European Practitioners Hold a Parade Through Central London: Falun Gong is Spreading All Over the World (Photos)
(Clearwisdom.net) On January 15th 2005, Falun Gong practitioners from
nearly twenty European countries gathered together at the British Commonwealth
of Nations office in Whitehall for a press conference. The purpose of the press
conference was to expose the persecution against Falun Gong and to highlight the
support of western officials such as Lord Hylton, who issued a statement to the
press conference calling for an end to the human rights abuses against Falun
Gong practitioners in China. Later, a large-scale parade was held in the center
of London. The parade set off from Whitehall and passed through several tourist
attractions, including Trafalgar Square. The parade was based on three themes. The first theme signified the spread of
Falun Gong throughout the world and the benefits it has brought to the society.
This procession was led by three practitioners carrying signs with the words,
"Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," the universal principles. A
group of practitioners followed them displaying placards and banners explaining
that Falun Gong is a peaceful cultivation practice with more than 100 million
practitioners in over 60 countries in the world. The next procession showed the
beauty of traditional Chinese culture. It was led by a waist drum troupe and
followed by a traditional Chinese dance team. Processions displaying the beauty and sacredness of Falun Dafa The second theme depicted the persecution that has been going on in China for
more than five years, and the third theme brought to the public notice of the
lawsuits launched against Jiang Zemin and his followers in the persecution.
Female practitioners carried posters showing photos of those practitioners who
have been tortured to death. Some posters exhibited the brutal torture methods
used to coerce practitioners to give up their practice. Two methods of torture
were reenacted by practitioners on a float at the end of the procession. Human
rights organizations have verified that at least 100 methods of torture have
been used by Jiang's faction to torture Falun Gong practitioners in China. More
than 38,000 cases of mistreatments of Falun Gong practitioners are documented. Many people stopped to watch the parade and take truth-clarifying
newsletters, which introduced Falun Dafa and gave a brief history of the
practice from its first introduction to the public in 1992, to its present
worldwide spread. The newsletter also covered information about how former
Chinese leader Jiang launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in
1999. At present, over 1,200 practitioners are verified to have died from the
persecution. The actual death toll is estimated to be around 10,000. Most deaths
have occurred in police custody. Exposing the cruel persecution that has been going on for more
than five years in China When the procession passed by the Chinese Consulate, European Falun Dafa
Association and Deputy President of European Friends of Falun Gong, a
non-governmental organization, delivered an appeal letter to the Chinese
authorities, calling on them to stop the serious human rights violation against
Falun Gong practitioners. European Friends of Falun Gong is composed of a group
of non-practitioners who oppose the persecution. Because the consulate staff
refused to open the door, the letter was put in the consulate's mailbox. Through this event, practitioners hoped to allow more people to learn about
Falun Gong and the persecution occurring in China. When all the world's people
get to know that such a peaceful practice, one that follows the principles of
Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance and teaches people to always consider others
first, is encountering persecution by Jiang regime's, the human rights violation
will not be able to continue. After the parade, practitioners spread out and
demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises and clarified the truth to people in
different locations in London.
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/1/20/93872.html
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