Finland: "Let more Finnish People Know the Truth"

On March 28th, 2009, Falun Gong practitioners in Finland held an activity at the train station in Helsinki city centre, protesting the Chinese Communist regime’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong and appealing to the general public to help Falun Gong practitioners who are still being illegally detained in China. Practitioners used display boards to inform people about Falun Gong. They also held banners reading “Falun Dafa is good”, “Stop Persecuting Falun Gong Immediately” and others, and distributed leaflets about Falun Gong to passers-by.

Three Falun Gong practitioners appealing for their relatives' release	Two girls read the display boards with great concentration	People line up in the snow to sign the petition

Practitioner Xiao Jin came to Finland to visit her relatives last July. Two days after she arrived in Finland, her mother was illegally arrested in China and was illegally sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Although Xiao Jin escaped a similar fate, she could no longer return to China. Her underage younger sister in China has not been allowed to attend the school and has been relying on help from family friends to live. Practitioner Lao Wu was rescued out from Thailand last year. He and his wife used to have good jobs in China. But his wife was illegally sentenced to ten years imprisonment because of practising Falun Gong. The uncle of practitioner Xiao Shi has been illegally detained by the Chinese Communist regime three times and suffered severely beating and torture. The three practitioners held their relatives' photos and silently told their own stories. They appealed to people to help rescue their relatives.

Over ten young people were passing by the Square. When they saw practitioners holding the SOS boards, they came over to enquire about the activity. Practitioner Anna explained to them, "The relatives of these three practitioners are still being imprisoned and persecuted in China. They are here to appeal to people to rescue their relatives to freedom". These youngsters immediately lined up to sign the petition without any hesitation. They also told practitioners that everyone knows that the Human Rights situation in China is terrible. When they passed the activity site again later, they said hello to practitioners to show their support.

In the heavy snow an elderly lady was walking slowly with the help of her walking stick. When she saw practitioners holding the SOS boards in the snow, she asked practitioner Xiao Wang what they were doing. When she learned that these practitioners’ relatives are being imprisoned because of their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance and the wife of one practitioner has been imprisoned for eight years, this lady silently walked to the table to sign the petition.

Mr Onni Pohjanpalo told practitioners that he passed through here frequently, but had not read the banners and display boards carefully. Today he stopped here and carefully read the information. He was very shocked. The media here did not report much about Falun Gong. He hoped to have a radio interview about Falun Gong and the persecution of Falun Gong in China. He wrote down practitioner’s contact detail and said that he would immediately prepare for the interview after going back (by the time this article was written, Mr Onni Pohjanpalo already called practitioners to fix the interview date).

After reading the display boards, a lady told practitioner Xiao Jin: “Not only they (the Chinese Communist regime) persecute you, they also persecute Christians.” She repeated this a few times.

A German girl told practitioners that her mother is also a Falun Gong practitioner and has been practising Falun Gong for ten years. Her mother told her that if she met Falun Gong practitioners in Finland, she must say hello to them.

Although the weather was quite bad, but during the four hour activity, more people signed the petition than before.