Eight practitioners shackled together in a detention center

My name is Guozhen Deng, and I am 32 years old. I started to practise Falun Dafa in April of 1999. Both of my parents are Falun Dafa practitioners as well.

Since the government started the crackdown of Falun Gong on July 22, 1999, our own personal experiences had made us believe that such a good cultivation method should not be prohibited at all. For example, before my mother started practising Falun Gong, she suffered from a number of diseases including severe diabetes (with four sign), cholecystitis and stomach ulcer. All these illnesses magically disappeared shortly after her Falun Dafa cultivation. Since my parents started to practise Falun Dafa, they have not taken even a single pill. Therefore, everyone in my family continued to practice Falun Gong at home. However, in December of 1999, I could no longer stay at home, and decided to go to Beijing to petition for Falun Dafa and to tell the government the true experience of our family.

We arrived in Beijing on December 22, and stayed at a practitioner's home. More practitioners arrived later. We decided to go to the National People's Congress to petition for Falun Dafa the next day. But around 10pm that night, a group of policemen showed up. The group leader asked, "Are you Falun Gong practitioners? All of you come with us!" Then he started scolding us. We were taken to Dongsheng police station in Haidian District, and sat there for the entire night. At about 10pm the following night, we were taken away by people from Jiangxi reception office in Beijing. We were locked in Room 206, a double-bed room. But it was filled with 31 practitioners at that time and everyone had to either sit down or huddle up. The situation was even worse in Room 207, a room across the hallway, which had more people locked in there. The guards were at the door day and night, and we were not allowed to step out of the room. On December 24, a group of practitioners were handcuffed and taken away. Our group (27 practitioners in total) were taken away with handcuffs on by policemen to a train station on December 25. I was handcuffed separately. We were handcuffed to the railings at the sleeping berths even during eating and sleeping, and were followed when we went to the washrooms.

We arrived at Nanchang around noon on December 26. First we were taken to a local police station to give our statements. Around 3pm in the afternoon, two of us were sent to a detention center located at 27 Bei Road. I was put in Cell 18. When I entered the cell, twelve practitioners were already there. Eleven of us had to sit on the floor (0.9m x 4.0m in size, including the space for luggage belonged to 20 prisoners).

Around noon on December 30 when eight of us were doing group practice during the break, a prison supervisor shouted from upstairs with his lunch bowl in his hand, "What are you doing there? Practising Falun Gong?" Shortly after, he came to open the cell door and said, "All of you come out to be shackled." Baozhen Yu happened to be in the washroom at that time. The supervisor then shouted, "Where's the last one? All come out." Eight of us lined up in a row. The supervisor then ordered, "Get the heaviest chain and shackle them together. All of you feel free to go ahead to kill yourselves!" I said, "Our teacher has said that killing can bring about enormous karma." Then eight of us (Baozhen Yu, Lanyin Jiang, Xiaorong Dai, Xiaolan Peng, Yanling Deng, Zhaodi He, Xiang Chen and me) were shackled together. Xiaorong Dai was a tall large-sized woman, and happened to be chained with me by a small shackle. The shackle cut into her flesh. Whenever one of us had to go to washroom, we had to go together and move very slowly. In the chilly night in winter, we huddled up against each other while sitting on the floor. When we were sleepy, we could only take a nap against each other.

On Jan. 2, 2000, when eight of us were doing group practice during the break, a guard saw us and started to shout, "They are practising Falun Gong again." Several people came and opened the door. The supervisor rushed over to push us. He then slapped Xiaorong Dai's face twice and landed his fists on her and other practitioners. After the beating, he commanded, " All of you come out. Chains should not be put on like this." He ordered us to stand at the door and started scolding us for a while. Then he said, " Separate them! Separate them! Tie their hands to the chain as well." Then he rushed into the cell again and shackled two elderly practitioners (Taohong Zhou and Xiang Chen) together. Five practitioners (Baozhen Yu, Lanying Jiang, Xiaorong Dai, Yanling Deng, Zhaodi He) had one of their hands tied to the shackle. While walking, they had to bend forward like a gorilla. We even had to ask other criminal prisoners to help us untie our pants when we went to the washroom. In the night, we could only huddle up to take a nap. When the supervisor saw us whispering after being shackled, he rushed in again and said, "How dare you still talk!" and then started to kick Zhaodi and others in his polished leather shoes. Taohong Zhou said, "Please do not get so angry, Sir." "What? How dare you to tell me not to get angry!" Then he rushed over to kick Taohong Zhou. We had the 48 jin [Chinese weight unit, 1 jin=500g/by translator] heavy chain on us till we were released a month later.

On Feb.23, 2000, some of our practitioners got together to study Zhuan Falun. After we read about 12 pages, I was arrested again and escorted to the detention center at 27 Bei Road. Around 2pm on Mar. 24, officer Liu called me to his office where officer Ni and another official from the municipal government were already sitting there. While taking notes, officer Ni said, "we have a few questions that need to be clarified. Can you tell us the truth?" I replied, "Our Falun Gong practitioners follow the principle of Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance. Sure I can be truthful."

Then he asked me a few general questions, and I gave him my answers. When he was putting down the notes on the 2nd page on the issue of shackling us, I noticed that he skipped the important details and only recorded some trivia, and didn't truthfully record the whole story. For example, he only mentioned that we were shackled once. But the fact was that the shackles were kept on us for more than twenty days and were not taken off until we were released.

I pointed it out to him. He then asked me to write it myself, and told me, "Write whatever you would like to, and you may go back to the cell to do it. You can write as much as you want." In the office, I wrote down my statement describing what truly happened to eight of us throughout the shacking incident. I handed my statement to officer Ni and told him, " I can't sign for the notes you took." At this time, the official from the municipal government said, " It doesn't matter whether she signs it or not." When I suggested to cross out my signature on the first page of his notes, officer Ni not only refused my request but fiercely swore at me, " You've lost your right of being a human being." The minute I walked to the door, he crumpled up my statement into a ball and threw it onto the floor. I was detained for 45 days this time and was not released until Apr. 7.

Guozhen Deng, Falun Dafa practitioner in Nanchang, Jiangxi province

April 15, 2000

(Translated Apr. 18, 2000)