Switzerland: Event to Raise Awareness about the Persecution of Falun Gong

On January 13th, Swiss practitioners held an Information Day at the Parade Platz in Zurich to let more people know about the on-going brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. In the past year or so, local practitioners have been holding events of this kind once a month.

The practitioners displayed eye-catching banners telling people that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and appealing for public support to stop the persecution, set up a photo display contrasting the popularity of the practice before the persecution and the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners during the persecution. At a petition table, they displayed photos with captions which illustrated and explained why the CCP would persecute the practice: The CCP which is notorious for persecuting Chinese people using violence and lies does not tolerate people who are striving to be good citizens following the universal principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.”

Several practitioners repeatedly demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises while others distributed leaflets. Though many passersby turned a blind eye to them at first, gradually more and more people stopped to watch the demonstration, read persecution case stories and signed the petition to support Falun Gong and call for an end to the persecution.

Some passersby chatted with practitioners for a long time and thanked them for holding such an event to help end the persecution. Some people said that they wanted to deliver the practitioners' leaflets to the Chinese Embassy. Many people said that more people should be informed about the persecution and they will share their view on the persecution with Chinese people through the internet.

A western person once worked in China and speaks very fluent Chinese. She was very happy to take material in Chinese and told the reporter that she had heard about the persecution before because one of her Chinese friends was detained for half year for practicing Falun Gong. Though her friend has fled to Switzerland, he is worried that his wife and daughter will be implicated.

The lady said that she could not understand why such a brutal persecution is still happening and she hoped that more Chinese people can bravely step out to tell the truth.

Another lady signed the petition immediately after she viewed the posters and materials at the petition table. She said: “Such a persecution of human rights shocked me. Organ harvesting reminds me of the atrocities that happened in Europe during World War II.”

A member of Amnesty International passed by the information booth. She signed the petition and said that she will investigate allegations of harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners. She said, “I heard about that organ harvesting practice in China is real and I feel that it is horrible from any perspective. I cannot accept it and how can other countries allow such atrocities to happen with no protest. It is unbelievable. To people from political and business circle, it seems that such atrocities have never happen. This is so disturbing. ”

Many people learned about the benefits of practising of Falun Dafa as well as the ongoing brutal persecution happening in China. The practitioners will continue to hold events of this kind till the persecution is stopped.