The Recent Situation in Guangzhou City

Guangzhou City Is Intensifying Persecutions Against Falun Gong Practitioners January 16, 2000

Recently, Guangzhou City government has intensified its persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners.

Since November of 1999, some universities in Guangzhou City started to punish those practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal by ordering them to quit school. In both Hua-nan Normal University and Ji-nan University, there were students who had been ordered to quit school. Some practitioners were removed from their posts for appealing in Beijing.

On December 19 of 1999, seven practitioners from Guangzhou City were arrested in Zhongshan City when they were having a conversation with some local practitioners. On the next day, they were sent back to Guangzhou and have been detained since then.

On December 24, five practitioners were arrested when they were having some food at a practitioner's home. Four of them were given criminal detention (i.e., being detained for an indefinite period of time while waiting for possible sentence); the other one was given administrative detention (up to 15 days). A practitioner said smiling, "The police arrest us even when we are having some food at home. Now maybe the safest place to practice Falun Gong is jail."

On December 31, eleven practitioners were arrested when they were having lunch at the Tian-he Park. All of them were given criminal detention. In the Tian-he detention center, practitioners were required to do forced labor as other criminals. They were required to make certain amount of plastic flowers in certain hours and would be punished if they cannot finish their workload. Those who continued to practice Falun Gong were put on handcuffs and shackles. Right after a practitioner expressed that he would continue to practice Falun Gong, the director in the detention center gave him a kick at his neck and he spit blood on the spot. Feeling that their legal rights were violated, some practitioners started hunger strike. On the next day, they were filled with salt water by some inhuman means. For example, a director in a cell ordered five male criminals to push a female practitioner down on the ground. They used wet towels to block her noses and then added a bag of salt of 500g into a cup of water and filled her. After being filled two bags of salt, this practitioner was suffocated. Later what she vomited were grains of salts.

Although many practitioners had suffered inhumane mistreatments, they had neither hatred nor anger. Moreover, these practitioners' deeds have moved the criminals. As a result, many criminals have attained Falun Dafa and started to learn the movements of Falun Gong exercises and study Falun Dafa with practitioners.

Some News about Arrested Practitioners in Guang-zhou City January 17, 2000

[1] The seven practitioners who were arrested last month in ZhongshanCity when they were having food together with four local practitionersare Wang He, Lin Kai, Lin Xiang, Lin Zhi-yong, Zhao Yu, Shen Li andSong Hong-feng. It was said that they might be given forced labor"education".

[2] On December 31, Guangzhou police arrested a dozen of practitionersin the Tian-he Park. Most of them were given criminal detention,namely, detention until being sentenced. They were Liang Wen-jian, LiuHai-li, Gao Xian-ming, Chen Wu-hua, He Li-hua and Chen Chun-li etc.They have not been released yet. According to practitioners who were given administrative detention, namely, a detention up to 15 days, saidthat on that day the local police got the news that Guangzhoupractitioners would hold large group practice in some big parks at 1pm.Therefore they started to arrest Falun Gong practitioners in largescale in each park. The situation of those practitioners who werearrested in other parks is still unknown.

[3] Pan Dong-zhen, a graduate student in the foreign languagedepartment of Hua-nan Normal University, were dismissed from theuniversity because of going to Beijing to appeal for several times.After she was released from the administrative detention for the secondtime, she was arrested again when she was having some food togetherwith other four practitioners at home. She is now under criminal detention.

[4] Zhang Meng-ye, a former contact person of Falun Gong assistance center in Tian-he District, graduated from Qing-hua University in1960s. He had suffered cirrhosis (liver disease) for several years.After practicing Falun Gong for half a year, he got rid of thisdisease. Since July 22, he has been continuing to practice Falun Gong.He and his wife had gone to Beijing to appeal and been detained forseveral times. Now he is still being detained in Tian-he detentioncenter. It is said that he will be sent to labor camps.