Several days after the National Holiday, Beijing police resorted to cruel measures, many concealed from public view, to mistreat and persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

1. In Tiananmen Square, plain-clothed police and their flunkeys were used to grab banners from practitioners' and force practitioners into police cars. The intent was to fool tourists into thinking that they would help police by voluntarily stopping other practitioners from practicing the exercises and prevent them from opening their banners. Once the practitioners were dragged into the police cars, the police immediately closed the doors and drew the curtains so outsiders could not see what was happening inside the car. Then the police wantonly and violently beat the practitioners. Some practitioners did not even enter the square, nor do anything, but still are pushed into the car. The police say, "We would rather arrest a thousand people by mistake than let one practitioner go free." Nowadays, some vicious scoundrels are so fearsome and cruel to practitioners; it shows that judgement day is near.

2. When the police wanted to drive the arrested practitioners away, one by one, practitioners joined hands as a group and said loudly: " We leave as one, stay as one." Then five or six policemen, using batons, beat the practitioners on their hands, shoulders, heads and backs and forcefully split up the practitioners. The practitioners spoke to them loudly: "Do not hit people, you know you are violating the law!" But the police became even more furious. When a practitioner dared to keep pointing out their misconduct, they would brutally beat the practitioner on his/her head. When one practitioner stood out and kept speaking, the police rushed up to him and beat his head relentlessly. The practitioner fell to the ground and the police stomped on the practitioner's head.

3. Police drove practitioners away one group at a time. Later, groups of eight to ten practitioners were sent to different containment centers. In custody, the groups were split up again, one practitioner to a room. The police would close the door and draw the curtain so that no one could see inside. Then they would begin to interrogate and beat the practitioner. For any practitioner who refused to give their name or address, the police would beat them with batons and electric prods. Some police even used a special baton to injure specific places on the practitioner's body in order to inflict internal injuries. Some practitioners became very bruised and swollen; others had fractured hands or torn foot muscles. The police yelled viciously, "Want to come to Beijing anymore? Want to practice anymore?" What people couldn't believe was that in everyone's presence they cuffed one practitioner with his two thumbs to his toe, then hung him up wearing one thin layer of clothing. They poured cold water all over his body and then turned the air conditioner on to blow cold air on him. When the practitioner was almost frozen stiff, they turned on the heater to blow hot air on him. They kept on torturing him repeatedly. Beijing's October was so horrible.

Even more extreme was that six policemen stepped on a young unmarried woman's abdomen when she refused to give her name and address. They stepped so hard that it made her vagina bleed and her face turn white. Then they threatened, "If you continue to keep silent, we will strip you and rape you!" In today's Beijing, the capital of China, it is so outrageous and shocking to see the "police" behave like inhuman, vicious beasts.

Since the practitioners were put into custody separately, in many cases all communication with the outside was cut. Policeman tortured practitioners maliciously and wantonly doing what they wanted. How many more practitioners could have been beaten? How many more practitioners could have had their hands and feet fractured, or even could have died from this type of brutality while in police custody?

Practitioners in China

Nov. 5, 2000