Report 1: At the center of Tiananmen Square
[Beijing] At 9:00 am on June 25, 2000, about 400-500 Falun Dafa practitioners went to the center of Tiananmen Square to safeguard the Law. Many banners appeared in the Square showing "Falun Dafa Is Righteous", "The Law Rectifies the Universe", "Restore Falun Dafa's Innocence". Hand in hand, the practitioners formed a circle around the banners. One banner, about 6 meters wide, was rotated in the middle of the circle. Police, both uniformed and plain clothed, tried to break into the circle with force to seize the banners several times, but failed. The practitioners who came to safeguard the Law no longer resigned themselves to being captured. Those who were dragged away by the police ran back, and those who were pulled into the vans jumped out through the windows. Hand in hand, the practitioners were determined to eradicate all evilness with their own lives.
Those who beat up the practitioners were armed police in plain clothes in their early 20s, while the police in uniforms only pushed or dragged the practitioners. The plain-clothed police beat the practitioners viciously, regardless of their ages. One practitioner from outside Beijing was beaten to the ground, and a police in plain clothes viciously stomped on his head with his feet until the practitioner lost consciousness.
The whole incident lasted about 50 minutes before all the practitioners were forced into the police vans. About a dozen vans were used to take away the practitioners. Some of the practitioners unfurled banners again from the car windows. Some kept calling out loudly, "Falun Dafa is great!" Through the windows, people could see the police beating the practitioners inside the vans. Later a cleaning truck arrived and washed off practitioners blood splashed on Tiananmen Square. The blood on the ground can be washed off, but the fact of cruel persecution of the practitioners can never be removed from history or from peoples memories.
It was a Sunday, and many people were around watching and many foreign reporters videotaped the incident.
These Falun Dafa practitioners were telling people around the world with their blood and lives that Falun Dafa is righteous! and The innocence of Falun Dafa should be restored.
(Reported by a practitioner in China at 11:00am, June 25, 2000)
Report 2: Under the national flag on Tiananmen Square
At 9:00 am on June 25, 2000, nearly 300 Falun Dafa practitioners unfurled banners and did group exercises in front of the national flag in Tiananmen Square.
At 9:00 am, the practitioners gathered in front of the national flag. They opened four banners and displayed them facing the Tianan gates, calling out loudly: "Falun Dafa is great! "Falun Dafa is righteous!" At the same time, many practitioners began to do the exercises. When the police in three patrol cars and the police in plain clothes on the square saw them, they rushed over to stop the practitioners. They dashed over to wrest the banners from the practitioners, and began to beat the practitioners. Two banners were seized after two minutes, while the other two were held up for ten minutes till the end of this incident, due to persistent protection efforts of the practitioners. During this time, when some practitioners were knocked to the ground by the police, others would quickly take their positions to hold up the banners, side by side, hand in handforming a wall like iron.
During this time, another three police cars and many police came. They attacked the practitioners many times, but failed to break them up. Being desperate, the police turned to the tourists around (including many foreigners), and forced them to stay over fifty meters away. Then they surrounded the practitioners with six police cars. They hit and kicked the practitioners. Because the police cars blocked the view, the tourists could hardly see what was happening. It was only known that the practitioners were taken away in the police cars twenty minutes later, and it was not clear what happened to them afterwards.
At 10:30 am, police cars were present at all the intersections near the Square to prevent further incidents.
During the entire incident this morning, the practitioners adopted a non-cooperative strategy:
1. Firmly refuse to get into the police cars.
2. When fellow practitioners were beaten, others would immediately step forward to stop the police.
Report 3: At other locations on Tiananmen Square
At 9:00 am on June 25, 2000, several hundred Falun Gong practitioners, most of them women, unfurled about 20 banners on Tiananmen Square to protest the governments crackdown on Falun Gong. The unfurled banners showed "Falun Dafa", "Falun Dafa Is Great", "Falun Dafa Is Righteous" and "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance". Practitioners stood side by side holding the banners in small groups. They called out "Falun Dafa is great" and "Falun Dafa is righteous". They endured continuous beating and kicking from over one hundred police both uniformed and plain clothed. The police brutally beat the practitioners regardless of where the blows landed on the practitioners bodies. Some practitioners were beaten to bleed. The entire incident lasted close to twenty minutes.
The police used five or six police cars and made two trips to take away all the practitioners. During this time, the police rudely dispersed nearly a thousand tourists that were in the surrounding and seized many people's videotapes and the films in their cameras. The belonging of some practitioners scattered on the ground were quickly cleared away by a cleaning truck that was nearby.
(Reported on June 25, 2000)
