Ireland: Falun Dafa Practitioners Appeal outside EU Foreign Ministers Meeting

On April the 16th, 24 European Foreign Ministers met in Tullamore Co. Offally to discuss the external relations of the EU. On the agenda were the results of the EU-China human rights dialogue, which took place in Dublin in February. European Falun Dafa practitioners used this opportunity to let the foreign ministers, the media and the local Irish people learn more about Falun Gong and the brutal persecution in China.

The appeal lasted from 11am to 8pm and involved displaying banners and demonstrating the Falun Dafa exercises. Many delegation members walked over to practitioners and took information packs. A number of newspapers and one international TV station took footage of the appeal. A local radio station interviewed practitioners who spoke about how people who practise Falun Dafa in China are imprisoned in slave labour camps. Another practitioner said that western governments should show more responsibility for their citizens and inform them of the widespread human rights abuses in China, so as to avoid European companies being pressured to commit human rights crimes (for example American cosmetic company Mary Kay forced employees to sign letters against Falun Dafa in 2003).

The local people in Offally were moved by the peaceful appeal and gave many encouraging comments to practitioners. They commented on the beauty, serenity and peacefulness of the appeal. The police were also touched by the peaceful appeal and many of them took more information.

One local councillor told a practitioner that the local Government in Offally had already passed a motion strongly condemning the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.