April 25th 1999 is an unforgettable and significant date for Falun Gong practitioners. Nine years ago, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Zhongnanhai to conduct a peaceful appeal to ask the government to release a group of illegally arrested Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin city. From that day on, practitioners began peacefully protesting to obtain justice for their belief.

On the ninth anniversary of April 25th, 1999, Falun Gong practitioners from Ireland held a candlelight vigil and petition outside the Chinese Embassy to commemorate April 25th. Practitioners unfurled two large Chinese and English banners reading 'The World Needs Zhen Shan Ren (Truth Compassion Tolerance)' and 'Stop persecuting Falun Gong'. They protested against the brutality of the CCP peacefully and with reason, asking for the CCP to immediately stop persecuting Falun Gong and for them to release all the Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally imprisoned.

On the evening of April 25th, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners in Switzerland held candlelight vigils at the Chinese Embassy in Bern and the Chinese Consulate in Zurich, commemorating the peaceful appeal in Beijing by over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners nine years ago and protesting against the Chinese Communist regime’s intensified persecution of Falun Gong before. the Olympic Games

On September 28th, 2006, up to six policemen from Xiangyang Police Station broke into my home with the excuse of checking for registered permanent residents. Then they began to search. They took two Falun Gong books, said that I practised Falun Gong, and dragged me into a police car. The police took me to a detention centre. After two days I was taken to a forced labour camp. At the forced labour camp I was given corn buns to eat. All the food there was of poor quality and everyone who ate the buns got diarrhoea. I had to do hard labour everyday. If I did not read the regulations, the guards would beat me. Practitioners could not say they practised Falun Gong. If you said you practised Falun Gong, you would be beaten.

On July 16th, 2007, three groups of police officers and personnel from the Xushui County 610 Office forcibly entered the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Feng Jixiu, searched the home and arrested her. Ms. Feng was taken to the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labour Camp. In 2000 Ms. Feng was arrested on her way to Beijing to appeal against the persecution. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials forced her to take off her warm coat and forced her down on her knees. Guo Haishan, Party Secretary of Ansu Town, grabbed Feng Jixiu's hair with one hand and slapped her face many times with the other. Afterwards, Town Governor Niu Jun also slapped her face many times the same way. Both of them heavily hit her buttocks with sticks and batons, which made her black and blue for more than two weeks. They tortured her so that she would "confess."

The "Legal Training Centre" (a euphemism for "brainwashing centre") in Guiyang is located at a remote, hard to find location. The front door without even a single sign is tightly closed, and the building is surrounded by tall walls. Entering the front door, there is a two-story building. This is where the officers detain Falun Gong practitioners. The longest term for this kind of detention here is one and a half years. The other inmates are basically unemployed workers. Although they know that to monitor the detained practitioners is against the law, they have been deceived by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ploys and refuse to follow their consciences. Someone with a conscience made these comments in private: "It is really a big joke to call this place a 'Legal Training Centre,' since what it does is all against the law."

"On August 7th, 2006, a fellow practitioner and I went to distribute Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Someone reported us to the police and we were arrested. I was sentenced to forced labour. In the forced labour camp, I met a "transformed" practitioner, but I did not know that she had been "transformed" when we first met. I told her that we should expose the wrongdoings of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), so she turned me in. The guard ordered two drug user inmates to search me, and to strip off my clothing and shoes. They stole my cash and watch and forced me to stand for two days and nights without sleep. I could not take it any more and, against my will, wrote a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong."

They discovered a completely different path for a person's life, which Dafa had displayed for them. They decided to practise Falun Gong. They quickly learned the five exercises and began to practise every day. Practitioners also told them that, as practitioners, they needed to critically examine themselves and needed to follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance". Whether in jail or in society in the future, they needed to be good. All three of them acknowledged this, and the paths of their lives changed completely.

Ms. Cui, who participated in the original April 25th appeal nine years ago, told of her experience at the rally. Afterwards, she told a reporter, "After the appeal, many people wondered whether we had 'become political.' I don't think so. Every practitioner had benefitted from Dafa. We were only expressing ourselves."