Switzerland: People of Zurich Call for an End to the Persecution

On May 30, 2009, on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, among the coming and going passersby, a couple pushing a stroller stopped in front of a few poster panels. On the panels were photos and text descriptions about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. They looked carefully at the pictures and read the text explanations on the panels. Afterwards, they signed the petition supporting the effort to stop the CCP's live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.

The lady said after reading the panels that she thought the persecution is very brutal so she decided to sign the petition to support Falun Gong practitioners. Especially since she is also a mother, when she read how a woman who was eight months pregnant woman was severely tortured, she was very shocked, "Eight months, that baby would be alive if born. But the lady was tortured to death."

She and her husband both asked for details about what Falun Gong is and why Falun Gong is persecuted by the CCP. A practitioner told them that Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice that teaches people to live by the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance". The CCP applies "Falseness-Evilness-Violence" to control people and their thoughts. Therefore the CCP launched a brutal persecution against Falun Gong. However, Falun Gong now has spread to more than one hundred countries and regions all over the world. It is only persecuted by the CCP regime in China.

These explanations resolved that couple's confusion. They also asked about how to learn Falun Gong practice and expressed that they would go to a practice site to learn.

"It is my first time to know such a brutal persecution"

Many people like this couple above read the poster panels carefully and signed the petition to support the practitioners. Mr Soneto and a friend also came to sign the petition after reading the panels. His friend was unable to speak but expressed her opinion with sign-language, "I see the persecution is very brutal. Those practitioners were tortured very painfully. I see they were unable to eat and endured the spiritual suffering. It is terrible to have such an experience. So I think it is very good you do this to expose the persecution, to get people's support in the world."

When they knew about the CCP's crime of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, they said, "The CCP even harvests the organs by killing people. This is terrible. Killing people for their organs is a severe crime. It is inhumane and despicable."

Mr. Soneto mentioned that this was the first time he'd heard that there is still such brutal persecution happening, "When I read it, I was thinking it is so despicable. I have never heard, for instance, about the burning, the beating, as well as the forced abortions. This is terrible. Very bad, very bad."

Persecution with torture and organ harvesting is inhumane

A teenage girl, Jasmin, signed the petition and said, "I think that this is totally inhumane to continually torture a person for seven hours and to harvest his organs." She said she would pass this information to more people, "More people need to know about what China now is like, and what is happening there. We also can prevent such things from ever happening again."

Her friend, Mischi, had a similar thought, "I think the persecution is bad. It is exactly like she said, it is inhumane. We should not allow people to be tortured. I think the persecution is wrong."

I want to read Zhuan Falun too

A passer-by who had been to Tibet was very interested in the Falun Gong practitioners' display. He wanted to know why Falun Gong practitioners are concerned about human rights. Mr. Lin told him about Falun Gong and also his personal experience, "Before I practised Falun Gong, I suffered from curvature of the spine. My spine was in an S shape. I could not sit or stand long. I had to change my posture every two hours. My doctor told me to exercise more. But after I read the book Zhuan Falun [The main text of Falun Dafa] I recovered. I have no problem now sitting for nine hours." The person felt it was miraculous.

In the evening when Falun Gong practitioners started to pack up, a middle-aged man came. He knew something about Falun Gong and the persecution but he was still surprised when hearing about the CCP's atrocities of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. A practitioner suggested that he go online and read the investigation report, Bloody Harvest, on the CCP's live organ harvesting written by David Kilgour and David Matas. Finally he signed the petition and took some materials and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

During the all day activity, some Chinese and Tibetans from China came to visit and they renounced the CCP right on the spot. A young man accepted a copy of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and some other materials. When asked about quitting CCP, he said happily that he had done that already. Some said they had already quit the CCP in China.