Russia: Gathering in Moscow to Appeal for an End the Persecution of Falun Gong

On Saturday January 8th 2005, Russian practitioners gathered in the plaza next to the ITAR-TASS building, the home of the largest news agency in Moscow, to appeal to the Chinese Government to end the persecution of Falun Gong. They hung banners reading “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” and “Falun Dafa is Good” and some huge pictures showing that Falun Dafa is practised in more than sixty countries. At the same time, other pictures showed “1,266 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in China” and exposed the hundreds of torture methods that are used to force practitioners to give up their beliefs and were presented to expose the Jiang regime’s crimes of Genocide and crimes against humanity. Practitioners also used microphones to introduce Falun Gong and the persecution in China to passers-by.

The activity was right next to the ITAR-TASS building, so one practitioners decided to pass some information on the persecution to the largest Russian news agency. He began to clarify the truth to the entrance guard, gave him a post card and a newspaper and then asked whether it was okay to put some newspapers on the desk inside the building. The entrance guard was hesitant for a while and said, “Well, okay go ahead.” This way, dozens of newspapers were spread inside the ITAR-TASS building.

When practitioners distributed the newspapers along the street, they happened to meet groups of parents and their children who were there for a holiday celebration. Practitioners gave cards to each child and newspapers to their parents. Some parents did not feel like taking the newspapers, but the children took them and handed them to their parents later.

One mother who brought her children along carefully looked at each picture on the display board. After she listened to the practitioners’ explanations, she signed a petition calling for an end to the persecution. One man spent a long time in front of the display boards then left and was about to walk across the street. However, he suddenly returned and kept watching until a practitioner gave him a leaflet and talked with him. He happily signed the petition before he left.

However, there was interference from the Chinese Consulate during this activity. When the activity was well underway, someone unexpectedly arrived and tried to persuade the policeman on duty that “There is no persecution in China. Falun Gong is totally free in China.” The practitioners compassionately told him the truth and spoke firmly out of a sense of justice: “Look at all these pictures. Are they fake? How dare they deny the fact that Falun Gong practitioners in many countries around the world are suing Jiang Zemin and his accomplices in court?” The man was then speechless. The policeman started to smile, looked at him and finally said, “Their activity is approved and is completely legal. You are not allowed to disturb them.” The man then dejectedly walked away. Seeing him leave, I felt real pity for him.