Norway: Many People Learned about Falun Gong on an SOS Tour of Northern Norway

Around the middle of June 2005, two practitioners spent some of their holiday touring Northern Norway to tell people about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. One of the practitioners was Norwegian and the other was an Englishman who had visited the region on numerous occasions and always felt a special connection with Norway.

The practitioners started their tour together at the tip of the Lofoten islands, an Arctic archipelago of mountainous islands that have become increasingly popular with tourists from around the world. They passed through the cities of Trondheim and Bodo where they handed out leaflets telling people about the human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China. The tour concluded in the city of Harstad which was hosting the renowned cultural Festival of North Norway.

During the tour, the practitioners visited several villages and towns and handed out many flyers about Falun Gong and the persecution, as well as pinning these leaflets to prominent public notice boards for more people to see. The flyers revealed the systematic nature of the persecution against Falun Gong and how over 2,600 people have already lost their lives. The practitioners took every opportunity to talk with locals, tourists, media reporters and local government about the persecution. Additionally, they were able to teach the exercises to a group of people at a holistic health festival in Harstad.

In the town of Svolv, the principal town of the Lofoten Islands, the practitioners put up a banner and demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises. One practitioner did the exercises while the other distributed leaflets. Many tourists were very happy when they realised that they could receive leaflets in their own language. The practitioners met people from England, Germany, Japan, France, Israel and other countries.

In one youth hostel, the practitioners met three Chinese travellers who were staying in the same place. Initially, they were shocked to find out that Falun Gong was practised all over the world and they had some incorrect ideas that were clearly created by the fabricated anti-Falun Gong propaganda spread by the Chinese Communist Party. After a little chatting, however, something seemed to change within them and they started to ask the practitioners about what Falun Gong really is. It seemed like they realised that what they had heard before was not the truth. They became curious, and wanted to know more. The practitioners had a long and amicable talk with them while eating dinner and they softened as they got to know more about Falun Gong.

In another town named Sortland it was raining heavily, but still almost all the people took flyers and many seemed to be smiling from the bottom of their hearts. It was as if they were deeply happy to have this opportunity to learn about Falun Gong.

The practitioners also visited three regional newspapers to tell the journalists that Falun Gong practitioners in China are facing a brutal persecution, brainwashing, forced labour, torture and even death. They talked about Gao Rongrong, whose face was severely disfigured after hours of torture with electric shock batons by the police. Around a year later, she was killed.

A newspaper called Harstad Tidende, with about 40,000 readers, published an article to let more people know about and to urge people to help stop this persecution. Also a local TV station called TV Halogaland broadcast a five-minute programme where they interviewed one of the practitioners about the persecution, asking why it started and what has actually happened.

The practitioners were really happy to talk to so many people in what was often their first opportunity to learn about Falun Gong. They also feel pleased to have helped the media let even more people know the truth about this brutal and inhuman persecution.

Originally published in Norwegian at http://no.clearharmony.net/articles/200507/640.html