Germany: Magdeburg City Government and University Help Falun Gong Practitioners to Hold a Picture Exhibition

On June 6 2003, with the support of Magdeburg City officials and the Municipal Part-Time University, an exhibition entitled “The Road to Fa-rectification” was launched in the Municipal Part-Time University. The Magdeburg City Mayor was unable to attend the opening ceremony, but was represented by his assistant who gave a speech. A famous Professor of human rights from the University of Magdeburg also attended the opening ceremony and gave a speech.

The Mayor’s assistant, Mr. Greg, represented the City Government and its citizens, as he condemned the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and expressed his support for the principles of Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance. He said in his speech, “The purpose of this exhibition is to expose China’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution and torture of Falun Gong practitioners is the persecution of human rights. We have the responsibility to continue to raise condemnation of this...It is hard to imagine a world without the moral principles of honesty, kindness and patience. I think these moral principles are prerequisites for a society to develop further. We must support people who protect those morals. I also appeal to everyone to make this task their own responsibility.”

Speech given by the assistant to the City Mayor	Speech from a professor of human rights	Demonstration of Falun Gong exercises
A practitioner makes a speech	The Lotus Dance	The principle made a closing speech

The human rights Professor expressed his viewpoint on why Falun Gong is being persecuted by Jiang Zemin: “As a spiritual movement in China, Falun Gong has been cruelly persecuted in the past few years, the facts of which are recorded in detail by Amnesty International. Falun Gong is neither an organisation nor a political party. Why is such a peaceful spiritual movement persecuted in China? This is a tough question to answer. To really understand this question, and to really understand why some people cannot tolerate something so good that is accepted by millions of people, one has to understand the thinking and logic of the totalitarian system. The secret of politics is to accept the possibility that millions of people have found their own road to freedom, a road that a country can never interfere with, and a road enabling oneself to be in harmony both physically and spiritually. It is precisely this point that causes the leaders in China to be frightened. The critical issue is that the totalitarian state is afraid of losing spiritual control over millions of people.”

At the opening, practitioners briefly introduced Falun Dafa and outlined the brutal persecution. They told the public about Jiang’s crimes and about the genocide lawsuit against him launched in the United States. The practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and performed the Lotus Dance to show the beauty of Dafa to the public, which received enthusiastic applause from the audience. After understanding the truth about Dafa, many visitors signed their names one after another to the appeal forms to support Dafa practitioners bringing Jiang to justice.

The director of the Municipal Part-Time University, Mrs.Gool, gave the final speech of the opening ceremony: “The Municipal Part-Time University is a place where students come from places with many different cultures. It is also a place where people learn from one another and experience forbearance. Different cultures can enrich our lives. This is a very good example of goodness for the opening of the exhibition to day. I am very touched by the performance of the beautiful Falun Gong exercises and the graceful dances. I hope there will be more people coming to the Falun Gong picture exhibition. I wish you a great success.”

The TV stations in Magdeburg City also sent journalists to the event and published positive reports on the following day.

Translated from Chinese at http://yuanming.net/articles/200306/21433.html