Germany: Falun Gong Practitioners Appeal in Berlin on the Eve of Hu Jintao’s State Visit to Germany

The Pariserplatz in front of the Brandenburg Gate was jam-packed with tourists as usual. All of a sudden, several cries of “Ah! Ah!” emitted from the northeast corner of the square. The sound drew the attention of the tourists nearby. On the sidewalk was a black cage height about waist height. An oriental lady was huddled up in the cage, one of her hands shackled to the rail. Then, the top was opened, a man wearing a green police uniform and dark glasses waved his baton and beat the woman. She could not help hiding herself on the other side of the cage, making bloodcurdling screams. Watched carefully, the police uniform worn by the male carried several Chinese characters. A tourist stepped forward and shouted to the young male, “Stop it!” The “policeman” explained to this heroic passer-by, “This is just a demonstration of what is going on in China nowadays. I didn’t really beat her.”

Appealing for the family of Jiang Renzheng	Tourists sign their names condemning the persecution	Crowd shocked by the demonstration of torture

On the eve of Hu Jintao’s visit to Berlin, German Falun Gong practitioners held anti-torture exhibitions on November 5th and 6th at the Pariserplatz in front of the Brandenburg Gate and the Breitscheidplatz located in the heart of West Berlin. Signatures were also collected and will be passed to the German government. The purpose was to call upon the German officials to request Hu Jintao to stop the persecution against Falun Gong immediately and punish the Chinese government officials who have persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. An appeal was also made to release Jiang Renzheng, who returned to China from Germany about six months ago and has been imprisoned in a Chinese labour camp ever since.

The role of policeman, played by a Falun Gong practitioner, drew an angry response from the public	Peaceful Falun Gong exercises were in stark contrast to the bloody torture	Talking about Falun Gong with tourists

Although Chinese tourists were not as many as those in front of the Cologne Cathedral, their hearts were revealed by their reactions. According to Mrs. Zhu, who participated in the anti-torture exhibition, most of the Chinese tourists stood in front of her and watched quietly. Some of them took away Falun Gong materials passed out by the practitioners. Judging from their facial expressions, some of them were so shocked that they could not say a word. Mrs. Wang, who distributed fliers at the scene, noticed that the Chinese people who came from other western countries knew much more about the truth of Falun Gong than those from Mainland China, and were more willing to accept the materials. On one occasion when she was distributing fliers, a voice in Mandarin came behind her, “I read the persecution reports about Falun Gong in newspaper in Canada quite often. Now, I realise those reports are all true.” When Mrs. Wang turned around, she saw a middle-aged Chinese gentleman speaking to his companion. The gentleman didn’t accept the materials from Mrs. Wang, saying, “It is not necessary. I have downloaded a lot of information from the Internet.” However, his companion took a copy.

There were also people who opposed the anti-torture exhibition. In one occasion, Mrs. Zhu heard someone beside her saying, “This is all falsified.” She turned her head and saw a group of tourists from China standing right next to her. Mrs. Zhu, whose hometown is in Manchuria, told them, “I was imprisoned at the Mentougou Detention Centre in Beijing for more than three weeks simply because of displaying a banner in Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong in October 2000. I was slapped on the face repeatedly such that my face was completely covered with marks.” Although Mrs. Zhu did not personally suffer the torture she was demonstrating in the exhibition, a male Falun Gong practitioner, who was imprisoned in the same cell, showed her his lower legs which had turned black due to brutal beating with police batons. On another occasion, she heard the guards of the prison instigated several male prisoners to beat a female Falun Gong practitioner in the hallway. The bloodcurdling screams were heard throughout the prison. Although the Chinese tourists still said they would not believe these abuses had truly occurred, their insistence was clearly weakened.

“Is it true that this sort of brutal persecution still occurs nowadays?”	Support from a passer-by in a wheelchair	“Is it true that this sort of brutal persecution still occurs nowadays?”

It is far harder for western tourists to imagine the real situation occurring in China as exposed by the anti-torture exhibition. Sabine, who stood around the signature desk to answer enquiries from the crowd, said, “The most popular sentence that people said is ‘I can’t believe such sort of thing is still happening in the world nowadays!’” A waiting line was frequently seen in front of the signature desk. Sabine also noticed that young people, who were rather indifferent to human right issues started to come to sign their names. Many of them have heard about Falun Gong or visited Falun Gong’s information booth in the past, either in front of the Chinese Embassy or through Information Day activities.

The German public’s ever deepening understanding about Falun Gong reflects itself not only in the increasing support from German citizens toward anti-persecution, but also in politicians’ escalating responsiveness to the appeal made by Falun Gong practitioners. In a recent letter from a Parliament Member, Mr. Groehe, who holds the chairmanship of the Human Rights Committee in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU, which became Germany’s ruling party after the recent general election) mentioned, “We will take advantage of the upcoming Chinese president’s visit to Germany to bring up tough human rights issues in China. We feel uncomfortable about China’s number one frequency rate of the death penalty and capital execution in the world, the suppression of Catholic churches, the situation of Tibet and the long-term imprisonment and forced labour education against Falun Gong believers.” He promised that the Catholic Democratic Union “will continue its devotion to making basic freedom and human rights recognised and protected in China.” In a reply letter, German largest opposition party, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), also indicated they would “urge the government to openly criticise China’s human rights status, which needs immediate improvement, when the Chinese president visits Germany.”
Whether the German government would bring up human rights issues in front of Hu Jintao publicly or discuss them in close-door meetings as in the past is still unknown. It will become clear only after Hu Jintao starts his visit to Germany.