Shandong police abuse 10 and 12 year old practitioners

In May 2000, two young practitioners, Xiao Hong (10-year-old boy) and Xiao Rui (12-year-old girl) from Shandong province, went to Beijing with their mother to appeal to the government and to validate Dafa. They were exercising the legal rights of citizens endowed by the constitution. However, they were deprived of their legal rights, illegally detained and cruelly persecuted.

On May 7, the two young practitioners and their mother were escorted back to their town government office. We will only report what they did to the two children.

Inside the room, several practitioners were handcuffed to a long chair. Outside the room, officer Wang asked Xiao Hong if he still wanted to practice Falun Gong. The answer was yes. Wang then slapped and pinched Xiao Hong's face. Next, the police chief (a man about 40 years old) took the two children into the room and asked them how to do the exercises. The two then sat in the lotus position. When Xiao Hong was doing "strengthening the ball-shaped divine power", the police chief stomped on his hands and mashed them into the floor. He used a rubber stick to beat loose their crossed legs, then told the two children to put their legs up again and proceeded to beat their legs loose again. He then beat Xiao Hong's hips with the stick and asked if he still wanted to practice. Xiao Hong still answered yes so the police chief continued to beat him. When he took off the boy's pants and found no bruises, he continued the beating and forced the boy to curse the Teacher. Many people witnessed this in the town office. This police chief also used cigarette butts to burn Xiao Hong's hands. Although the boy cried loudly because of the severe pain, the police chief still kept doing it. The two children were tortured for almost a whole afternoon. Xiao Hong could not sit because of wounds on his hips. He became dizzy and felt the ground was spinning.

The next morning, their grandmother heard about the beating of the children and came to take them home, but she was denied by the police. The grandmother said, "You are so cruel-hearted. How could you beat such young children?" The officers even denied it and said, "There's no beating. Who beat them?" The grandmother immediately took off the boy's pants to let them see the wounds. The boy's hips were red and swollen. The red marks from the beating of the stick didn't disappear for a long time and it was painful for him to sit down. Their mother was illegally detained for one month after being escorted back by local government officers. Two days after she was released, the local government told her to bring extra clothes to the government office to attend a Falun Gong "education class". She said: "I did nothing wrong, I am not going." They wanted to take her away by force, but were stopped by her family members and two other practitioners. Ten days later, a dozen policemen encircled her yard early in the morning. Some climbed over the wall and took her away. When they arrived at the town office, they handcuffed her to a chair. Officer Wang pinched her arms hard and said: "Does this violate human rights?" She said that it was a violation of human rights. Wang then whipped her hip with a plastic pipe. Later, several people asked her if she would appeal to the government again and continue to practice. She said yes, and they started to beat her legs. As she struggled on the ground, they grabbed her hair and arms and said they did that to prevent her from bumping herself to death. After a while, more people came in and started to beat her again. One officer kept beating her head, face and neck with a book, and said: "How dare you talk about human rights? How can you guys have human rights? I want to beat you to death. Do you think you can leave here alive?" The head of the town government stood aside and watched the whole process. Actually, he was the commander.

Within one hour, the mother was cruelly beaten three times by town officers. Her thighs and hips were all black and swollen, and it was hard for her to walk. She was also forced to pay 1,600 RMB as bail. Officer Li Xiaodong threatened, "If you do not hand in the money, we'll keep beating you and will take your property from your home."

[Mainland] A practitioner from Beijing, male, 22 years old, was admitted to Beijing Polytechnic University in 1999. Because of appealing to the government, the University did not allow him to enroll. In early September of this year, he was arrested for suspicion of sending Dafa-related emails to a web site. Now he still remains in custody.