(Minghui.org) Practitioners held a rally on July 19, 2024 to mark the 25th anniversary of their peacefully exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution. They did the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) exercises and displayed banners with Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance on them. This event was part of a 25-hour peaceful appeal.

Several speakers from the Czech political and cultural sphere also spoke out against the brutality experienced by practitioners in China, which included torture, beatings, and even forced organ harvesting.

On Friday, July 19, Czech MP Hayato Okamura, along with actress Andrea Cerna and actor David Steigerwald, symbolically broke a 25-meter-long paper chain in front of the Chinese Embassy in Prague. The paper chain represented the 25 years of the CCP’s persecution endured by Falun Dafa practitioners. By breaking the chain, the three expressed their demand that the CCP end its persecution.

Practitioners in China have been persecuted by the CCP for 25 years, which is symbolized by a 25-meter-long paper chain.

MP Hayato Okamura breaks a paper chain symbolizing the persecution of Falun Gong.

Leoš Strnad, who co-organized the event, said, “The values and principles of Falun Gong are clearly expressed in the words Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Who else but the biggest gangsters [the CCP] could have a problem with these values? The criminality of this regime is shown by the fact that the CCP feels this peaceful spiritual practice is its number one enemy,” he said.

“This genocide is not only about killing people, but by destroying the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. It is also about destroying the principles of humanity,” said Bohumil Bartosek, vice-chair of the Falun Gong Association of the Czech Republic.

Guest Speakers Call to Stop the Persecution

The speakers at the event expressed solidarity with practitioners in China.

MP Hayato Okamura speaks in the rally.

In his remarks, MP Hayato Okamura gave the historical background and facts of the CCP’s persecution. He said, “I come and bow with great humility before a community which, unlike those of us who have lived in freedom and democracy, is now bearing witness to the trampling of freedom in a bloody way in China.

“I would like to remind you that there are credible testimonies that thousands of people in the Falun Gong community have been tortured and killed and had their organs forcibly removed.”

Actress Andrea Cerna speaks in front of the Chinese Embassy on July 19, 2024.

Actress Andrea Cerna, praised practitioners for living according to such positive values and said the abuse and killing of practitioners should end. “Falun Dafa practitioners fill the space with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,” she said. “We ask you to stop torturing and killing Falun Gong practitioners in China, and release Gao Zhisheng.”

Actor David Steigerwald from the Vinohrady Theater

David Steigerwald recited a poem he wrote in which he wished for an end to the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.

Statements from the Community

In addition to the statements of support at the event, many supporters also sent written statements to practitioners commending their efforts to counter the persecution.

Bishop Václav Malý, in his statement sent to the organizers of the event, condemned the persecution. He said, “It must be made clear: no more persecution by the Chinese authorities. Falun Gong followers do not preach or spread violence or hatred. They do not aim to divide Chinese society. I express my human solidarity with the persecuted followers of this movement.”

In his statement, Daniel Herman, a member of the Government Human Rights Council, expressed his wish that the suffering of the abused in Chinese prisons would end and he criticized the crime of forced organ harvesting: “In this case, there is the particularly heinous crime of organ trafficking of murdered people whose only 'crime' was that they were trying to cultivate their lives and thus the whole of society."

Lumír Kantor, Senator of the Czech Parliament, also sent words of support to the organizers: “The persecution, humiliation, and torture of these victims is completely unacceptable and contradicts everything human. We must not be indifferent and accept injustice.”

Another senator, Jaromíra Vítková, wrote that today’s event is also important in the fight for human rights for religious and ethnic minorities in China. “The event will give support to the humiliated that they are not alone, and leads us to believe that we must be vigilant.”

MEP Alexandr Vondra, MPs Pavel Bělobrádek, Patrik Nacher, and Hayato Okamura, and Senators Marek Hilšer, Lumír Kantor, and Jaromíra Vítková signed an inter-parliamentary declaration calling on the Chinese government to end the persecution of Falun Gong.