Germany: Falun Gong Information Day before the World’s Leading Computer Tradeshow in Hannover

Around the start of spring each year, Hannover hosts CeBit, the world’s leading annual computer tradeshow. This is a very large event with over 6,000 exhibitors and many more visitors. Many participants arrived in Hannover early. Therefore, local practitioners thought it a great idea to hold an information day on the day before the start of the exhibition to call attention to the human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

During the middle of the week, many practitioners are generally busy with their job or studies. It was a pleasant surprise that practitioners from Göttingen, Bremen und Braunschweig came to support this effort. We prepared an information booth and displayed pictures depicting the tortures suffered by practitioners and banners to catch the attention of passers-by.

As hoped for, many foreign visitors that had just arrived in town stopped at the booth, among them a number of Chinese people. A lot of the visitors could read flyers in English and the Chinese language flyers disappeared rapidly.

The practitioners cooperated well, constantly taking turns to demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises and establishing a harmonious and peaceful environment. The wind was a bit cold but this did not affect the practitioners’ determination. None of those who wanted to learn more about Falun Gong and its persecution were disturbed by the unpleasant weather.

Over and over again that the people, having heard of the superficial opening of China to the outside world, assumed that human rights there have changed for the better. Therefore, they were quite shocked upon hearing the truth of what is going on in China, and realised that an improvement of human rights there has not occurred. Consequently, many people signed the petition and said they were impressed with what the practitioners are doing. Often they wished the practitioners all the best in their endeavours and expressed hope for a quick end to the persecution.

Originally published in German at http://www.clearharmony.de/articles/200603/30234.html