Visby, Sweden: Introducing Falun Dafa During Almedalen Week

Swedish practitioners in Gotland participated in Almedalen Week in Visby between June 25 and 28. Almedalen Week is an annual event that is considered to be the most important forum in Swedish politics. Practitioners told passersby about Falun Dafa and how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) harvests organs from practitioners by force. Several elected officials spoke at the event, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Dafa in China.

 

Visby is the county seat of Gotland, where Almedalen Week has been held since the 1960s. It is a forum for representatives from major parties in Sweden to make speeches and present their political platforms. At noon on all four days, Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrated the exercises, displayed banners, and re-enacted forced organ harvesting on Donners Plats in the center of the city.

Telling People about the Persecution

Many elected officials and VIPs passed by Donners Plats, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his team. Many politicians had already spoken with practitioners and learned about the persecution. They greeted practitioners and thanked them for their consistent efforts to raise awareness of this important matter.

Lotta Johnsson Fornarve, a member of the Swedish Parliament, spoke at noon on June 27. She reminded people to pay more attention to the brutality in China because the voices being raised to curb human rights violation in China are far from enough. She urged Sweden to work with the European Union and the United Nations to take action against the CCP so that Falun Dafa practitioners and other prisoners of conscience would be released unconditionally.

Important Information

Åsa and her son both agreed with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They thanked practitioners for the efforts since they said they were not aware of this important information. There is hardly any coverage on this on Swedish television or newspapers. Åsa said she would tell her friends about it.

Josefin, a young woman of Korean ethnicity, said this was the second time she’d met Falun Dafa practitioners during Almedalen Week. After talking with a practitioner, she changed her schedule and stayed for more than three hours to help tell passersby what is going on in China. She was interested in learning the exercises. In this world of uncertainties, she said Falun Dafa could improve people’s minds and bodies, that it brings hope to mankind and represents the future.

One man immigrated from the former Yugoslavia more than 30 years ago. After hearing about the persecution in China, he praised practitioners for their persistence and courage. He returned to the booth several times to learn more about Falun Dafa and discuss the purpose of life. When a practitioner recommended he read Zhuan Falun, the main teachings of Falun Dafa, he said he would and expressed his thanks.

Chinese Praise Practitioners

A retired couple from China said they were glad to see practitioners’ exercise demonstration and the re-enactment of the forced organ harvesting in China. They expressed their thanks repeatedly and extended their compliments.

The couple said they knew about Falun Dafa when they were in China, but dared not speak due to the CCP’s totalitarian rule. They were surprised to see so many practitioners of other ethnicities practicing Falun Dafa. They were happy that traditional Chinese culture is respected and wished the practitioners well.

A Storekeeper Understands

Shortly after the activity started, someone noticed the banner that exposed the forced organ harvesting in China wouldn’t lay flat. Wu and another practitioner took the banner to a nearby hardware store to find a frame.

Wu described the situation in China to a clerk and showed him the banner. The clerk was surprised to hear how terrible the persecution is and, as Wu explained to him further, he said, “That is a crime, a crime against humanity.”

The clerk helped Wu find a frame and rounded up the tools needed to assemble it. The banner looked very nice. When Wu went to pay for the frame, the clerk spoke to the cashier and then told Wu, “This is a gift from our store. We wish you success.”

Moved by this incident, Wu and other practitioners were happy that many people learned the facts and that encouraged them. “We hope more people learn about the persecution,” Wu said.