(Minghui.org) Practitioners from across Bulgaria gathered for an event on February 11, 2024, in Bansko, a mountain resort town and one of the top international ski resorts. They wanted to raise awareness of the 24-year-long persecution of Falun Dafa in China.
Nestled in the beautiful and majestic Pirin Mountains, Bansko is a well-known winter ski resort. On the same day as the practitioners’ event, the Alpine Ski World Cup race was taking place on the slopes, which drew many ski enthusiasts to the town.
Practitioners from the towns of Dobrinishte, Peshtera, Sofia, and Chepelare set up banners and Dafa informational materials about the persecution and the peaceful nature of their practice at two locations in the town center: by the cooperative market and facing the museum of the poet Nikola Vaptsarov.
Falun Dafa practitioners in Bansko held activities to raise awareness of the ongoing persecution perpetrated by the Party and collect signatures on February 11.
The event lasted four hours despite the frosty weather. At both locations, they collected signatures on a petition condemning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for perpetrating its crimes, including the persecution of Falun Dafa. People from Bansko and beyond were drawn to the practitioners’ display and expressed their shock at how such a brutal persecution could still be happening today.
Two friends read the banners and asked for more information. After they learned about the dehumanization and torture that Falun Dafa practitioners were subjected to, one of the women exclaimed that she was appalled that more attention was not paid to such a severe crime.
A tourist from Ukraine asked the practitioners for more information about the petition. When she found out about how the CCP uses Falun Dafa practitioners as an organ bank and kills them for their organs, she expressed her disbelief. “How is it possible, for the sake of power, that they would kill their own people in peacetime?” she asked.
Several Russians stopped by at the practitioners’ booth. Having lived under the oppression of a communist regime, they expressed their sympathy for the practitioners being persecuted and encouraged the practitioners to persevere.
A family of Russians on holiday in Bansko stopped by to find out what the event was about. They knew of the CCP’s many crimes but not about the persecution of Falun Dafa. After speaking to the practitioners, everyone in the family signed the petition to support the practitioners in China.
One of them said, “We will always support a cause that is against communism. The CCP is really deceitful.”
A Russian family signs the petition.
An elderly tourist from Russia read the poster and the banners, looking at them for a long time. She spoke to a practitioner about the violence and persecution in China. In the end, she signed the petition. She said she hoped for better times and gave the practitioners her best wishes.
A Russian tourist offers the practitioners in China her encouragement.
A woman signed the petition without hesitation when she learned of how practitioners were being illegally arrested, detained, and tortured in China. She was also fascinated by the Falun Dafa practice itself and how it could help people improve their mental state. She asked for more fliers to take with her. “Every Wednesday a group of friends get together at a spiritual interest club and I want to give them the fliers to read. I think it is important to know,” she said.
Two elderly women, after reading the information in the brochures, said, “Well done for taking this on! People need to know!” They asked for fliers they wanted to give to their relatives.
Mariana and Dimitar are friends with a practitioner from a nearby town. They knew about the event, were aware of the atrocities being committed against Falun Gong practitioners in China, and came especially to Bansko to sign the petition protesting the persecution.
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