United Kingdom: Final Day of the 2004 Scotland Car Tour

On the final day of the 2004 Scotland Car Tour, the four Falun Dafa practitioners taking part in the tour visited one of Scotland’s best-known cities: Glasgow. The practitioners handed out leaflets in the city centre. Many people were interested in finding out more about Falun Gong and were keen to learn the exercises. The Chinese people in Glasgow seemed very positive about Falun Gong and many of them took Video-CDs and leaflets. One old Chinese man told the practitioners that he had the Falun Gong books at home but had been apprehensive about learning the exercises because he was over 80 years old. The practitioners encouraged him and talked about the tremendous health benefits that people all over the world have received after learning the practice. The old man told practitioners that he already knew about the lawsuits against Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin.

One elderly Scottish man came to tell the practitioners that no-one in China dares to talk about Falun Gong because they are scared of persecution by the Jiang regime. He said that he has many friends in China but when they chat on the phone they don’t dare to speak with him about Falun Gong. The old man signed the practitioners’ petition and said that he was signing for all his friends in China who are not free to do so.

This Car Tour has visited many Scottish cities with a special purpose. The annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a world-renowned event, has this year invited China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) to take part in their festivities. The PLA is headed by the chief instigator of the persecution of Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin, who has been indicted in international lawsuits accusing him of crimes of torture, genocide and crimes against humanity against Falun Gong. PLA members who practise Falun Gong in China have been tortured, fired from their jobs and threatened by Jiang Zemin: “military personnel are strictly forbidden from practising Falun Gong and anyone caught disobeying this order can be executed by firearms." Falun Gong practitioners have toured Scotland and told people how Jiang has used the PLA to persecute Falun Gong. Many people were very concerned and expressed their disdain for the Tattoo invitation.

2 of the Car Tour practitioners were invited to the offices of the a prestigious national newspaper, where they were interviewed for an hour. The journalist listened intently to the facts about the campaign of genocide being waged against Falun Gong in China. He was visibly moved as the practitioners described some of the many torture methods inflicted on innocent practitioners who are imprisoned in slave labour camps because of their peaceful belief in Truthfulness, Compassion Forbearance. The journalist was shocked as one of the practitioners talked about his own personal experiences of torture at the hands of the Jiang regime and how a rescue campaign was launched in the UK to free his brother from incarceration in China. The practitioners moved on to spend 45 minutes with a photographer who kept commenting how much he liked the words “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” that were printed on the practitioners’ clothes.

The practitioners visited 2 members of Scottish Parliament who were both supportive of the human rights of practitioners of the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China. Robert Brown MSP chatted with practitioners about the importance of human rights and the freedom of belief. Practitioners pointed out to him that these things do not exist in contemporary China. Patricia Ferguson MSP was very receptive and chatted with the practitioners for 30 minutes. She was very interested in the facts of the persecution and supportive of practitioners’ human rights.