(Clearwisdom.net) In July 2003, Falun Gong practitioners from Europe and the USA met with the Icelandic Ambassador in Washington, D.C.
Last June, when former Chinese leader Jiang visited Iceland, the Chinese security services provided their Icelandic counterparts with a blacklist of Falun Dafa practitioners. The Chinese officials put pressure on the Icelandic government, which resulted in Falun Gong practitioners being illegally detained in Iceland. The blacklist was also used to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from other places around the world from boarding flights bound for Iceland, preventing their visits there.
We presented the Ambassador with an account of the events that occurred last year and expressed our hope that Icelandic authorities could admit the mistake and prevent it from being repeated. We also told him that we thank the Icelandic people for their friendly reception.
We realized that it was important to help him have a better understanding of Falun Gong; so we did our best to help him gain a more in depth understanding. The lesson we learned from similar, previous experiences is this: merely using words and literature is not sufficient to help people thoroughly understand what Falun Gong is all about. We asked the Ambassador's permission to demonstrate the exercises in his office.
The demonstration and explanation of the exercises built an atmosphere of mutual trust. The Ambassador asked some questions. We explained to him that following the essential tenets of Falun Gong leads one to live one's life according to the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance," and explained how these were achieved through practitioner's cultivation.
We explained many facts of the persecution: How the propaganda and the rumors are deceiving people and poisoning their minds, and how China's former leader has to held responsible for this persecution. The Ambassador was deeply touched and shocked when a Chinese practitioner told him how Chinese officials mistreated his family and friends.
We also gave the Ambassador an analysis explaining how some Icelandic people thought the behavior of certain people in their government condoned the persecution of Falun Gong in China, as well as violated the will of the Icelandic people, making it appear that Iceland was supporting the persecution. We explained how important we feel it is that the Icelandic government officials involved at that time need to correct this mistake. We mentioned that we had already contacted Icelandic government representatives many times, but so far we had not been able to obtain a satisfactory resolution.
We have worked diligently to help the Icelandic government recognize their unfortunate mistake. Last June, we submitted legal documents to the Icelandic government officials in charge of investigating lawsuits brought against the government. Before filing the lawsuit, Icelandic Data Protection Authority replied to some practitioner's appeal letters made a decision to recognize the Chinese government's distribution of a blacklist to embassies and Icelandic Airline as an illegal act.
Some Icelandic officials said that if they initially understood that Falun Gong was a good practice, they would have taken different actions in June 2002. We hope that the Icelandic government can officially confirm this point of view.
The Ambassador received us in a friendly manner and said he was very happy to have us visit. He will pass on our words to the Icelandic government.
