An Urgent Appeal From Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province

Before the Spring Festival, over a hundred Falun Dafa practitioners were imprisoned in every municipal and county prisons and detention centers in Hegang, Heilongjiang Province. They were arrested because they refused to obey the local government and police department's orders of "not permitting to practice [Falun] Gong" at home and "not permitting to appeal to higher authorities," to pay over a thousand yuan for a "cash deposit to not appeal to higher authorities," and to meet other unreasonable requirements. Starting from then up to today, a majority of the practitioners are still in jail, including those that went to Beijing to appeal to higher authorities and were sent back.

In jail, these practitioners received various degrees of corporal punishment, beating, and cursing. Personal rights have simply not been ensured. Once practitioners enter the jails, their heads are shaved, and in order to prevent them from practicing, both hands are handcuffed to one leg. Aside from sitting on a cold bed made from boards for over ten hours "introspecting," there are convicts watching the practitioners starting eleven o'clock at night. Practitioners are forced to sit on the ice-cold floor "introspecting" until 1:00, 2:00, or even later in the morning. The longest accumulated time lasted for over seventeen hours.

Hegang government branch in Beijing has also become the city's temporary jail. Falun Dafa practitioners who go to Beijing to appeal to higher authorities are terrorized, cruelly beaten, and tied together with chains. Even food and water are not guaranteed. When police transport practitioners back, every two people's hands are handcuffed together, and the handcuffs are not opened even when using the restrooms. The local government has created their own policies that any practitioners working for the state who go to Beijing to appeal to higher authorities, will have their leadership duties taken away, and half of their salary for six months will be deducted. At the same time, their family is responsible for paying two thousand yuan as a pledge deposit, and an additional five hundred yuan as a transportation fee for the police and practitioners.

Currently, Falun Dafa practitioners have been put in jail for nearly two months. This is an open breach of the constitution, trampling the personal rights of the public. The indefinite duration of keeping Falun Dafa practitioners in jail has caused serious damage to their mental and physical health. It has also created a great amount of mental anguish and economic burden on the practitioners' families.

We call on every governmental organization and good people of the world to help us in preventing the spread of this serious infringement on personal rights.

(Translated on Mar. 26, 2000)