Finland: Practitioners in Finland Expose the Brutality of the Five Years of Persecution Against Falun Gong with a Live Anti-Torture Exhibition (Part I)

July the 20th 2004 marks five years of brutal persecution against Falun Gong. On Sunday the 18th of July, practitioners from Nordic countries held activities in Helsinki Central Park to appeal for an end to this persecution. Five years ago in July 1999, Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin banned Falun Gong in China and launched a systematic and vicious campaign of genocide, which has claimed more than a thousand innocent lives to this day.

Falun Gong practitioners from Finland, Sweden and Denmark organised a live anti-torture exhibition to expose the torture methods used on Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese labour camps and prisons. The brutality of the persecution was also depicted in a photo and poster exhibition that showed more than twenty-five different torture methods. The exhibitions also included many heart breaking stories from victims of torture in China. One was from Zhao Ming, a Falun Gong practitioner living in Ireland, who was tortured in many different ways while being illegally held in a labour camp for his belief in Falun Gong. On one occasion five policemen gave him electric shocks with six high voltage electric batons all over his body.

During the day many people wanted to find out more about the real situation of human rights in China. After hearing the facts, people were shocked, angry and sad. Many kind-hearted people supported Falun Gong practitioners by signing petitions to call for an end to these human rights abuses. People had a hard time believing that these kinds of atrocities against peaceful Falun Gong practitioners are taking place in the world today.