On July 3^rd, 2000, the government in Fangping town, Guangan district in Guangan city, Sichuan province, gathered many officials and sent them to every Dafa practitioner's home in every section of the city to search their houses and impound their property (both of which are illegal), including Falun Dafa books. On July 5^th, the town government ordered the police departments to illicitly search the houses again and confiscate practitioners' property. They libeled people with the label of "criminal", and sent two law-abiding Falun Gong practitioners to administrative and criminal detention. On July 11^th, the local officials and police forcibly took all ten practitioners from town to the so-called "Education Center", unlawfully putting the practitioners under arrest for 26 days and nights. After they forced all the practitioners into "Education Center", they searched all their homes again and commandeered their property. They took food, livestock, farm tools, furniture and extorted large amounts of money from practitioners' families without any records or receipts. The following are some brief examples:

On July 12^th, the police handcuffed Deng Deyu (from Wufang village), and drove him back to his house. They forced their way into the house and took 12 bags (about 800 Jin or 880 pounds) of yellow grain, one black and white TV, one electric fan, and one washing machine; altogether these things were worth about 2000 Yuan (In China the averaged annual income is about 6,000 yuan per person in urban areas and less than 2,000 yuan in rural areas).

The items they appropriated from Hu Xiurun's house, in the 2^nd group in Wufang village, were three bags (about 250 Jin or 375 pounds) of wheat, one mattress, and one complete water pump system (subsequently sold by the police for 800 Yuan); the total value of these items was more than two thousand Yuan.

Many practitioners had their property and cash stolen or extorted by the police.

In one case, they tried to steal food and furniture by entering a student's home while his parents were in custody. Many villagers witnessed this. Some of the villagers have some knowledge of the law, and confronted the police about their actions. The police were speechless and gloomily went away without being able to rob the family.

Now, let's take a look at how they conducted these "Education Sessions":

For the first two or three days, they just read materials collected from the newspapers attacking and defaming Falun Gong , nothing else after that. The police and local officials sent people to supervise the center day and night to prevent the practitioners from practicing or studying the Fa. The police asked the guard to cut off the main light switch so people could not turn on the lights at night. They even put Deng Deyu, an old man in his sixties, into an isolated small house ( about 4 square meters ) to humiliate and torture him.

The police frequently handcuffed practitioners who persisted in practicing Dafa. One day, they forced those practitioners who insisted on practicing Falun Gong out of the house into the hot July sunshine. The officials found it strange that on that day the sunshine suddenly became faint. Then a cool breeze started blowing. Nature would not allow the torture of good people.

Since the virtual detention occurred during the hottest weather of the summer, daily life was additionally unpleasant. For food, the practitioners got leftovers from the dining room of a nearby a school. Most of the time they got noodle soup with lots of hot peppers and salt in it which tasted terrible and made everyone very thirsty.

The most inhuman thing they did was to provoke the practitioners' families to beat the practitioners. When practitioner Li Yanlin's husband came to the "Education Session", assistant policeman Xu Heping, hired by the local government, incited him to: "Break her feet and hands, then divorce her."

The "Education Session" was begun during the season for harvesting the spring corn. Half a month into the session, the practitioners requested permission to go back home to harvest their corn but the local government did not release them until 26 days later. The harvest season was already over then. In some families, all of the adults had been sent to the "Education Session" under custody, leaving only the children at home. Li Mingqian's livestock were stolen, as was most of the corn on his farm. The same thing happened to another practitioner, Li Xingqi. The corncobs that the farmers' children had brought home were mildewed. The head of the police department took pleasure in the families' misfortunes.

The "pupils" in the "Education Session" were closely guarded for 26 days These Falun Gong practitioners lost their physical and spiritual freedom. How can this be called an "Education Session"? If this is not illegitimate detention, what is it?

They wantonly arrested people without any legal basis. They put people into custody illegally and labeled Falun Gong practitioners as having committed "obstruction of justice." They completely violated the 300^th regulation of criminal law, the regulation regarding registration of social organizations, and the 24^th regulation, about punishment for violating public security. What they did violated the 35^th through the 41^st articles of the Constitution, the 10^th and 11^th regulations, (regarding the right to appeal), and the 234^th, 238^th, 245^th, and the 263rd sections of the Criminal Law of China. Besides not conducting their professional activities in accordance Chinese law, they forced their way into residents' homes to seek and appropriate food, livestock, farm tools, and furniture, and then sold the residents' property. They energetically extorted money and valuables, arrested citizens without due process or cause, and detained them illegally. The higher government did not directly order them do these things. Our country's law does not allow what they have done. Therefore, THEY are the real violators of the law! We sincerely hope, then, that the higher government will take action in this case. They must return or compensate for the food, property and money that they took but which rightfully belonged to the citizens. The losses they caused have to be compensated according to the law. We hope higher government will take charge of this case and handle it impartially.

Sept. 29, 2000