Slovakia: Summer Tour to Introduce Falun Dafa and Expose the Persecution

With the completion of the annual Slovakian nationwide summer tour to introduce Falun Dafa and expose the persecution of the practice in China, I have returned to my home with sunburn. However, some episodes that happened during the tour still vividly linger in my mind.

What’s different this year is that the team was composed of local practitioner, as opposed to the situation in the past several years that the team was made up of local practitioners and Czech practitioners since we had too few practitioners here. But it was a big team this year, though it was only composed of local practitioners.

Setting out from Slovakia’s capital Bratislava situated on the southwest border, our team crossed Slovakia’s territory and traveled over three hundred kilometers. We introduced Falun Dafa in seven cities on the way in eight days, and we finally arrived at a city adjacent to the northeast border with Poland.

It was the first time for some practitioners from colleges and high schools to participate in the tour. The youngest is a new practitioner, Lukas, sixteen, who is a first grader of a senior high school. Though he has been a practitioner of Falun Gong only a few months, he is almost equal to veteran practitioners. Amazed by the fact that he is so young, but he has such a deep understanding of Falun Gong, I asked him how he started to know about the practice. He replied that he learned Falun Gong from the Internet. I said that there is a tremendous amount of information on the Internet, where he found Falun Gong. He said that he is interested in practicing qigong and had learned other kinds of qigong in the past. Afterward, he read some articles relating to the introduction to Falun Gong. I then continued, “You thus thought that Falun Gong is very good.” He said, “Falun Gong is the best. As changing people’s character is what is most difficult to achieve, only righteous practice can really change people’s character. Nowadays, ordinary human society is full of chaos, so I think practicing Falun Dafa is the only righteous way to deal with the problem". He also introduced Falun Gong to his mother. During our tour, his mother also attended a nine day free teaching seminar, and learned all of the five sets of the exercises.

Dr. Sonia is a manager of the legal department of a Slovakian government agency. She came across our team in her hometown. She said that she knew about Falun Gong and had read the main text of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun. Because she thought Falun Gong is very good, she wanted to be a Falun Gong practitioner. She thus participated in our activities right away. Regardless of the blazing sun and scorching hot ground, she joined us in distributing flyers during the entire day. She also used her own money to buy materials to make many paper folded flowers and distributed them to passers-by.

In a small city adjacent to the border with Poland, I bumped into a Chinese lady. As soon as I talked to her, I found that she is a person who had been deeply deceived by the propaganda fabricated by the Chinese Communist regime. She firmly believed the lies of the Chinese Communist regime in recent years. When talking about Falun Gong and Master Li, she used the nasty words as the Chinese regime did, and didn’t want to listen to my explanation whatsoever. When we saw her passing us with three boxes of various medicines she just bought, I realised that an opportunity had come to us. I talked to her again. I first talked about healing and fitness and it did arouse her interest to talk to me. She narrated something about her poor health, “I don’t wish I would have good health, but I simply hope I could have fewer sicknesses.” She also mentioned to me something about her miserable life: “I have had many ideals and dreams in my life, but none of them have been realised.” She also complained to me that her interpersonal relationships in society were difficult to deal with: “My mind is always filled with all kinds of absurd illusions and nuisances.” Moreover, she raised many problems and worries which are nothing for practitioners. Our conversation naturally returned to the topics about Falun Gong, Master Li, the lies fabricated by the Chinese Communist regime and the persecution. But she didn’t reject them. Instead, she accepted all the truth clarification materials and repeatedly said: “Let me read this one first; I’ll read them; I’ll visit the Web-sites.” Eventually she agreed to give up her prejudiced views and would like to understand Falun Gong from the beginning. When she was about to leave, she said that she hoped to have the opportunity to see each other again. On one occasion when handing a copy of material regarding the Chinese Communist regime’s atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners to an elderly Slovakian man who passed us hastily, he repeatedly said: “I know about this incident.” I asked: “Do you believe it?” He replied: “Of course. I know that the Chinese Communist regime is harvesting organs from criminals on death row for many years.” He thus folded the material and put them into his pocket and said: “I’ll read them with my glasses after getting home.”

At a tourist attraction, we happened to meet an elderly lady who came here from Western Europe for sightseeing. After I introduced Falun Gong to her with my awkward English, she said, “I know everything about Falun Gong. I once wrote a letter to the head of China to call on him to stop the persecution. I am a Catholic. In China Catholics are also persecuted by the Chinese Communist regime.

Our tour this year attracted the media’s attention. Almost all the local media covered our activities and they were much more enthusiastic than ever before.

On July 14th, 2006, when Falun Gong practitioners held activities in the capital Bratislava, Slovakia’s largest television station Slovak Television (STV) reported something about the Chinese Communist regime’s harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioner in China. The announcer quoted the three witnesses who stepped forward last March to expose the atrocity as saying, "There have been at least thirty-six concentration camps established by the Chinese Communist regime, and the organs of Falun Gong practitioners and dissidents there were harvested for transplant purposes without their prior consent". The report also quoted the comments made by the Vice President of European Parliament, Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott: “According to Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, this act (persecution of Falun Gong) is genocide.”

On August 10th, 2006, Lubovna News also reported a series of the activities held in various cities in Slovakia other than the capital during the Falun Gong tour. It also reported the ongoing cruel persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

During the tour, every one of us gained a lot of experiences and learned a lot from it as well. There are a lot more stories worth writing to share with others. But due to the constraints of time, I am unable to do so now. However, through the episodes I mentioned above, people would understand that during the process of our tour, how the Slovakian people and the Chinese people living there changed their mentalities and how the lies fabricated by the Chinese Communist Regime were exposed. It also helps us realise the importance of explaining the facts about Falun Gong to people.