Falun Gong Travels to the Baltic Countries of Estonia and Latvia: Part 2
A western practitioner in Canada
Tuesday, September 11th, 2001:
Happy memories of distributing flyers the previous day lingered on. So many
people's eyes lit up as we offered them those small flyers with all that
precious information about the principles of Falun Dafa. We also took the
opportunity to explain about how the practice has been brutally suppressed in
China. From the hotel, we made our way to the President's Palace on the outskirts of
Talinn. The timing was very good, because the President and his staff had just
returned from their state visit to France. Therefore, we were able to meet with
his Foreign Affairs Consultant who had written the original invitation to come
to Estonia.
Wednesday, September 12th, Latvia
Our meeting room was in the newly renovated Reval Hotel Latviya and somehow,
it had been organized that the group meeting in the room next to us was a
collection of documentary film makers having a very important seminar: The
European Documentary Filmmakers Symposium! I spoke with the Deputy Director of
the National Film Centre of Latvia, and told him that the group I was with was
making some excellent documentary films and would appreciate being in touch with
him and his colleagues. He was very kind, and gave me his business card. The next thing I knew, one of the other practitioners was having a long
conversation with the same man! She gave him a complete package, including a
videotape and came back with an enormous smile on her face: the filmmaker said
they would make copies of our video and distribute it to all the people at their
Seminar. (We felt things had been very well arranged for us during our trip!)
The video contained the self-immolation deconstruction, the SOS Video, Falun
Gong: The Real Story Parts 1 & 2. We were very grateful. Our meeting room was set up for 16 people. Just the right number of
practitioners came so that, if I remember correctly either 15 or 16 of the seats
were filled! It was the first time that we had a good translator present and
were able to really communicate with the practitioners there. It was wonderful.
And they decided to meet in the evening and continue with our experience-sharing
meeting. At 2:00 p.m. the main Latvian contact person had arranged a meeting for us
with the Foreign Policy Advisor to the State President. He was a fairly young
man, and a truly noble and beautiful human being whose heart and mind were
totally sympathetic to our SOS rescue mission. His father had been the
Ambassador to China, so he was very familiar with the human rights violations
there. He assured us that Madame President was firmly committed to human rights and
that, in fact, she had just returned from the human rights meeting in Durban,
South Africa. When he looked at the route for the SOS Walk through the Baltic
countries, he said that it reminded him of the time, ten years ago when people
stood side-by-side for 600 kilometers, holding hands and singing, to show the
Russian government that they were peacefully committed to freedom for their
countries. He said that he knew we would find that the people of Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania would understand our situation and would be very sympathetic. And
he was right. We presented him with a copy each of Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong,
as well as the music CD and some other background information, including the
report from the United Nations.
Because of our appearance on Estonian Breakfast Television, we were one day
late arriving in Ryga. It was decided that I would go on to Vilnius by myself,
and the others would stay in Ryga until Friday, when they would return to Talinn
and take the ferry to Stockholm.
And so, at 6:40 p.m. on Thursday, September 13th, I was on the bus
to Vilnius.
On to Vilnius!
My seat number was 37. Next to me was a fair-haired young man with a very
pleasant face. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. He seemed almost
familiar to me and we quickly had an excellent conversation. He was very
sympathetic to the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and asked what I
hoped to do in Vilnius. I said that my biggest hope was to meet with a high
government official, but that it seemed very difficult because I had no contacts
in Vilnius to arrange anything.
Once again, things had already been arranged for me: He smiled and told me
that his father is a member of the Lithuanian Parliament and immediately sent an
email message on his cellphone. His father replied within ten minutes and said
that we could meet on Monday, September 17th.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the largest newspaper, but could only
leave a package. The Foreign Editor was too busy to come down to see us. And so
we headed out with our bags full of flyers and on one of the main streets, we
stopped at a busy corner where people were waiting for buses. Again, they were
happy to take our information.
There was a young Greek boy with large sympathetic eyes who was very
familiar. And then a young couple came over, big smiles on their faces! They had
been practicing Falun Dafa in England for the last six months and had just
returned home to Vilnius. We exchanged email addresses and promised to keep in
touch.
There was also a rather tall, quiet man who asked if we would be doing the
exercises anywhere. I said "Yes!" -- and on the spot decided that we
would be in the Cathedral Square the next day at noon. He promised to come.
Saturday, September 15th
After breakfast, I went to the library to donate our Falun Dafa books (in
both English and Russian) as well as a CD of the music. Here, I had a very long
and good conversation with the librarian.
The tall young man telephoned our contact practitioner to make sure we would
be doing the exercises at noon. Again things had been arranged: he is a
journalist for the second largest newspaper in Lithuania! And this newspaper is
the only one that has a Lifestyle section. He was very interested in the
practice, so he interviewed us and said he would arrange to have his
photographer come to take photos before we left Vilnius. When I asked, he
promised to send me a copy of the article, even though it will be in Lithuanian.
[Authors note: There is a large community of Lithuanian people in
Toronto, so perhaps we can arrange a meeting with them to show them our
photographs and the article.]
Because of a meeting on Monday, my return travel needed to be rearranged and
I then went off by myself to look for a travel agent who could book a flight,
because there wouldn't be enough time to catch the ferry. When I asked a young
couple if they knew of a travel agent, they drove me there! Tickets were
organized. Lunch was had (at 5pm!) and then I realized that there was an
Internet Café just around the corner. So... here we are! Saturday night. Just
one and a half days left in Vilnius. The time has flown by -- and yet it seems
lifetimes since I left Toronto just a little less than two weeks ago.
Heshi,
A western practitioner in Canada
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