her family and makes a living in a foreign country.

Without being noticed, Ying quietly scrapped off the mud that had clogged up Xiong Wei’s suitcase wheels. Xiong Wei was especially apologetic about it and repetitively gave her thanks to Ying. As straightforward as Ying is, she said, “There’s no need to feel apologetic. I cannot do the translation for you. What I can do is to make a meal for you, to think of methods to make your clothes dry, and to scrape off the mud from your luggage. It’s all I can do. Thanks are not necessary.” Her words were righteous and self-confident. Xiong Wei was too touched to say a word.

Before the end of an interview in the radio station in the afternoon, a call was made by some TV station to schedule a live TV interview in a news programme broadcasting to the world that very evening

At 9:30 that evening, the news programme about Falun Gong officially started. Following the first scene of a huge photo of Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi, the next scene showed a group of more than a thousand people doing the Falun Gong exercises with harmonious music in the morning. There are constant changes of full screens and close-ups. Each Falun Gong practitioner showed peace and harmony in their faces.

The TV host then interviewed a scholar, a lady professional from a research institute who has been learning Falun Gong by herself for a period of time. During the interview, she gave very positive comments about Falun Gong. Before the interview, she gave Xiong Wei a book about the history and geography of Slovakia.

In the interview with Xiong Wei, she talked about not only the reason why China persecutes Falun Gong but also her personal experiences of being cruelly abused. She especially gave the example of the “self-immolation in Tiananmen Square” to expose the lies that China relies on to cheat the international community.

The TV station arranged a professional simultaneous translation, in which German is translated into Slovakian and broadcast accordingly. After the interview, the host stepped down in particular from the podium to give earnest thanks to Xiong Wei. At that time, the truth about Falun Gong was widely spread over Slovakia. (The video can be seen on-line at http://archiv.stv.sk/tvarchiv/video/?video=11546.)

On June 25th practitioners in Slovakia held an activity in a small town. A lot of people told practitioners that they knew about the persecution of Falun Gong as they just saw it on TV.