Germany: Exposing the Torture Against China’s Falun Gong Practitioners during the “China Meets Europe” Economic Convention

As soon as we heard about the Hamburg Economic Convention from November the 11th to the 27th 2004, we decided to organise an anti-torture exhibition near the meeting location, on city hall’s Ida Ehre Place and the Reesendamm Bridge. This included re-enactments and demonstrations of the methods of torture used to force Falun Gong practitioners in China to renounce their beliefs. Practitioners displayed banners about the persecution near the Chamber of Commerce and held a rally outside the Chinese Consulate. Our main goal was to ask the Chinese regime to end the persecution of Falun Gong and to let people know what is truly happening in China.

We wanted to make certain that we did not only show our presence during the meeting, but also prior to the gathering, to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in China to the attendees and the organisers. Therefore, we sent a written appeal to the attendees and the organisers, in which we asked them not to neglect human rights for the sake of economic benefits.

On Thursday November the 11th 2004, a gentleman stopped to talk to a practitioner who was distributing flyers about the persecution. He said, “Are you aware that, as we speak, there is an Economic Convention in Hamburg, with the theme China Meets Europe?” After I had told him that this was why we were there, he asked why we did not protest in front of the city hall, so those gentlemen could see with their own eyes the anti-torture exhibition. I explained to him that we would have preferred to have our booth there, but could not do so as that particular location had been banned from demonstrations. He told me that we should then rally outside the Chamber of Commerce or Hotel Atlantic. This man was very serious when he said that he wanted to have the economists and the Chinese delegation be confronted with our anti-torture exhibition. He was overjoyed when I told him that we would take his advice. He thanked me deeply, signed our petition signature list and took a lot of the information leaflets with him.

Many of the passersby were shocked at the things they saw and heard. People cannot believe that such inhumane methods of torture are still being used in the world today. Many were extremely touched and also signed our petition.

An elder lady stopped to look at our exhibition. She said sincerely that it was excellent that we showed the world all the terrible things the communists are doing. She believed that all they did was from sheer jealousy. She also told us that she had suffered torture for similar reasons in a Polish forced labour camp. She often has nightmares and recalls the torture she suffered. She sincerely hopes that the practitioners in China will soon be rescued from their suffering. She also signed our petition and wished us all the best.