Tumu Village is located about 100 km northwest of Beijing. In this ordinary, remote place, some extraordinary things have happened. This village has many Dafa practitioners, so it is a place that the evil fears the most. The local officials have utilized all possible means to brutally persecute practitioners. Since 1999, local practitioners have unceasingly stepped forward to validate Dafa. As a result, the Tumu Village officials have used this chance to arrest and beat the practitioners, hoping to fulfill their desires for money and political power. The following gives some examples of persecution of the local practitioners:

(Note: the average yearly income for a family in this area is 2000 to 3000 Yuan)

1. In July 1999, Liu Yushu, the former chief assistant of Tumu Village Falun Dafa Assistance Center, went to Beijing to safeguard Dafa. Before he was able to reach Tiananmen Square, he was arrested, sent back, and fined 500 Yuan.

2. In November 2000, four practitioners from Taipingbao Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. They were arrested and taken back by local township officials. They were handcuffed, left out in the yard in the freezing cold for half a day, and fined 5000 Yuan. Then they were sent to the Huailai County Detention Center and held there for 10 days.

3. In early December 2000, a female practitioner from Quanpingbao Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa, and she was detained in Miyun County [of Beijing] for two days. After they got her name and address through deception, Tumu Village officials took her back and viciously tortured her for one day and one night. She was punched, kicked, shocked by electric batons, force-fed with alcohol, and burned by cigarette tips. Her mouth and other parts of her body blistered badly from the burns. She was fined 1000 Yuan and held in the detention center for 15 days.

4. In December 2000, Liu Junmei and her husband from Tumu Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. On December 27, township officials took them back from the Zhangjiakou office stationed in Beijing and interrogated them throughout the night. At the entrance of the township government meeting room, even before they turned on the light, the officials kicked and punched the couple into the room. About ten people beat them together, and when the practitioners were beaten down to the floor, they would drag them up and continue the beating. Both of the practitioners bled from their noses and mouths. The officials then shocked them with electric batons and later used a hand-cranked telephone's wire to shock them. They connected the husband's two hands to the telephone wire and had him hold a stick up with both arms, while forcing him to stand in a severe crouch. Any tiny movement away from this pose would result in shocks from the telephone wire. At the end of this torture, he was drenched in sweat. They handcuffed Liu Junmei to a tree, and forced her take off her coat and stand barefoot in the snow. They tortured the couple until early next morning, and then tried to force them to curse Teacher. The husband refused to cooperate, so they grabbed his hair and slapped his face hard repeatedly. Finally they gave up and handcuffed the couple to the heating pipe. They also found 140 Yuan while searching the couple and took it away.

The next day, the township government officials found the couple's family members and asked them for money. They demanded 4000 Yuan for each person and finally settled for 7000 Yuan. At first they gave a receipt for the money, but later they tried to destroy it. In the evening of December 28, the couple was released. Just two days later they were tricked into going to the detention center again and held there for 15 days. The officials demanded another 1000 Yuan for their release. Liu Junmei's family was poor already, but now they are heavily in debt. These wicked people want to use this as a way to shake Dafa practitioners' beliefs.

5. In December 2000, two Dafa practitioners from Jiazui Village and Bawuzhuang Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. They were arrested in Beijing, and the policemen kicked and punched them into the police car. They were then taken to the Zhangjiakou office stationed in Beijing and handcuffed there for 8 hours. When the local township officials picked them up, it was already after 2 am. The policemen did not pay any attention to the 50-year-old female practitioner who had gone without food and water for the whole day. Once they arrived at the local township government office, they tortured the practitioners in several ways, such as punching and kicking, hitting them with bamboo sticks, and shocking them with electric batons and telephone wires. The female practitioner was completely defenseless, with extremely poor eyesight. The other practitioner passed out several times, his whole body twitching and not able to speak. Both practitioners' faces and bodies were heavily bruised and cut from the beatings. They were tormented like this until dawn. The officials then tried to force them to write and sign guarantee letters, but they refused. The officials forced their thumbprints onto the guarantee letters. Later, the practitioners were handcuffed to a tree in the yard and left in the freezing cold. The practitioners were exhausted and at the end of their strength from the torture and lack of nourishment. Still, these "people's servants" showed no mercy. When the practitioners' family members requested to have them sent to the hospital, they said: "No need to bother, it is easier to handle if they were dead."

   The next morning, fearing that two other practitioners from Jiazui Village would also go to Beijing to validate Dafa, the officials forcibly took them from their homes to the local township office. They detained the four practitioners until 3 pm of the third day. Before releasing the practitioners, the officials fined the two who went to Beijing 4000 Yuan each and the other two 1000 Yuan each.

6. When the officials finished torturing the two Dafa practitioners mentioned above, they summoned three family members of Liu Yushu from Tumu Village and two other practitioners to the government office. They purposely showed them the suffering of those practitioners who went to Beijing. They slapped Liu Zhaohui's face repeatedly and shocked him with telephone wires.

7. On December 31, 2000, the local township office again sent people to Taipingbao Village and found five practitioners who went to Beijing to validate Dafa. Because the practitioners did not sign the guarantee letter promising not to practice Dafa and go to Beijing, they forcibly took three practitioners to the local township office (their car was too small to hold 5 people). They spent the whole day torturing them, punching, kicking, shocking them with electric batons and telephone wires, and taking away their coats and handcuffing them in the open yard, barefoot in the snow. They were especially cruel to one female practitioner. When her hands and feet became numb from the cold outside, they took her into the house and put her hands on the scalding heating pipe. Her skin immediately blistered, and later the blisters burst. She finally recovered from this after a month. The practitioners were tortured until 10 pm, and they had to walk 5 kilometers to get home.

   On the same day, a practitioner from Yezi Village was taken to the Langshan Police Station. They suspected him of distributing Dafa materials and wanted to interrogate him to find the source of Dafa material. When the practitioner refused to speak, one of the policemen came across and slapped the practitioner's face hard. Four or five policemen then hit him until they were exhausted. They threatened him with labor camp and jail terms. Since practitioner still did not speak, a policeman said, "It looks like you need some special treatment." He then picked up a tricycle axle nearby. The other policemen came over and helped to hold practitioner down on the floor. They laid the iron axle on the practitioner's foot, and two people stepped on the ends of the axle. They rolled over his legs, from the thigh to the calf, and then both of his hands. Still not satisfied, they rolled over the practitioner's fingers. One policeman then hit the practitioner's thigh, kidney area, and buttocks with the iron axle, causing excruciating pain. Since they still did not get what they wanted, they handcuffed the practitioner to the heating pipe. When the night came, he could not even stand firmly, and he was covered with cuts and bruises. The next day, he was sent to the detention center and held for 15 days.

8. After the Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year's Day ) of 2001, the police took another Dafa practitioner in Yezi village from his classmate's house to the government office. They punched and kicked him repeatedly, and then released him.

9. In May 2001, the policemen went to one Dafa practitioner's house in Shiying Village. Because the policemen found one Dafa book, this practitioner was taken to the local township office and detained for one day and one night. Ten days later, the practitioner was again taken to the government office for interrogation and torture. They shocked him with telephone wires, and several people forced his fingerprint onto a guarantee letter. He was sent to the detention center and held for nine days.

(To be continued)