[Chong-qing City, Si-chuan Province]
There are about 50 to 60 practitioners in the Women's Labor Camp of Chong-qing. They have to work long hours everyday. The workload is too heavy for some practitioners to finish.

In April, in order to gain a legal environment of practicing Falun Gong, they went on hunger strike. Some family members of the detained practitioners were not allowed to visit them. Some family members were questioned whether they themselves practiced Falun Gong or not. If they did, they could not make the visit. The family members are seriously worried about detained practitioners' condition.

Over 25 practitioners are still being detained in the Xi-shan-ping Men's Labor Camp of Bei-bei district, Chong-qing City. According to their family members, their situation was very bad. Some of them were locked in individual confinements because that they continued to practice Falun Gong. Theie food was handed to them through a small hole. Some practitioners stayed in confinements for over 20 days. After that, they would be asked whether they would continue to practice Falun Gong. If the answer was positive, they would be shocked with an electric club.

Practitioner Zhang Mei had been handcuffed and shackled while being detained in the Xin-hua Street Detention Center of Jiang-bei district, before she was sent to a labor camp.

Some released practitioners were required to pay 1,500 Yuan, 2,000 Yuan or 3,000 Yuan of "bailing charges". They were told that they could only get refunded if they fully comply to the "Six Rules" issued by the Department of Public Security within one year after the release. Otherwise, their money would be confiscated.

[Zhe-jiang Province]
Practitioners Zhang Huai-jun, Peng Xiao-dong and Su Min from the No.23 China Nuclear Industry Development Company located in Hai-yan, Zhe-jiang Province, went to Beijing to appeal to the government in May of 1999. After they were sent back, their workplace required them to write a guarantee letter pledging not to practice Falun Gong and not to participate in any Falun Gong activities. They decisively turned down the request.

After July 22 of 1999, the Chinese government started to persecute Falun Gong on a massive scale. They attempted to go to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong but were found out by their workplace. They were detained for about one week, during which they were forced to watch the TV programs that slandered Falun Gong and its founder. Their superiors worked on them to write the guarantee letter and to write articles to smear and criticize Falun Gong and its founder. They bluntly rejected the request. As a result, they were suspended from their work and asked to report to the workplace everyday. With no income, their basic livelihood was at stake. However, their determination of practicing Falun Gong remained unchanged.

In October last year, after Falun Dafa was labeled as an evil cult, they went to Beijing to appeal again. They were escorted back and detained separately in their workplace. During that period, they continued to practice Falun Gong but experienced all kinds of trouble. They never agreed to write the guarantee letter to give up practicing Falun Gong. Later, the police department of Hai-yan arrested them. Since then, they have been detained in the detention center of Hai-yan up to now. Since they do not have any family members or relatives in Hai-yan, and nobody has been allowed to visit them, their condition in the past half a year is unknown.

Practitioner Mr. Chen Jun, 31 years old, from the Wu-yuan Town of Hai-yan, was the former contact person of Falun Gong Assistance Center in Hai-yan. He went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in October of 1999, one week right after he opened a fresh flower store. He was arrested in Tiananmen Square and detained in the Hai-yan Hotel for one month. Later he was sentenced one-year labor term for refusing to write a guarantee letter pledging not to practice Falun Gong and not to appeal in Beijing.

[Shan-dong Province]
In March, some detained practitioners in the Zhu-hai Liaison Office (Zhu-hai is a city in Guang_dong province) in Jiao_zhou, Shan_dong province were forced to sit on chairs for over 12 days and not allowed to sleep.

In the Zhu-shan Liaison Office police department, some practitioners were forced to sit on the ground with their hands cuffed from the back and placed on the chair behind them. Meanwhile, they were fed with water constantly. They had been tortured like that for three days.

[Bao-ding, He-bei Province]
Qu-yang County is a small County in He-bei Province. A dozen practitioners detained in the detention center of Qu-yang County started hunger strike on April 20. 5 days later, nobody was allowed to visit them. On April 29, a few practitioners from the village of Zhu-jia-yu were sent back. The conditions of the practitioners on hunger strike are still unknown.

From February 24 to 28, over 30 practitioners have been escorted back from
Beijing. Each of them was given a 15-day detention term. When the term expired, (during the detention, practitioners had not been tortured), the local officials attempted to make money from the practitioners. In particular, an official from Heng-zhou Town asked for over 10,000 Yuan from the practitioners. All practitioners who were bailed out by their family members were imposed a stiff fine without any receipt. Among the practitioners who are on hunger strike, some could not afford the fine at all.

Currently, practitioners who are being detained in the County include Ge Jin-liang, Xue Bao-hui and Zhao Chun-peng in the police station, Liu Jin-ye, Man Jun-ru, Jin Hong-lian (Man Jun-ru's daughter), Man Chen-ru, and Man Jing-ru in the detention center.

[Beijing]

Recently, I met a practitioner who got detained for practicing Falun Gong in the Tiananmen Square on April 13. She told me that she and some other practitioners were sent to the Qi-li-qu detention center at that time. On the way to the detention center, some practitioners unfurled a Falun Dafa banner in the police vehicle.

The practitioners told the police, "We are not criminals." They refused to tell the police their names and addresses. They also refused to be interrogated. They abstained from both food and water. Many practitioners were forced-fed and beaten up. All arrested practitioners and their family members did not see any written arrest notice.

In mid of April, several dozen practitioners got illegally detained in the Xi-cheng District detention center for practicing Falun Gong or unfurling Falun Gong banners in the Tiananmen Square. Some of them abstained from food and water in order to express their will and get back their lawful right of practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Zhang Song-mei, 25 years old, a practitioner from Beijing, got arrested on April 13 for unfurling a Falun Dafa banner in the Tiananmen Square. On the eighth day after she stopped taking food and water, she became very weak. She was sent to hospital for emergency treatment after she lost her consciousness. Then she was out of danger and got released from the hospital on April 28.

During that time, the officials of the detention center had threatened to severely punish such "anti-government" action as abstaining from both food and water. However, all the practitioners who abstained from food and water and some other senior practitioners got released before the Labor Day (May 1st).

Category: Accounts of Persecution