Germany: Falun Gong at the Cultural Festival in Augsburg

The annual Multi-Cultural Festival in Augsburg, Germany was held on July 12th, 2008. Various political, cultural, charity and human rights organisations and groups from more than ten countries attended the Festival, among which were Falun Gong practitioners from Germany and Austria. For the people of Augsburg, Falun Gong group was no stranger to them as it was the fifth time that Falun Gong was invited to attend the Festival. At the Festival, Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises and participated in the parade, which received a warm welcome from the people of Augsburg and loud chanting of Falun Dafa, could be heard from the spectators. The organiser of the Festival expressed their great satisfaction to the Falun Gong group hoping that Falun Gong group could be seen again at the next event.

A secondary school student wearing a Reporters without Borders t-shirt signed his name on the petition form calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)	The Falun Gong procession at the Multi-Cultural Festival in Augsburg

Many people were attracted by the Falun Gong exercises demonstrated by the Falun Gong practitioners. Many people felt very good to see the Falun Gong group among the parade and they came to the Information Desk of the Falun Gong practitioners watching the demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises and asking about the truth of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.

A group of the secondary school students wearing a T-shirt with sign of Handcuff Olympic Games designed by Reporters Without Borders came to the Information Desk and asked to sign their names in the book entitled Global Million Signatures Calling For An End To The Persecution of Falun Gong Before The Beijing Olympic Games. On that day, many people who knew about the truth all came here to sign their names.

A Falun Gong practitioner who had just come to Germany said that he was very happy to see the Falun Gong practitioners and their parade in a foreign country. He told the reporter, “I have only seen the activities of the Falun Gong practitioners in overseas countries through the internet, but now I feel very excited that I am here and see for myself the parade of the Falun Gong practitioners. As I am a Falun Gong practitioner, too, I feel very excited and inspired when I am able to see them. He also said, “Another point I would like to make, I think the parade I have seen here in the overseas country is very helpful to the exposure of the persecution. I can see that Falun Gong receives so much welcome and popular support in overseas countries, which makes me feel very happy and very confident for the future of Falun Gong. More over, the activities of this kind will help an early end to the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. In China, people can not see any activities like this and the Falun Gong practitioners are basically put in a situation where they can not openly and freely express their opinions. There are still a large number of people in China can not correctly understand Falun Gong. Sometimes when I talked to my friends and colleagues, I found that they had a very strong misunderstand of Falun Gong. This is all because they have been deceived by the propaganda and lies of the CCP’s media. So I feel that in the mainland China, there is no free environment like this in the overseas countries. As a Falun Gong practitioner in mainland China, I feel moved to see so many practitioners in the foreign country participating in spite of the rain. I think I should do something more to raise awareness of the people and make more contacts with fellow practitioners so as to put an early end to the persecution and to save more people together with our practitioners in overseas countries.