(Minghui.org) The 24th Economic Forum was held in Krynica Zdrój, Poland, September 2-4, 2014. More than 2500 political and business leaders participated, including presidents, ministers, parliament members, and CEOs from 60 countries in central and Eastern Europe, Asia and America, as well as 500 media reporters from all over the world.
Falun Gong practitioners in Poland took this opportunity to expose the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China to these world leaders. They set up display boards, handed out flyers in multiple languages, and collected signatures on petitions in English and Polish.
In three days, more than 1200 conference participants, local citizens, and tourists signed the petition to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Among those who signed were the former European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget Janusz Lewandowski, Polish parliament member Janusz Sepio, Vice President of the ING Commercial Finance Polska S.A., and the former Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, to name a few.
Former Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the petition to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Several reporters also signed. On the last day of the forum, the local news website sadeczanin.info posted a detailed report on the activities of Falun Gong practitioners and their stories. The report got 2000 hits in one day.
Artur Barbarowski, a reporter from the Polish media Super Express, signed the petition.
On the second and third days of the forum, many participants who had been given flyers on the first day and learned more about the persecution on the Internet in their hotels came back to express their support for Falun Gong.
Zbigniew from Warsaw told a practitioner that he didn't sign the petition on the first day, because he could not believe that organs were being harvested from living people in the 21st century--and that it was being done by the government.
“However, when I went online last night to verify the information you gave me yesterday, I found more about the brutal persecution. I was so shocked I could not fall asleep the entire night,” Zbigniew said. “I had to come here today to support you. The persecution must be stopped. God bless you.”
Conference participants study the Falun Gong display boards.
An American participant said she had a lot of Chinese co-workers that told her conflicting things about Falun Gong. She didn't know what to believe until she saw Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“I've seen Shen Yun twice," she said, "and I realized that Falun Gong is great and that Shen Yun presents genuine, traditional Chinese culture. The persecution of Falun Gong shows that the communist party opposes wonderful things. I support you, and I hope the Party will collapse soon.”
Two Chinese participants studied the display boards and talked to practitioners for a long time. They also asked for more materials about the persecution.
Two European participants asked to have their photo taken with a practitioner. They said, “We signed the petition against organ harvesting. We are not afraid of the communist party.”
Participants sign the petition to support Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful resistance.