Report from the Hunger Strike in Stockholm

Before the hunger strike we gave a letter to Prime Minister Goran Persson, via vice prime minister Lena Hjelm Wallén's secretary. She gratefully received the letter and expressed that she would seriously look into the situation. Also, the Secretary of the Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, received information about the serious situation in China and wanted to help us.

Both TV and press came to the conference and the whole event was reported in the main Swedish newspapers today. Yesterday after the press conference in front of the embassy, when we wanted to give the embassy a letter, they refused to accept it. They answered that the ambassador wasn't there.

During the afternoon yesterday, Mr. Cui Jianchao, Chinese council for political affairs, came out when there was no media present and mostly only Chinese practitioners present. He denied everything about the persecution and said, "There are not 130 persons on hunger strike at the Masanjia labour camp. It is not true that you can hunger strike for more than 7 days."

There were eight practitioners in front of the embassy during the night. The response from the people was very positive. Many people in cars and on bikes stopped. During the evening and into the night some honked, said hello to us and also wished us good luck. Some people said that they hoped the situation would improve for the better in China.

During the morning today we received more support from people driving by in cars and bikes and many others who passed by and wished us good luck. A couple of elderly gentleman came up to us and offered us water and said, "You have done very well, we support you."

We will continue our hunger strike and many other practitioners have joined us. Some are also distributing information to clarify the truth of the persecution in China in the city of Stockholm.

Practitioners doing the 48-hour hunger strike: Anne Hakosalo, Hong Yan, Gisela Olsson, Cecilia Persson, Dan Alfjorden, Mikael Iso-Oja, Que Jian, Kang Cui-Wei