(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners held an activity in Mannheim, Germany, on April 22, 2023, to commemorate the April 25 peaceful appeal, which occurred in Beijing in 1999.

About 10,000 Falun Dafa practitioners gathered at the State Council Appealing Office in Beijing on April 25, 1999, to peacefully request the release of fellow practitioners arrested in Tianjin, a nearby city. Four months later, on July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially launched the nationwide persecution of Falun Dafa. The persecution continues today.

Every year, Falun Dafa practitioners worldwide hold activities to commemorate the peaceful appeal and protest the CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, including the CCP’s crimes of organ harvesting from living practitioners.

Falun Dafa practitioners practice the exercises on April 22, 2023, in Mannheim, Germany, to commemorate the April 25 Peaceful Appeal in Beijing

People stop and talk to practitioners to learn more about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners

Crowds of people were on the pedestrian streets in Mannheim on the weekend. Practitioners demonstrated Falun Gong’s five sets of exercises and collected signatures for a petition from passersby. They wanted to raise awareness of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. Many people stopped and talked to practitioners. They wanted to learn more about the persecution. Some had already learned about the persecution through social media. Some took the fliers and said that they would read them when they got home.

People sign the petition to support practitioners' efforts to end the persecution in China

An Engineer Signs the Petition

Mr. Kourkzi passed by the booth with his two young sons. He told a practitioner that he had studied at a university in Beijing, majoring in mechanical engineering, for two years. He said that he heard about Falun Dafa while he was in China, but not many people there talked about the topic. He said some French media had reported on this topic from time to time. A couple of hosts had criticized the human rights records of China in their programs and had spoken about the persecution of Falun Dafa, Uighurs, and Tibetans.

“I think it is important that more and more people are aware of this topic of the CCP harvesting organs from living Falun Dafa practitioners. If more people sign the petition, it will have a bigger impact,” Mr Kourkzi said.

He said that if a large number of signatures were presented to the government, they would pay attention to the issue.

He acknowledged that it is good for people to have beliefs. He said that human rights should be respected and that everyone should have the right to choose whatever they want to do, including choosing their belief.

Doctor Couple Sad that the CCP Persecutes Falun Dafa Practitioners

Shrestha, a physician from Nepal, and his wife signed the petition to support Falun Dafa practitioners.

Shrestha and his wife, both physicians from Nepal, are completing their PhDs in Germany. Shrestha said that he saw Falun Dafa activities in Dresden in 2020. At the time he was curious and wanted to know what Falun Dafa was. He watched many videos on YouTube about Falun Dafa. An Australian congressman had mentioned that Falun Dafa was prohibited in China and the practitioners were arrested and sentenced.

He couldn’t understand why people would be persecuted for meditation, because meditation was an ancient culture in Asia. He felt sad about it.

He said that the values of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance were very good and that every belief has its own expression, but the ultimate goal is the same.

People Wish Falun Dafa Practitioners Success

Mr. Matthias Burkardt signed the petition and video recorded the banner on the side of the stall which said “The CCP is the most evil virus which harms the whole world.”

He said that the CCP regime was a dictatorship and he opposed it, but he didn’t oppose Chinese people.

He felt sad that such human rights abuses were happening. He knew that Chinese people’s rights were limited and they didn’t really have human rights. He had learned from the media that the CCP had prisons that illegally hold Falun Dafa practitioners and that it was a country where people are monitored everywhere.

He said that he felt lucky that he lived in this free land and could express his thoughts freely. He wished Falun Dafa practitioners success in their efforts to protest the persecution.

Janna from Bulgaria talked to a practitioner who was also Bulgarian. She said that it was illegal that the CCP was harvesting organs from living Falun Dafa practitioners and such crimes cannot be tolerated.