Report from Lithuania: "Our City's Heart is Behind You!"

[Friday, June 14, 2002] Since Jiang is planning to come to Vilnius on Sunday June 16, we decided to prepare the media, government and people of Vilnius before he could get here and thus prevent them from being deceived by the slanderous propaganda.

At 11:00 a.m., we held a very successful press conference in a nearby hotel to expose the truth about the evil persecution of Falun Gong in China. About 15 members of the Lithuanian media came to the press conference and this included the major national TV, Radio and newspapers. One of the reporters told us that he was surprised that so many reporters came to our press conference, since just a few days ago, all the Lithuanian media received a notice from the government saying that they should avoid writing articles about China while Jiang is visiting. To the contrary, the Lithuanian media was incredibly supportive and actually helped us in many different ways.

Meanwhile, two practitioners visited the Vilnius City Hall to see if we could get a permit to have some Hong Fa [Introducing Falun Gong] activities on Friday and Saturday. The Director of Public Order in the Mayor's office was very helpful and immediately told us that he would do everything he could to allow us to have our events. He even contacted the Mayor of Vilnius directly and told us that the Mayor also wanted us to have our events. Unfortunately, when the Mayor tried to approve our events, the Minister of Foreign Affairs blocked his request, saying that there is a "law" in Lithuania that the government requires 5 days advance to apply for permits. The Directory of Public Order told us that he was very disappointed with the situation. He said, "Our city's heart is behind you!"
Thanks to some advice from some journalists, they told us that it is legal in Lithuania to have small gatherings. We then decided to do a small exercise demonstration near the Parliament building. Three TV stations came to film us, even though it was raining.

Two practitioners spent yesterday meeting various members of the Lithuanian Parliament and other federal government officials. All of the officials were happy to meet the practitioners and were glad they could learn about the true situation of the persecution in China.

Because of the media and government work that was done today, we feel that it has created a righteous field here in Vilnius and thus, it will make it difficult for Jiang to spread his poisonous lies.

Source:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/6/16/23172.html