Germany: Recalling Falun Gong Practitioners' Peaceful Protests During Hu Jintao's Visit to Germany (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Berlin Falun Gong practitioners were in front of Schloss Charlottenburg on November 11, 2005.

While looking at media photos of Falun Gong practitioners' protests during Hu Jintao's visit to Germany, it seemed as if their voices were still ringing in my ears:

"Falun Gong is good!"

"Stop the persecution of Falun Gong!"

I had the feeling that I was personally on the scene again, and I couldn't take my eyes away from the photos.

During the first ten days of November 2005, Hu Jintao's contingent heard practitioners voicing these and similar phrases wherever they went in Germany. Falun Gong practitioners called him everywhere in hopes that he would make a correct choice during this historic and crucial time.

Never before had I realized the cruelty of the persecution.

On November 11, the practitioners arrived in a back street opposite the China Centre in Berlin. Having found the address they had applied for beforehand, the practitioners discovered that the place was not exactly opposite the China Centre and that they were required to stay thirty meters away from the main road. Dealing with the situation calmly, they laid out exhibition boards about Falun Gong's popularity around the world and the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. Then they started demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. While the policemen read the exhibition boards, they also asked the practitioners questions. Later on, two high-ranking officers came. After reading the exhibition boards, including pictures of the tortures, they said to practitioners, "We never before realized that the persecution was so cruel. We are going to read the Nine Commentaries." In time, the practitioners were allowed to move forward five meters, which ensured that the people in the China Centre could see the banners.

Hu Jintao, together with his group, was about to leave the China Centre when the practitioners started calling out, "Falun Dafa is good."

Several practitioners who were there all mentioned afterwards that it seemed as if the moment they had been waiting for for so long had at last arrived. Everybody was fulfilling a remote promise with only one thing in mind: that Hu Jintao, together with his group, would hear the truth.

That same evening, the President of Germany was hosting Hu Jintao together with his group and celebrities from different areas of the country. Falun Gong practitioners from all over Europe, as well as representatives of various human rights organizations and crowds came to welcome Hu. When the delegation arrived, all the groups sent out different welcomes.

During the banquet, Falun Gong practitioners practiced the exercises. They also read an open letter to the Chinese students who had come to welcome Hu, telling them that the red flags in their hands had been dyed with the blood of 80,000,000 Chinese people who had been wrongly murdered. The practitioners hoped that they would consider the fact that 5,500,000 people had withdrawn from the CCP and that they should read the Nine Commentaries carefully so that they could see the true colors of the CCP. After that, a western practitioner gave several Chinese students copies of the Nine Commentaries.

November 13 Hu arrived in Düsseldorf, an important industrial city in Germany. Having participated in a parade against the persecution for three and a half hours, more than 200 European Falun Gong practitioners first went to the hotel where Hu Jintao was invited to a dinner and then to the Hilton Hotel, where Hu took a rest, continuing to protest the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP. On a grassy area not far from the Hilton, several practitioners did the exercises quietly and waited the whole night through.

A few policemen on duty were watching nearby. Some practitioners took the opportunity to chat with them about Falun Gong and how and why the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong. The policemen who understood the facts were so cooperative that they allowed practitioners to stand at the very front of the grassy area so that they could call out when Hu was having his breakfast.

On the morning of the 14th, practitioners were told that Hu Jintao and his group were having breakfast. A policeman informed the practitioners of Hu's movements.

More than an hour later, at the time of Hu's departure for Spain, the Chinese delegation kept putting pressure on the German authorities. As a result, a high-ranking official came over to negotiate with Falun Gong practitioners and asked them to move back to a place where the delegation could not hear the sounds of their chanting voices. The practitioners and the police who were there all thought that their activity was legal, because it had been applied for and approved of beforehand. The police said that it was their legal right and that there was no reason to ask the practitioners to move back. The practitioners kept explaining the facts to the official. The official told the practitioners that he already knew the truth and that Falun Gong was always peaceful in its activities. If he had been able to make a decision, he would rather have asked the practitioners to stand right in the front, but the Chinese kept on putting pressure on them. Since his boss had ordered him to do this, he had to obey. Finally, after he had thought it over, he decided that the practitioners should move back five meters as a symbolic gesture that he could report to his boss.

The open letter to Hu Jintao states: "Today, November 10, 2005, on the anniversary of the day 16 years ago when people from east and west Germany were cheering the fall of the Berlin Wall, you have come to Germany for a visit. The Berlin Wall was pushed over like dominoes. The whole of Eastern Europe and the Communist Camp of the Soviet Union disintegrated in just a few months. Now, a book, the Nine Commentaries on Communist Party, has resulted in a great tide of resignations from the Party. Over 5,500,000 people have withdrawn from the CCP. The fall of the CCP is inevitable. You are not the one who started the persecution of Falun Gong and you don't need to shoulder Jiang's responsibility. We hope that you will do what is right and accede to Providence: Stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately. The time that Gods and people have given to you is limited."

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200512/30368.html