Bulgaria: Practitioners Commemorate Six Years of Persecution with an Open Air Exhibition

On 23rd and 24th July 2005, Bulgarian Falun Dafa practitioners organized an open air exhibition in Boris Garden – the central park of the capital city Sofia. The exhibition commemorated six years since the persecution against Falun Dafa was launched by former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and enforced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The holding of the exhibition was approved by the Sofia Municipality and met with enthusiastic interest from the public. Several media organisations covered the event. The exhibition featured six boards containing photos and information about the introduction of Falun Dafa in China, the beginning of the repression, the torture methods used to force practitioners to renounce their beliefs, the international support for Falun Gong practitioners’ freedom, the lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, and the efforts of Bulgarian practitioners to spread the practice and inform the public of the ongoing persecution.

The practitioners also informed people about the different types of human rights abuses happening in China, the country’s system of labour camps where prisoners are tortured and forced labour produces cheap goods often for Western markets, and the tight control of the Internet to stop Chinese people reading information on the human rights crimes of the CCP.

People learned about Falun Gong through talking with practitioners and viewing the exhibition

During the weekend, more than 500 people had the chance to see the exhibition and learn about Falun Dafa. Most of them took a flyer and expressed their will to come and learn the exercises at the practice site. They were pleased to know that Falun Dafa is always taught for free. Some people signed a petition in support of stopping the persecution, which will be handed to the United Nations next month

People were shocked by the torture methods that the practitioners in China are subjected to. Others stated that people’s basic human rights of freedom of thought and belief must not be violated in such a brutal manner. There were also people who said they were not surprised by the methods used by the Chinese regime as they had experienced similar repressions before 1989 when Bulgaria was still a Communist country.