BERLINER MORGENPOST: Falun Gong Practitioners: “We are admonishers”

By Thomas Marheinecke

[Middle] – They call themselves practitioners and not followers. With this pronouncement the adherents of the Falun Gong movement also want to underscore that Falun Gong is not a sect, which it is been wrongfully branded in Europe so frequently.

Falun Gong is nothing more than a Buddhist cultivation way to improve your body and mind with the aid of the cosmic principles of “Truth, Compassion and Forbearance.”
Despite these premises, the Chinese government has persecuted the practitioners there, tortured them and put them in “Re-Education-Through-Labor camps. According to figures form the Falun Gong Information Center in Germany, fifty practitioners have been murdered during the month of June alone.

Since last week, practitioners hold a constant vigil on the Jannowitzbruecke (Jannowitz bridge), within view of the Chinese consulate. Forty-three-year-old Yi Wang-Hemmelgarn, who originally came from Beijing and has lived in Germany for the past eleven years is almost always among them. She has a hard time believing that her fellow Chinese countrymen have to suffer at home for doing something “completely non-political for their own well-being.” Mrs. Wang speculates that the Chinese government banned and then systematically persecuted Falun Gong two years ago because the movement is so successful. “Falun Gong has 70 million practitioners in China, more members than the ruling political party.”

Sabine Weigelt is a forty-four year-old naturopathic healer who discovered the healthy effects of Falun Gong two years ago. She became friends with Chinese practitioners and regularly gives up a great deal of her free time to clarify the truth to people. “I cannot condone it when people are senselessly murdered.” Mrs Weigelt hopes that the Chinese government’s through its successful bid for the Olympic Games in Beijing, and the growing media interest in this far-eastern country, the Chinese powerbrokers will have to display and prove more restraint. “But I am not sure that it will happen, because the government of China’s head of state, Jiang Zemin, probably looks upon Falun Gong as his greatest threat.” Although there exist reports in which it is mentioned that there are varying opinions to that effect in the ruling corridors. According to her, several of the consulate workers took some Falun Gong informational materials with them.

The vigil in front of the Chinese consulate on Jannowitzbruecke will continue, around the clock, until July 20th.