Czech Republic: Thirty-Six Hour Vigil at the Chinese Embassy in Prague Marks Five Years of Persecution Against Falun Gong in China

The 20th of July 2004 marked exactly five years since the Chinese regime, then under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, began a systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China to destroy their belief in the values of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Practitioners from the Czech Republic marked this date with a thirty-six hour protest of peaceful meditation and exercises in front of the Chinese Embassy in Prague.

The vigil began on Friday July the 23rd at 8am with the Czech media present and continued through the night until Saturday evening. Over twenty practitioners from different regions of the Czech Republic took shifts to maintain their strong presence during the vigil which finished on Saturday 24th July at 20 00 hrs.

Practitioners were interviewed by the media particularly about the reasons for the persecution, its five year development in China and how Jiang Zemin has attempted to export the persecution to other countries.

These interviews were broadcast by State Television and the regional media. Photographers from CTK - the main Czech press agency and from the national daily Lidove Noviny took pictures which later appeared in the papers.

As in other countries, where Chinese officials have tried to block demonstrations and stop Falun Gong practitioners revealing the facts of the persecution, the Chinese Embassy in Prague also attempted some tricks. At first they contacted the Foreign Ministry of the Czech Republic and insisted that the vigil should not be allowed. They were firmly rejected.

Later when the vigil started, Chinese Embassy officials called the police and asked them to forbid the vigil. The reason given was that the practitioners are too noisy. As the Embassy is located in the Diplomatic Protected Area, the police had to investigate their complaint.

When they arrived, they found several practitioners meditating along with quiet music. Soon they understood and laughed at the malevolent attempt of the Chinese Embassy. They realised that during meditation one does not make much noise and would probably prefer not to have any noise at all while meditating.

The practitioners did not allow this nor the high temperatures of the summer heatwave to disturb them and quietly continued their meditation and exercises. Passersby stopped to study with interest the information display about the persecution in China. Some showed their support by signing the petition. One lady even supported the practitioners by bringing a pack of water bottles to help them in the very hot weather.

In the afternoon some passersby mentioned that they had learnt about the vigil from the morning programme shown on State Television. The vigil finished peacefully, practitioners cleaned up the street and headed to their homes in different parts of the Republic.

Peaceful appeal	Handing out leaflets to passers-by