France: Promoting Falun Gong and Exposing the Persecution in the City Centre of Toulouse

During the third weekend of October, the weather was particularly sunny in France. We left Paris and travelled several hundred miles to the city of Toulouse to tell local people about Falun Gong. Our activities, including exercise demonstrations and an anti-torture exhibition, were held in the city centre.

During the day crowds of people streamed into the city centre. Walking past our display stand, they were shocked when they saw the anti-torture exhibition. People stopped to ask about the exhibition. After hearing the facts about Falun Gong and the brutal persecution being inflicted on the Chinese Falun Gong practitioners, people looked dumbfounded. They found it hard to imagine such barbaric methods of torture could be used to persecute people who believe in Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.

Many people wanted to find out more about Falun Gong. Even the practitioner who had played the role of a Chinese policeman in the anti-torture exhibition was surrounded by people eager to understand the facts of the persecution. People were enraged by such brutal violence and expressed their willingness to help. Some took lots of leaflets for their acquaintances. One college student took away a pile of leaflets. He said that he wanted to put them in the college classrooms for the teachers and students to read. Others decided to tell the facts of Falun Gong to those around them. Still others decided to write letters to the Chinese Government and the French Government, calling on people to stand up against the persecution of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. People stood in line to sign the petition in their effort to bring the instigator of this persecution, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, to justice. In addition, there were those looking to learn Falun Dafa cultivation practice. They asked to learn the exercises and buy Dafa books and hoped to see the establishment of a practice site where people can practise together in Toulouse City.