Germany: Anti-Torture Exhibition Successfully held in Stuttgart

Stuttgart is a well-known industrial city and there are many Chinese people studying or working in the city. On the 13th of November, Falun Gong practitioners from the nearby cities of Tuebingen, Heidelberg and Ulm, as well as practitioners from distant cities, gathered together to hold a Falun Dafa Information Day in the square of Koenigplatz which included an Anti-Torture Exhibition exposing the serious human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China. It was a cold but sunny day. According to the description by practitioners from other cities it was very cloudy and rainy along their route of a few hundred kilometres journey to Stuttgart. Only when they reached the activity location in the city centre did they see the bright sky.

At the beginning of the activity, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and gave out leaflets to introduce Falun Gong to passers-by. At noon, we started the anti-torture exhibition. Several practitioners dressed up as the practitioners who are suffering terrible torture in China’s labour camps, or they dressed as a police officer who is responsible for persecuting the practitioners. Because of the excellent makeup and good acting by practitioners, the exhibition achieved a very good effect. The great pain suffered by people under torture, vividly demonstrated by practitioners, really shocked people. They carefully watched the demonstration and came to our stand to seek further information and sign our petition.

Practitioners were talking to people all around the square. People raised many thoughtful questions and were able to understand Dafa very well. An elderly lady suggested to practitioners that they should inform the local radio station. Many people learned the truth about Falun Dafa and the ongoing brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. A few hundred signatures were collected for our petition calling for the immediate end to the persecution and to bring the prime culprits in this persecution to justice. When we thanked them for signing our petition, many of them replied: “No. I should thank you!”

Many Chinese people passed our stand. Some were surprised and curious. A few were a little afraid. We were quite aware that these Chinese people were deeply poisoned by the fabricated lies and endless defamatory propagandas by the Jiang regime against Falun Gong. We strongly believed that with our continuous effort to inform them of the facts, they would wake up from the lies and learn the truth. There were also many Chinese people expressing support for our activity.

Later a practitioner acting as a Chinese policeman said that when he saw an old practitioner was tied to the Tiger Bench demonstrating one of the most common torture method, he could not stop his tears falling. He had to remind himself again and again that he was acting as a policeman. Many German practitioners were moved by the brave actions of two elderly practitioners who were tied up for more than four hours in the cold wind. One elderly practitioner said that during her demonstration, there was a time when she felt she could not bear any more. By thinking of the real sufferings of Falun Gong practitioners in China and her will to expose this torture to the world, kept her going. She also mentioned that through the acting, she understood much better the hardships of practitioners in China