Germany: Book Launch for The Persecution of Falun Gong

The book “The Persecution of Falun Gong” was launched at the Braunschweiger cultural centre on March the2nd 2006.

This event was organised by Amnesty International’s local student members, in collaboration with Manuel Hörth, the publisher of the book.

It was a special event, because Falun Gong practitioners who had suffered persecution in China were also present. After that, there was a reading of specially selected parts of the book, interspersed by experience sharing by former victims of the persecution.

Jacek Wohlers performed on the piano during the event. This musician has been active as a member of the international initiative “Playing music for human rights” exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

The book, the main item of the evening, is a collection of authentic accounts from a number of Falun Gong practitioners, suffering under the persecution. The book can be purchased through the Dexheimer publishing house, ISBN 3932273850.

Mr. Zhu Feng was one of the speakers. He has immigrated with a refuge status to Germany and resides in Hannover. Zhu Feng was a prosperous businessman in China. He lost is job because of the persecution and his wife divorced him because she no longer could live under the constant pressure of the persecution. Mr. Zhu’s sister is also Falun Gong practitioner who has been illegally imprisoned a number of times and suffered brutal torture. Mr. Zhu was able to bring one of the first pictures showing the tortured Falun Gong practitioners to the West. These pictures of the persecution were among the first pictures used by human rights activists on flyers distributed in the West. The pictures showed his sister.

Today, his sister is detained in a psychiatric hospital in China. Because of the injection of psychotropic drugs, she acts like an eight-year old girl and has become mentally disoriented. Zhu Feng visited his sister at the psychiatric hospital before he escaped to Germany, so he could secretly bring with him the medications they were injecting into his sister. A Braunschweiger doctor is in the process of analysing the medication at the request of publisher Hörth.

Xiaoyan Zhua, a student of Japanese studies living in Göttingen talked about being persecuted in China. She told of the problems she experienced while a University student in China. At the time the University was preparing to bar her from further studies and would not let her graduate, although she had passed all required examinations. She also was arrested illegally and tormented and humiliated while imprisoned. She talked about the philosophy of Falun Gong, which requires its practitioners to live by the principles Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, and which were instrumental in her surviving hard times.

Besides Ziaoyan Zhu, another interesting guest was the human rights activist Akbar from Hamburg. He spoke of his peaceful appeal on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, during 2002. Akbar, a Master’s programme student, has practised Falun Gong for years. He and a number of other Falun Gong activists demonstrated in Beijing in the hope to put an end to the silence about the persecution of Falun Gong by the western media.

Before Manuel Hörth ended the event with a speech on Social Darwinism and the emergence of intolerance and prejudices, the Amnesty student members introduced themselves and asked those attending to support the end of the persecution actions.

Originally published in German at: http://www.clearharmony.de/articles/200603/30199.html