February 11, 2000

[Editor: Practitioners detained in the Da-guang detention center wrote this letter on some toilet papers. They have been on hunger strike for 8 days when the news was posted.]

We are Falun Dafa practitioners in Mainland China. After we learned Falun Dafa, we conduct ourselves by following the principle of "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance". We strive to become better people and to reach the realm of unselfishness in the end. We all have benefited tremendously from practicing Falun Dafa. It has helped many of us get rid of life-threatening diseases, and it has helped numerous families and neighborhoods become harmonious. It has made us realize the true meaning of life, and brought us genuine happiness.

However, the Chinese government defamed Falun Dafa as an "evil religion" in last October. We could not understand and accept the fact that the kindhearted Falun Gong practitioners were labeled "evil". So we went to Beijing to appeal to the government and to report the truth of Falun Gong to the government. However, we were arrested and escorted back to our hometown even before we could make the appeal. Some of us got arrested right after we stopped by the Tiananmen Square, some got arrested while watching the flag-rising ceremony, and some got arrested in front of the appealing offices.

We went to appeal to the Chinese government according to the Article 41 of the Chinese Constitution. We have not violated any law. Why are we being detained here without going through any legal procedures? To protest the illegal detention, we started hunger strike on Feb. 4, and we have been on hunger strike for 7 days. However, the Chinese authorities have paid no attention to our request, although we have been sincerely waiting for their attention. We could not believe that the Chinese government simply does not care about the lives of more than 100 innocent people. The international law stated that any government should solve the problem on the seventh day of the hunger strike. The Chinese government has violated the international law. Some of us are still on hunger strike.

Hereby, we appeal to the international communities and people who cherish human rights to urge the Chinese government to return justice to Falun Gong.

140 practitioners in Da-guang Detention center