On February 15 at 4 p.m., six practitioners from North Carolina returned home after a peaceful demonstration in Beijing and were warmly welcomed by fellow North Carolina practitioners. Reporters from major news agencies such as NBC17, WB 22, ABC11 and the newspapers News and Observer were present to interview practitioners.
All six practitioners successfully walked to Tiananmen and peacefully expressed their wishes but were brutally beaten up by police. Policemen hit Thai's head, neck and back with full force and stomped their feet on his face. Drew's shirt was torn, and his neck was bleeding. Al was beaten with batons by police. Two female practitioners were dragged to a police van by their hair. Using her wisdom, Ms. Magnus captured the scene with her camera.
Practitioners' personal property, such as clothing, shoes, portable computers and cash were confiscated by police. Thai's 2000 Yuan was pocketed by a policeman. When asked why the personal belongings were not returned, the police either denied keeping it or behaved like they knew nothing, just like rascals.
Al, a 33 year old high school teacher, told reporters, "Just because they stand by their basic rights of belief, Chinese practitioners are being incarcerated, beaten, raped--even tortured to death." Al's wife said, "Yes, I was worried about the safety of Al's Beijing trip as I know anything could happen to him. However, no matter what happens, what he experienced could not compare to that of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. I am proud of Al."
College student Drew said, "When foreign citizens are beaten it becomes headline news, but nobody know that so many Chinese practitioners are brutally tortured every day."
Ms. Tina said, "We went to China just to let the Chinese people know that the world knows Falun Dafa is good, and that only Jiang's regime persecutes good people who follow Zhen-Shan-Ren."
Thai is Vietnamese and his parents are also practitioners. His parents said, "We did worry but we are very proud of our son for stepping out for truth and justice."
A Chinese practitioner said that if Chinese police treat Americans with such cruelty even on the eve of President Bush's visit to China, we can imagine how they treat Chinese practitioners. Jiang's regime wants foreign reporters to believe that their jails are like hotels and the guards treat Falun Gong practitioners like "parents their sons or daughters." Today the cuts and bruises on American practitioners are the best evidence that this is not true.
Restaurant manager Joann is an American citizen from Taiwan. Even though she would be mistaken as a Chinese practitioner and treated more cruelly, she still went to Tiananmen undeterred. She said, "Justice will prevail. Throughout history, persecution against righteous beliefs has never succeeded. All practitioners love their lives, families and their countries. We believe only "truthfulness" can free people from human danger, only benevolence can dissolve the hatred, only "forbearance can stop the fighting. When Falun Gong is spread to every corner of the world, how peaceful the world will be!"
Category: Rallies & Protests
