On April 25, during the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission, Dafa [great law and universal principle] practitioners from all over the world were gathered in Geneva. In order to memorialize Dafa practitioners' peaceful petition at Zhongnanhai two years ago, and to grieve over those practitioners who have sacrificed their lives by firmly upholding the truth over the past 21 months, many practitioners went to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, to parade. They paraded from the Parliament Square in the center of the city to the Chinese Embassy in order to expose the truth about Jiang Zemin's persecution of Dafa and to appeal to China to stop the vicious suppression of Falun Dafa.
About 10 practitioners wearing white clothing and carrying pictures of some of the Dafa practitioners who were persecuted to death walked in the forefront of the parade. Other practitioners wore golden T-shirts and held huge banners with statements such as "Zhen-Shan-Ren " [Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance], "Falun Dafa," "Stop the persecution," etc., in Chinese, English and French. In the constant, light spring rainfall, practitioners walked slowly as "Pu-du" music filled the air. As it promoted and protected the Fa, [law and principle] this parade attracted the attention of many people along the way.
Arriving at their destination, practitioners spread banners and pictures in a row facing the Chinese Embassy. The practitioners stood silently in the rain for a long period of time in order to demonstrate the thousands upon thousands of Falun Gong practitioners' sincere appeals to the Chinese government and to the world: Stop persecuting Falun Gong and restore Falun Dafa's good reputation! At that time it was still raining. It seemed as though heaven itself was crying over the unfairness with which Dafa had been treated, and for the practitioners' great compassion and forbearance when faced with persecution.
As tears from their eyes mingled with the spring rain, everyone's hearts were filled with boundless mercy. The rain became heavy as they began to continue with the parade from the embassy. At this time, they felt both gratified and encouraged. Many Dafa practitioners overcame layer upon layer of difficulties and broke through layer upon layer of human concepts and restraints. They had used the convening of the UN Human Rights Commission as an opportunity to expose the evil, to send out an appeal, and to show people from all corners of the earth that Dafa has reappeared in the human world.
When practitioners applied for this parade, something very special happened. According to the regulations of the city of Bern, a group can only apply for a parade three times in one year. The local practitioners had already applied for activities on more than three occasions. Therefore, it was very difficult to apply. However, the practitioners introduced the truth about how China is persecuting Dafa practitioners to the appropriate departments. When they came to understand that the Chinese government persecuted to death at least another ten Dafa practitioners during the Human Rights Commission's meetings, they were very angry and said: "That's going too far! You should parade. If there's a problem, we'll take care of it."
April 25, 2001
Category: April 25 Events
