(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Utz-Reiner Romer, a member of the German Human Rights Commission, is so supportive of Falun Gong that he often joins Falun Gong practitioners in holding activities to expose China's human rights abuses. In September 2005, Mr. Romer set foot on China's soil for the second time. Wearing a T-shirt with the Chinese characters "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance," this time he traveled around China for three weeks, aiming to raise awareness about the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
CHAM Daily reports Mr. Romer's trip to China.
On December 10, Germany's CHAM Daily reported on Mr. Romer's trip to China with the headline "Peaceful Protest against Torture and Persecution." On International Human Rights Day, Mr. Romer told reporters that "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" are Falun Gong's basic principles, and that these three words are absolutely harmless to people in western Europe, but they are perceived as political terminology by the Chinese communist party. In recent years, Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted, arrested and tortured in China. Among them, over three thousand have been tortured to death.
During the past six years, Falun Gong has been labeled and practitioners have been placed under cruel persecution. Mr. Romer said that "Defame their reputation, destroy them economically and eliminate them physically" are the policies taken by the Chinese Communist regime, and human rights are entirely ignored in this country with a population of 1.3 billion.
The Chinese characters "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance"
are prominent on Mr. Romer's T-shirt
Mr. Romer intended to use his own actions to do something against this campaign that is taking place in China. Falun Gong is slandered by the Chinese state-controlled media, and the Chinese Communist regime staged the "self-immolation" incident to defame Falun Gong. Mr. Romer also brought along some CDs which can help people understand the facts of Falun Gong. Some tourists also received Falun Gong flyers from him.
In addition, Mr. Romer has also kept in contact with some Chinese. When conversing with a university student studying at the German School of a university in Shanghai, he told a tour guide about the facts of the "self-immolation incident" and China's human rights abuses. In the beginning, the tour guide warned him that wearing a T-shirt with characters relating to Falun Gong might get him into trouble, but in the end the tour guide listened to his explanation of China's human rights violations.
The feedback concerning the T-shirt was very positive. Mr. Romer said, "Many Chinese people smiled at me and waved at me, while some wanted to have photos taken with me."
"For this trip, I was a tourist as well as a humanitarian helper." He added, "No country has imprisoned as many journalists as China." To go ahead with this campaign, Mr. Romer, of course, should consider his own safety, but his philosophy is, "If one only considers his own safety, he can do nothing." In other words, it is worthwhile to take risks for human rights. He also mentioned, "Without respecting human rights, the world will have no hope."
