(Minghui.org) Since the Chinese communist regime launched its violent campaign to suppress the Falun Gong spiritual discipline on July 20, 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed to have died as a result of the persecution.

Around this time each year, practitioners around the world hold rallies, marches, and candlelight vigils in memory of those who have lost their lives in China.

Raising Awareness in Sweden

Practitioners in Sweden demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises and held other awareness activities in front of the Chinese Embassy, well-known tourist destinations, and downtown Stockholm on July 20, 2018.

Exercise demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden on July 20, 2018.

The practitioners at the embassy used loudspeakers to broadcast their message toward the building. The event caught the attention of Dagens Nyheter, the biggest newspaper in Sweden, which sent two reporters to cover the event.

Two reporters from Dagens Nyheter cover the event at the Chinese Embassy.

The reporters interviewed Ms. Wang, the organizer of the event, and Ms. Liu, a senior engineer who left China for Sweden to avoid the persecution. Liu told the reporters that she and her husband were repeatedly kidnapped and taken to brainwashing sessions and incarcerated in forced labor camps for two years.

Practitioners raise awareness of the persecution on Coin Square next to the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the serene music of Falun Gong could be heard on Coin Square next to Stockholm Palace and Wallenberg Square opposite the Royal Opera House. Falun Gong practitioners put on reenactments of the Chinese regime’s harvesting of organs from practitioners in China and displayed posters about the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong over the past 19 years.

When a Swedish doctor learned of the organ harvesting, she said indignantly, “This is killing. We must stop it! I support you.”

Elected Officials in Switzerland Express Their Support in Rally

In Switzerland, practitioners held a rally in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland on July 20, 2018.

Group exercise demonstration in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Some elected officials either personally spoke at the rally or sent letters to express their support for Falun Gong practitioners' effort against the persecution.

Mr. Dominique de Buman, President of the National Council of Switzerland, wrote a letter on the topic of “continuously and steadily revealing the terror of religious persecution,” in which he said, “Freedom of belief is inherent in human nature. Under the premise of respecting others and social life, each of us should be able to develop spiritual beliefs.

“The struggle of Falun Gong practitioners to realize their freedom of belief falls into this category. This is just and must be supported by the authorities at all levels of the international community. In particular, it is necessary to strongly condemn the CCP’s forced organ harvesting from prisoners throughout the world. Many of the victims are Falun Gong practitioners.

“The mass slaughter that is systematically organized for the purpose of despicable profit should be stopped immediately and completely.”

Ms. Lisa Mazzone, a member of the National Council, spoke at the rally and highlighted the persecution cases of two Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Huixia Chen and Canadian citizen Qian Sun. She said their examples “can make us see the brutal persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in the past two decades. The purpose [of the persecution] is to force the practitioners to give up their spiritual beliefs.”

She continued, “We must be aware that they are just two of the tens of thousands of victims who have been subjected to violence and persecution. There are other ways of persecution: forced medical and psychiatric experiments, arbitrary detention, revocation of commercial or attorney permits, and denial of returning to their home country, sexual assault, torture, forced organ harvesting, etc.”

Ms. Lisa Mazzone, a member of the National Council of Switzerland

In the end, she said, “The appeals we have made today should continue to promote the Swiss Federal Council's human rights provisions that must be observed in its commercial relations with China, and to address the issue of the persecution of minority groups in China, especially the horrific massacre of Falun Gong.”

Henry Rappaz, former councilor of the Grand Council in Geneva, said in his speech, “As a former member of the Grand Council in Geneva and a conscientious person, I will continue to expose and persistently and strongly condemn all these terrible inhuman acts and all the sinister acts of the Chinese Communist regime.

“I want to speak with the victims, their families, and their friends and give them support. I hope that one day, reputation will be restored to Falun Gong. Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are also the universal positive values of our world.”

Henry Rappaz, former councilor of the Grand Council in Geneva

Other officials who spoke at the rally include councilors Pierre Eckert and Marc Falquet of the Grand Council in Geneva.

Pierre Eckert, councilor of the Grand Council in GenevaMarc Falquet, councilor of the Grand Council in GenevaPractitioners explaining Falun Gong and its persecution in China to passersby.

Related article in Chinese: 反迫害十九年集会 瑞士政要支持（图）