Report from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

1. Complaints to Jiang’s arbitrariness are heard everywhere in the Baltic Sea area.

On June 10, Jiang Zemin arrived at Latvia, a small country in the Baltic Sea area. He left Estonia on June 13. Wherever he went, he stayed at the most luxurious hotel, ate at the most expensive restaurants, and wantonly squandered the Chinese people’s money earned by hard toil. Fearing to “encounter” the local people and the peaceful protestors, each time he went out, he had policemen deployed all the way on his route, and carried traffic controls, which caused lots of inconvenience for the local people.

Complaints against Jiang’s actions were heard everywhere in the Baltic Sea area.

2. Falun Gong practitioners hold press conference to expose the persecution

On June 11, 12, and 14, Falun Gong practitioners held press conferences at Riga, the capital of Latvia, at Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and at Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, respectively. Major local media including over 20 TV stations, Radio stations and newspapers sent reporters to attend the press conferences. As a witness, carrying her 2-year-old daughter, Ms. Dai Zhizhen talked about the story of her husband, Mr. Chen Chengyong, who was beaten to death by the police simply for appealing for Falun Gong. She also talked about the story of her sister-in-law, who was sentenced to a forced labour camp for refusing to give up her cultivation practice. Dai’s father-in-law was not able to endure the spiritual attack and died shortly after his son’s death.

1.A German practitioner speaks at the press conference.

2.Ms. Dai Zhizhen from Australia talks about the persecution her family has encountered.

3.Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises in Riga.

4.Reporters from Tallinn attentively listen to the speeches.

5.Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises in Vilnius.

On June 14, practitioners from Canada, America, Germany, Sweden and Australia practiced the Falun Gong exercises in front of the Lithuania Capitol Building in Vilnius. They unfurled a banner reading, “Falun Dafa” and clarified the truth of Jiang Zemin’s persecution to the people of Lithuania

3. Media extensively report the Falun Gong practitioners’ activities; high-rank government officials express their support to Falun Gong in private

Almost all of the people we contacted knew Falun Gong. In addition to putting pressure on the governments of these countries, the Jiang regime also attempted to rope in the media. One month before Jiang’s state visit to these countries, the Chinese government spent a great deal of money to invite part of the people in charge of the major media in these countries and some reporters to visit China. At the press conference in Tallinn, one after another, reporters expressed their concerns and alertness towards the attempt from Jiang’s regime to influence the media. After learning the truth about Falun Dafa, a female reporter asked the practitioners: “What can we do to help?” A photographer from Vilnius said that he could not understand why Jiang persecutes something that is so peaceful. He said that over a decade ago, if someone looked very happy on February 28 (the Lithuanian Independence Day), he would be imprisoned. Jiang is behaving just like the KGB over a decade ago.

Our visa applications to enter Estonia were unreasonably held off. The consul general told us that the Chinese Embassy in Estonia put pressure on the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They received orders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from entering Estonia during the period of Jiang’s visit. The consul general said that he could not disobey the order, but him and his colleagues all supported us. They do not understand why the government would rather invite a tyrant to visit than to allow peaceful people to enter the country.

Due to the pressure from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vilnius City government had to cancel the approval of a Falun Gong parade. However, they provided us many valuable suggestions on how to effectively spread Dafa and clarify the truth.

Although Peking spent a great deal of money attempting to brainwash the media of these countries, people who found out the truth about Dafa are able to make a clear distinction between right and wrong. The report of Falun Gong activities from Channel 3 TV station lasted as long as 5 minutes. While the following report of Jiang’s visit took only less than one minute.