Germany: Prior to the Europe-China Human Rights Dialog, Falun Gong Practitioners Hold a Rally in Berlin (Photos)

By Wu Sijing, Minghui.net/Clearwisdom reporter in Berlin

(Clearwisdom.net) On Saturday, May 12, 2007, more than 300 Falun Gong practitioners held a rally at Breitscheidplatz, in downtown Berlin, to expose the bloody persecution of Falun Gong practitioners launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) eight years ago. Just prior to the EU-China human rights dialog being held in Germany next week, Falun Gong practitioners rallied support for the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China and called on the EU to express concern for the CCP's infringement of Falun Gong practitioners' human rights.

Songs by the European "Coming for You Choir" dressed in white marks the beginning of the rally

Falun Gong practitioners hold an anti-torture reenactment, exposing the CCP's organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, which was the focus of the rally

Passersby sign the petition protesting the CCP's organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners

Anti-torture demonstration draws people's attention

Germans who have experienced communist totalitarianism also feel obliged to help Chinese people eliminate the communist dictatorship

[Recording: Falun Gong practitioners hold rally at Breitscheidplatz, in downtown Berlin (1.3 MB) http://pkg2.minghui.ca/mh/2007/5/12/mh0512Kundgebung.mp3]

At 12:30, songs by the "Coming for You Choir" marked the beginning of the rally. Representatives from the German International Society for Human Rights, the European Falun Dafa Association, and the human rights group Society for Threatened People then made statements at the rally. Mr. Zhang Zhentong from Leipzig also described how his wife Wang Xiaoyan had experienced unlawful forced labor in China's labor camps, for practicing Falun Gong.

The "Coming for You Choir" consists entirely of Falun Gong practitioners who are fond of music. Formally dressed in white and wearing a solemn expression on their faces, the choir used their unaccompanied voices to sing their classical song "Coming for You," in a quadruple harmony. The performance earned them enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Hubert Koerper, on behalf of the German International Society for Human Rights, delivered a speech at the rally, calling on the EU not to have ineffective talks with China as usual, but instead to carry on a dialog for practical purposes. He commented, "The Europe-China human rights dialog has always been closed-door. I think this kind of situation should not be allowed any longer. Judging from the number persecuted and the brutality of the persecution, China still ranks as the worst for its most serious infringements of human rights and cruelest torturing.

After being informed of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, passersby felt shocked. A German lady said, "It's so horrible that something like this is still happening."

Mr. Haar from Hamburg said that he had read news about the persecution of Falun Gong in German media, and for the first time witnessed the activities held by Falun Gong practitioners exposing the persecution. "I consider activities of this kind very good. We should enable more people to understand the persecution," he said.

Michel and his girlfriend, from Spain, attentively viewed the photos of Falun Gong practitioners subjected to brutal torture. The photos showed practitioners being burned by China's police with an iron, or with cigarette butts, and practitioners who were in pain because heated skewers were inserted under their fingernails. Standing in front of the exhibited photos, Michel told the reporter, "Half a century ago, during the World War II, German Nazis employed brutal methods to mistreat the Jews. Nowadays such ill treatment still exists in the world. It's really too brutal."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/5/13/154708.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version