Germany: Activities in Chamer to Raise Awareness of the Persecution

This report is about three recent activities held by practitioners in the German city of Chamer to raise awareness of the persecution against Falun Gong in China.

Straubing’s first information day

After continuing to hold activities locally, last month practitioners in Chamer felt that they should also visit some of the surrounding areas. On the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, they applied for an information day in Straubing. A local newspaper published a notice, making it possible for readers to learn about the information day in advance.

This was the first time that any Falun Gong activities had been held in this town. The activity went smoothly and the weather was warm. Many passers by came and signed our petition to stop the persecution. When a Straubing citizen heard that we were collecting signatures calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, she expressed her support immediately. She told us that when she was in New York, Falun Gong activities were taking place all over the city. Another lady asked for leaflets to place in her workplace, so that people there could find out more.

As the weather turned warmer and because there was a big market nearby, people passed by in an endless stream. Huge crowds of people got to know that Jiang Zemin is being sued for the crime of Genocide against Falun Gong and will be brought to justice in a court of law.

On International Women’s Day, Falun Gong practitioners and the International Human Rights Committee jointly collected signatures for persecuted female practitioners in China

In China, women are being inhumanely persecuted for their beliefs. Mr. Roemer, a representative of IHRC, proposed to set up a stall in Chamer city centre and collect petition signatures for persecuted women on International Women’s Day. He was joined by local Falun Gong practitioners.

In the three hours of the activity, although the weather was cold and wet, there were still many people coming to sign the petition. A large number of people passing by the stall mentioned a detailed report in Chamer’s Daily Newspaper about Xiong Wei. Xiong Wei was a Falun Gong practitioner who lived in Germany before returning to China. She was imprisoned for handing out Falun Gong leaflets but a large-scale rescue campaign by the German public and government saw her return to Germany last year. Many people who had read this report wanted to support us by signing the petition. It looked as if the report left a deep impression in the minds of Chamer citizens.

Chamer’s first anti torture-exhibition during the Easter holidays got a lot of public attention

Through Chamer practitioner’s continual efforts in raising awareness, lots of people understood that Falun Gong is being wrongly persecuted. Nevertheless, it is still very hard for people living in free, democratic countries to imagine how a despotic communist regime controls the thoughts and behaviour of its citizens. On the last weekend of March, practitioners decided to hold an anti-torture exhibition.

On the day before the exhibition, the rain fell ceaselessly but on the following morning, just when we finished all the preparation work, the dark clouds dissolved completely. Sunlight poured into the central market place and it was very warm. People shopping for Easter stopped in front of a small cage where one could neither stand up nor lie down. They carefully read the text stuck on the corner of the cage explaining that this is one of the torture methods used in cruel attempts to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs. Then they walked to our stall, signed our petition and expressed their support.

There were many tourists from all over the world who had come to spend their holiday in Chamer that signed the petition. A Polish girl took some flyers in Polish and signed the petition calling for former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to be brought to justice for his role in instigating the persecution against Falun Gong. She said she saw Falun Gong in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, and wanted to find out more. All through the activity, practitioners tried their best to help people understand the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong.