Overwhelming Support of Falun Gong from the German Public

(Clearwisdom.net)

About 150 meters away from Adlon, a five star hotel located on the main street in Berlin where Jiang stayed during his three days' visit, a group of a few hundred Dafa practitioners staged a peaceful appeal. For 72 hours, the practitioners continually practiced the Falun Gong exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts. Colorful banners hanging across the field attracted hundreds of tourists and passersby, who stopped to find out more about the appeal. Many people took the materials and inquired about the truth of the persecution. Some simply stayed behind to learn the exercises from the practitioners. This location became a major Dafa promotion area during that period of time.

Looking at the heavily guarded hotel with the amount of police stationed there, in contrast to the peaceful environment of the Dafa practitioners, the local citizens were rather displeased at the overwhelming security setup for Jiang's visit. They were more annoyed when they learned about the persecution of the Dafa practitioners by Jiang's regime. One local said to a practitioner, "It is to their own disgrace when the police drove you people to a place over a hundred meters away from the hotel in order to safeguard the tyrant. Why can't the tyrant meet you people face to face?"

Whenever Jiang's car left the hotel, all en route street outlets were barricaded. Nevertheless, practitioners still managed to display a few banners at a close range. As can be seen, Jiang's personal security officers were quick at work. They kept a close watch on the practitioner's movement and constantly reported back to the police nearby. The police would then hurriedly go into the crowd and apprehend the practitioners. Once, a policeman tried to snatch a banner away from the practitioner, and that roused anger from the people nearby. One pointed out to the police, " What are you doing? This is not Tiananmen! We are in Germany." Under the reprimand from the public, the police were then more cautious. That time, the practitioners had managed to display quite a few banners along the route Jiang's car passed. Even the police themselves could not help admiring their courage.

The same day when Jiang arrived at the two towns, Wolfsburg and Goslar, the practitioners were there as well conducting a peaceful protest and rally. People came up and asked for flyers and information, and many showed their support and sympathy. Lots of people gathered around the field where Dafa practitioners were demonstrating the exercises, and many stayed back and were reluctant to leave.

The people in town were rather angry at the excessive security set up to safeguard Jiang from the Falun Gong practitioners. Appearing in the local paper the following day was a big headline that read: "High Security for Chairman Jiang Brought Anger to the Public." The article further pointed out, "... Jiang Zemin is not a person that attracts liking from the public, not in Germany, and never in Goslar..." He was regarded as a menace to democracy and freedom of human pursuit. Meanwhile, the small group of dauntless Falun Dafa practitioners who had protested against China's oppression of freedom of belief won overwhelming support from the general public.

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