Response from the Swedish Foreign Minister to a Practitioner’s Question on the Foreign Ministry’s Open Day

The following is the response from the Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to a Swedish practitioner, after a question on Falun Gong at the Foreign Ministry Open Day in Sweden:

“Regarding Falun Gong, Sweden has raised the issue with China several times, and I have personally raised it with the Chinese Foreign Minister on several occasions, because we cannot accept the way they fight against the movement and persecute their members. They see it as political. We think that even if it’s political one has to respect the movement and one must not persecute or imprison its members. So we have brought this up with China several times.

Regarding the woman who is now jailed in Thailand, we have raised the issue with the Thai authorities and demanded her release and we have been trying to help her in every possible way. This is another example if someone has been stuck in another country, the Swedish law cannot reach them. So we have taken both jurisprudential and political actions. So far we have not succeeded. We hope to we will have a better result in the near future.”

Question by the host of the Open Day: Isn’t this a strange incarceration?

Anna Lindh: Yes, it is of course. Because it’s about a...We think it is not right to imprison someone because they persist in believing in something and that cannot be forbidden in a society of law and order.