Finland: Falun Gong Practitioners Call for a Stop to the Persecution on World Human Rights Day

On December 10, 2012, World Human Rights Day, Falun Gong practitioners in Finland held a candlelight vigil on Helsinki Railway Station Square. The vigil was both a solemn protest of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) brutal 13-year persecution of Falun Gong and a memorial to the practitioners in mainland China who have lost their lives in the persecution.

Although it gets dark by 4:00 p.m. in this northern country, the area around the Helsinki Railway Station was crowded with streams of people. Falun Gong practitioners sat quietly behind a long row of candles, holding portraits of their fellow practitioners who had been persecuted to death in China. A banner worded “Please help stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China” urged people to stand together to stop the CCP's atrocities.

The candlelight and the calming, melodious music created a sharp contrast to the surrounding hustle and bustle, causing people to slow their hurried footsteps. Passers-by read the banners and the posters introducing Falun Gong and exposing the persecution in China, and a number of people took informational flyers. After learning about the situation in China, many signed a petition against the persecution, and some asked their companions to sign the petition as well.

A young woman stopped to read the banner and spoke with a practitioner about the persecution happening in China. She was so shocked upon hearing of the brutality of the persecution that she signed the petition right away. She told the practitioner that she would pass the information about the persecution of Falun Gong to her friends and acquaintances and put the information on her social media site so that more people would be aware of it. She encouraged the practitioners to stick to it until the day the persecution stops.