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Experiences at a UK Labour Party Conference in Brighton, England

October 14, 2001 |   Practitioners in the UK

(Clearwisdom.net)

The UK Labour Party Conference was a very good opportunity to validate Dafa and expose the brutality of the Chinese regime to British government Ministers, Ministers of Parliament (MP's), VIP's, local Councillors, the media and many hundreds of people from all walks of life and from all over the United Kingdom.

It is usually very difficult to make personal contact with high level government Ministers in the UK, so this conference gave practitioners a rare chance to meet them and directly talk with them about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

The conference was held over a period of five days. The first day, practitioners did an excellent job of giving out leaflets to a large number of attendees, despite the torrential rain. Some practitioners were inside the security barriers and some were outside. One practitioner went to a fringe meeting, sat in the front row, and asked the main speaker, Robin Cook MP, Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary, his opinion on the persecution in China. Mr. Cook replied, "I will continue pressing the Chinese Government to stop the persecution and resolve things peacefully."

The next day, practitioners distributed many more leaflets and found the attendees very open to the information presented in them. The people were supportive. One practitioner went into the main conference hall, walked up to Jack Straw MP, the Foreign Secretary, and asked him to bear in mind the great problem of the evil human rights policies by the government of China. Mr. Straw acknowledged the practitioner positively.

On the third day, a practitioner went to a fringe meeting on Foreign Affairs that Jack Straw MP had been invited to. But Dr. Dennis McShane MP, Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State, came in his place. Dr. McShane had just recently come back from a visit to Beijing. At the end of the meeting the practitioner went up to Dr. McShane, offered him Falun Gong literature and spoke to him. She asked him to put increased pressure on the Chinese government to stop the persecution. He said that he had already done that and would continue to condemn China's human rights violations.

Although the MP's were usually in a great hurry, rushing from one meeting to the next, we had a few precious minutes to speak to influential members of the government, to highlight the plight of the innocent practitioners and to "offer salvation with benevolence" to more kind-hearted members of the British public. This was a successful event.

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