On January 24, the Lunar New Year's Eve, it was cold and windy in London, but UK practitioners stayed outside in the rain all night in front of the Chinese Embassy, appealing for the hundreds of thousands of practitioners in China who have been persecuted, imprisoned, and separated from their families for not giving up their belief in Falun Dafa. To celebrate Lunar New Year's Eve, the Chinese Ambassador hosted a large banquet at the Embassy. Outside, Dafa practitioners held candles in the cold rain, while London police stood by cautiously. Some practitioners calmly and continuously demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises, while others distributed Dafa literature to people passing by. The people inside discreetly opened the bright red curtain of the banquet hall from time to time. The banners and message boards prepared by practitioners displayed the pictures of practitioners who have been persecuted to death in China. Some of the banners said: "Stop the Persecution Immediately" and "Stop Torturing Falun Gong Practitioners to Death." London media agents came to interview the practitioners and take pictures, with several reporters staying for over an hour. The UK Falun Gong Information Center issued a statement to the media at the same time, which read: "The purpose of this protest is to appeal for the indictment and public trial of the chief architect of the persecution, Jiang Zemin, and for the immediate halt to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners! We expect that the New Year will bring new hope to hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have lost their basic human rights." Dafa Practitioners in UK January 24, 2001
Category: Rallies & Protests
