Report from Falun Gong-Icelandic Dialogue Committee (Part II)

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Report from Falun Gong-Icelandic Dialogue Committee (Part II)

Continued from Part I

(On September 5th, the Falun Gong-Iceland Dialogue Committee, formed by the Falun Gong practitioners from America, Canada and Europe, launched its first dialogue with the high-level Icelandic officials. Ragnar Adalsteinsson, the Icelandic number one Human Rights defender and Supreme Court lawyer, also took part in the dialogue and volunteered to be the law consultant for Falun Gong practitioners.

Although the Icelandic government made no immediate amendment to its wrong decision in June, the righteousness, tolerance and compassion displayed by the Faun Gong practitioners in the dialogue process would help the Icelandic government to really understand the truth of Falun Gong and amend its wrong decision in June.

2. “We have received various kinds of weird requests from Chinese government”

During the process of the conversation, Falun Gong practitioners said,” We came to Iceland to appeal to stop the persecution, to remind Jiang Zemin he has to bear the responsibility for persecuting Falun Gong. In Germany, in order not to see Falun Gong practitioners and evade the responsibility, Jiang threatened German government that he would cancel the interview if he saw people wearing yellow clothes.”

We met an Icelandic citizen working in a hotel, she said that at the beginning of June, Chinese embassy’s officials had come to the hotel where she worked as well as other hotels. They threatened them [to get them] to cancel all the rooms which Falun Gong practitioners had reserved. She also pointed out, “Before Jiang’s coming, the Icelandic media had reported that if Iceland didn’t concede to Jiang’s demands, Jiang would cancel his visit to Iceland.”

Icelandic government official also revealed,” We have received various kinds of weird asks from Chinese government.”

3. Icelandic officials: We won’t treat Falun Gong like this anymore.

During the conversation, Icelandic government officials said,” Our actions towards Falun Gong were not because we have any [negative] opinions [of our own], the reason is the number of Icelandic policemen is limited.”

Practitioners mentioned that Falun Gong practitioners’ conduct is peaceful, no matter how many practitioners had come, the limited number of policemen would not have been a problem. For example, there had been no policemen when 600 Falun Gong practitioners assembled in Sweden last year; during the Winter Olympic Games in USA, only two special groups were ratified by police - Disabled Organization and Falun Gong; In Canada, it was hard to see the policemen while the Falun Gong practitioners appealed in front of the Chinese Embassy throughout the year, and the city councillor praised Falun Gong as “a good example of good order”, etc. Practitioners pointed out that during the past three years, even during the brutal persecution, Falun Gong practitioners had always followed the words of Teacher Li: "When hit do not return the blows. When cursed, do not return the words." Not even a single practitioner has fought back with violence.

Icelandic government officials also admitted,” Falun Gong is peaceful, non-violent, but there are still other unsteady security causes.”

Practitioners pointed out,” Since the point of Falun Gong’s peaceful and non-violent is sure, it is just right to let Falun Gong practitioners get in, but manage other unsteady secure causes.”

When Icelandic said,” What we’ve done is in accordance with International law.”, practitioners pointed out,” First of all, the law is for defending justice, but not for silencing justice. Secondly, we cannot defend one law but violate other law’s standards, such as the right of people’s freedom of belief.”

When the conversation proceeded to the end, practitioners asked,” Will you treat Falun Gong like this in the future?” One official responded immediately,” We won’t treat Falun Gong like this.”

4. The apology of Lithuanian president caused a great concern amongst Icelandic officials

What deserves a mention here is that the Falun Gong practitioners pointed out that during Jiang’s visit, the Lithuanian policemen had violently treated some protesting groups. The Lithuanian president and other officials apologized for it on TV on the next day.

The report about the apology of the Lithuanian president from the media immediately caused great concern amongst the Icelandic officials, because it was a good example for Iceland to consult. The two main governors of the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs carefully read the article of June 23 on Baltimore Sun, provided by the practitioners, with great interest: “Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) behaved obsequiously.”

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