UK: Musician Protests Persecution of Falun Gong on Concert Tour (Photo)

By Practitioners from United Kingdom

(Clearwisdom.net) On November 17, a drizzling day in Manchester, David Bowie's band began a concert tour in the UK by giving its first performance in Manchester in the evening. Though being travel worn, Sterling Campbell, the highly regarded drummer for the band, made the Chinese Consulate in Manchester his first stop. In addition to music, his faith in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" has been held dearly in Sterling's heart for five years. He took the opportunity of this concert tour to deliver his peaceful appeal for the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners to Chinese consulates in all of the cities on his itinerary.

Sterling visited China more than a year ago. Like his fellow western Falun Gong practitioners who have been to China, his wish was to call for Jiang's regime to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and to release all the detained practitioners. In China, his peaceful appeal was answered by the police with a beating. He witnessed how policemen knocked down a Chinese girl, beat her, kicked her, dragged her and threw her into a police car. Recalling what he saw, Sterling said, "I can hardly describe my feelings at that time."

Ever since this trip, Sterling has an additional agenda during concert tours -- to tell fans and friends all over the world about his personal experience of the inhumane persecution of Falun Gong in China, and to call for people's attention and help to stop it.

Seventy-one-year-old Terence lives in Manchester. He used to be bed-ridden a few years ago. It was his cultivation of Falun Gong that rejuvenated him and made it possible for him to travel with a sleeping bag like a young man. He spreads the goodness of Falun Dafa and exposes the persecution by Jiang's regime. On mornings of weekdays, he sets up display boards in front of the Chinese Consulate and clarifies the truth about Falun Gong to passersby and those coming to the consulate.

Invited by the local newspaper's photographers, Sterling, Terence and another western practitioner, Elizabeth, did the exercises in front of the Chinese Consulate. A staff member of the consulate came out to stop them, claiming that it was the consulate's territory, that they weren't allowed to stay and do exercises, and even threatened to call the police. The shocked photographers asked him what was wrong with Falun Gong practitioners' legal practice. The practitioners clarified the truth about Falun Gong to the consulate personnel, who quickly retreated to the consulate when a photographer from NTD TV arrived.

After appealing at the Chinese Consulate and interviewing with local media, Sterling went to his first concert in the UK that evening. As the only two organizations invited to set up exhibits, Friends of Falun Gong and Amnesty International had display tables in the concert hall. Before the concert started, people entered the hall in a steady stream. Many of them stopped to see the posters exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. They got flyers and signed the signature collection sheet to rescue Falun Gong practitioners' family members. Many people were shocked to learn about the persecution and Sterling's experience in Beijing. They believed that the persecution would end soon and wished Falun Gong practitioners good luck.

Many local media, including the Manchester Evening, the largest newspaper in Northwest England, interviewed Sterling and other Falun Gong practitioners in front of the Chinese Consulate in the rain. Manchester Evening reported this activity in the next day's issue.

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