Estonia: Activities to Promote Falun Gong Add a Touch of Spring to the Capital City of Tallinn

From the 16th to the 17th of April 2005, Dafa practitioners from Estonia, Latvia, and Finland attended a health expo in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn. They demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and told people about Falun Gong and the human rights abuses that practitioners in China are suffering.

Falun Gong practitioners also practised exercises and gave out leaflets in the park between Tallinn's old neighbourhood and the Viru Hotel. On the 16th of April, the weather was windy and gloomy. However, the sun came out at noon and warmed up the city. The next day, the weather was sunny and full of spring. To accompany this outdoor activity, the practitioners displayed the “Journey of Falun Dafa” photo exhibition. Passers-by looked at the photos with great interest and many learned the exercises immediately.

The photos showed how Falun Gong attracted 100 million practitioners since its public introduction in 1992 and is now practised in over 60 countries. The photos also revealed how the Falun Gong practitioners in China and overseas resisted the persecution with peaceful persistence after Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party officially began persecuting them in 1999. The abuses have continued until today with over 1,800 documented deaths. Human rights workers have recorded over 38,000 cases of torture or severe abuse against practitioners in official custody.