Bucharest Daily News: Falun Gong Practitioners Protest in Bucharest

(Clearwisdom.net) A group of Falun Gong practitioners peacefully protested in University Square in Bucharest Friday to draw the public's attention to the treatment of their colleagues in China.

According to representatives of the Romanian Falun Gong Association, there are about 30 practitioners here. The same sources said the movement is widespread in China, where there are about one hundred million practitioners.

Their way of life was forbidden by the Communist Chinese government, the sources said.

They showed journalists the atrocities and bad treatment their colleagues are subjected to in China.

Regarding the practitioners, Dana Betlevny said the Romanian Association of Falun Gong has many times tried to protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest, but the local authorities did not give their approval. Thus the organization complained to the National Council against Discrimination, which last November ruled that in certain situations, the Falun Gong practitioners were discriminated against, said Betlevny.

Falun Gong (literally Practice of the Wheel of Law) is a spiritual movement which was started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Central to Falun Gong are five sets of exercises that involve meditation and are claimed to help the "purification" of mind and body. Also known as Falun Dafa, the practice has grown swiftly in popularity around the world.

The government of the People's Republic of China began a nation-wide suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.