"The issue of the treatment in China of followers of Falun Dafa has been raised both bilaterally and through the formal framework of the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue, which was established in 1996. Through the Dialogue, the EU shares with China its experience in the field of human rights protection and promotion, and urges China to take clear steps to improve the human rights situation generally, and more specifically with respect to the freedoms of expression, religion and belief, which have a particular impact on individual practitioners of Falun Dafa."

Falun Dafa practitioners in Slovakia sent petition letters to Mayors of villages in the country asking for their support in calling for an end to the persecution of innocent people who practise Falun Gong in China. Mayors of four villages in Slovakia responded to the letter and signed the petition demanding an immediate end to the persecution and severe torture of practitioners of Falun Gong in China.

A few months ago, Gothenburg’s Metro newspaper published an article about a reader who sent the "Dagen's Rose" [Rose of the day] to the Falun Gong practitioners who have been continuously doing exercises in Slottsskogen park every Saturday, no matter what the weather is. Falun Gong practitioners have created a harmonious and peaceful environment in Gothenburg City.

It is the third city we have visited so far along the shores of the Baltic Sea. The people there were very interested in Falun Gong. They came to our display stand to sign our petition calling for an end to the persecution. Some people there have been interested in the practice for a long time and wanted to know what Falun Gong really is about.

"The reason for this lack of originality in Chinese Journalism was the fact that almost every publication used the same supplier: the Xinhua News Agency. Many newspapers cannot afford a network of foreign correspondents, but the problem in China is one of censorship rather than resources. While many papers have access to other international news sources, such as Reuters or the Associated Press, they are only permitted to use these newswires for certain stories."

On February 16, 2004, Chongqing First Intermediary People's Court sentenced Mr. Li Jian to 13 years in a forced labour camp. His "crime" was helping to relay the facts to the world about a policeman from Shaqu who raped Ms. Wei Xingyan, a graduate student at Chongqing University, in front of two female prison inmates. Chongqing First Intermediary People's Court sentenced Mr. Li Jian to a long prison term on charges of "damaging the image of the Chinese government and slandering a Chinese government employee" for their righteous action of exposing the brutal rape.

Ms. Fu Meihui was a 57-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner from Guangdong Province. In violation of the Chinese Constitution, the police arrested her for practising Falun Gong and she was forced to do slave labour for over ten hours a day. Unable to eat or drink during detention, both her body and mind were severely damaged. Seeing her at the brink of death, the police sent her home without giving her any treatment. Her husband had already been arrested for practising Falun Gong and their home had been ransacked. Under the pressure of these multiple calamities, Ms. Fu Meihui passed away in January 2001.

"My name is Wen Huiying. I'm a retired worker from the Taoyuan County Shipping Company in Changde City, Hunan Province. Because I believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, I was unjustly and brutally persecuted by Jiang's regime. I have been arrested and detained many times since the persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999. Twice I was sentenced to a forced labour camp. Now I am homeless and have to move from one place to another in order to escape the persecution. At home, I have an eighty-year-old father-in-law who needs my care. My husband has several dislocated vertebrae and has problems taking care of himself. My son is working out of town and my family needs my care. But I'm forced to drift from one place to another and cannot return home."

In January of 2004, police officers in Handan City, Hebei Province arrested Ms. Tang Hui, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Handan. Upon witnessing both of her daughters being dragged into the police vehicles, Li Lunhui was extremely worried and very upset. Soon Li and her husband went together to the office of An Zhenzhi, the person responsible for arresting her daughters. The couple insisted that they be permitted to visit their daughters, but were refused. Having learned that her daughters were being tortured while in custody, Ms. Li became extremely upset. She suffered a sudden, massive heart attack, and died at 6:30 a.m., March 30, 2004. In such a short period of time, a happy family was torn apart by tragedy as a result of the persecution.

Teacher's meals were very simple and he was never into big meals. Sometimes he had a small bowl of noodles. Chongqing people like to eat hot peppers. Whether it is noodles or soup, they put hot peppers in it. Once Teacher had noodles for lunch and the restaurant owner did not know that Teacher was a Northerner and therefore did not eat hot peppers. He put a lot of hot peppers in the noodles. Teacher's face was sweating all over from the spicy food. Nevertheless, Teacher didn't say anything. He just quietly finished eating the small bowl of noodles.

My sister heard that Falun Gong had amazing healing abilities, and she wanted to give it a try since there was nothing to loose, given the fact that it was free to learn. In this way she followed one class after another of watching video recordings of Master's lectures till she finished watching the nine lectures. At the end of it, she said, "I am really dumbfounded. I now know the meaning of life, which I had always wanted to understand but failed to. I also know why a person comes to this world, what a person is living for and why there are illnesses."

The West Coast "Van Tour to Support the Lawsuit against Jiang" set off on May 11 from San Francisco, then passed through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, and arrived in Iowa on May 20. Practitioners demonstrated some of the torture methods used against practitioners in China.

A six-day Falun Dafa Week series of events began on May the 9th. On the first day, at the Municipal Culture Centre, the club members, together with more than 4,000 fellow practitioners from all over Taiwan, celebrated the 12th anniversary of Falun Dafa's public introduction.