My mane is Zhao Lingyun and I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I was arrested and detained in the East District Detention Center on Feb. 28, while I was practicing Falun Dafa in Di-Tan Park. I was released one month later. Now I would like to share with you what is going on in jail based on what I have seen and heard. I hope this can help kind-hearted people to learn of the situation of severe human rights violations in China and to gain a further understanding of Falun Dafa.
I was detained in the first cell of the eighth column in East District Detention Center. There were a total of 14 people in that cell, eight of them were Falun Dafa practitioners. Among the practitioners, some of them once held banners in the Tiananmen Square; some floated balloons with a banner that read, "Falun Dafa is a righteous Way"; some practiced during New Year's Eve. Ms. Li Xiaomei who has been sentenced to 7 years is also in this cell. On the afternoon of March 7, three practitioners from Shenzhen were arrested because they released hydrogen balloons with a banner in Tiananmen Square. One of them was detained in our cell. Her book Zhuan Falun was taken away when they searched her body.
The cultivation environment created was different from cell to cell, more or less disturbed. Particularly in certain cells, police made use of the criminals to disturb or prevent practitioners from practicing.
In order to have a legal study and practice environment, we held a hunger strike (no food, no water) in a group since March 8. On the forth day of the strike, six of us together went out of our cell wlen the police opened the door. We opened the windows of the other cells from the outside and said to the fellow practitioners, " Let's have a hunger strike together, ask for the book Zhuan Falun and use our lives to create a cultivation environment." Practitioners in other cells all crowded at the windows, some responded to us with tears.
Ten minutes after we went back to our cell, Li Xiaomei was taken away. They believed that she plotted the hunger strike intending to ask for the freedom of belief. We heard the on-and-off striking sound from the outside steel door right after she was taken away. I realized that she was being tortured (it was proven later). Then, handcuffed from her back, she was taken to the second floor. From behind, a person kicked her down onto the floor. Her head hit the steel door, and they kicked her all over her body. As she tried to crawl up and sit with leg crossed to stabilize her body, they cursed her instantly: "How dare you cross your legs!" They forcefully pulled her legs apart and brutally kicked her knees with their shoes constantly. She was later put in a "Zhu Zui" (a kind of torture instrument to put one's head inside. One can not speak; otherwise the instrument will tighten automatically and choke the person). After being beaten, she was handcuffed from her back and hung up. The weight of her entire body was on her wrists. One and a half hours later, fearing that the "Zhu Zui would cause her to choke to death, they took it off of her, but still left her hanging. After being taken away from the cell at noon, she was not sent back until 7 pm.
Right after Ms. Li Xiaomei was taken away, Ms. Wang Yajuan, Ms. Zang Chuanhui, and I were also taken out one by one. Each one of us was allocated in an "educating room". Saying nothing, they ferociously beat our heads upon entering the room. Then they began to ask questions.
Since we had a righteous mind and faced the atrocity with an upright and dignified manner, they did not hurt our bodies at all. Instead, we all felt healthy and joyful. One could not experience this kind of feeling without passing the tribulation.
From that day, all of the ten cells in that column began the group hunger strike. Usually 7-8 days is the maximum hunger strike for the human body. However, the longest hunger strike among us was over 20 days. During that hunger strike, Zhang Shuying in cell 8 was 16 days, while all practitioners in cell 1 including Li Xiaomei and I were 13 days. At the eighth day of the hunger strike, a practitioner in our cell heard Master Li's voice: "drink some water". So we began to drink water. The miracle was that the water tasted like mixed juices. What I had drunk tasted like orange juice; Li Xiaomei's was pear juice; some other practitioners' were milk. Several minutes after drinking, we all felt our bodies were being changed; our bodies were strong, light and energized.
Zhang Shuying began to eat after a 16-day hunger strike. The prisoners in her cell asked her to eat something light and soft to protect her stomach. But she started eating regular food, and felt nothing uncomfortable. The prisoners said that your Falun Dafa was so miraculous; they would never believe that one could immediately eat regular food after a 16-day hunger strike if this was not seen personally. The police in charge also came to write down this case.
We indeed created an upright cultivation environment in jail. Every morning even the prisoners joined us in a line to practice together. We could also recite Master Li's scripture in a group. We had finally made the jail that was detaining Falun Dafa practitioners a pure land for cultivation.
I was released on March 28 while some practitioners were still holding the hunger strike. Whenever I recall those fellow practitioners who are still protecting our Great Law of the universe with their lives, who are severely beaten, who are forcefully fed and who might lose their lives sometime, a solemn and stirring and respectful feeling comes out from my heart and shocks me. Master Li once said that great-enlightened beings would rather sacrifice their lives to protect the truth of the universe. We are proud of being Master Li's disciples.
(April 6, 2000)
(Translated on Apr. 10, 2000)