Out of fear that Falun Gong practitioners would go to Tiananmen Square to validate Dafa, from July 17 to July 22, 2000, the Beijing Public Security Bureau illegally detained practitioners who firmly cultivate Dafa in their regions. Some of the practitioners were preparing meals at home, some were on duty in their work units, some were walking on the street, and some were asleep when they were arrested. The police lured them away by saying "The dispatch chief wants to talk to you," or forcibly sent them to various detention centers in Beijing and put them under illegal detention. All Dafa practitioners detained in the detention center of Chaoyang District Bureau went on hunger strikes without coordination. Some were abstained from water when they went on hunger strike. The hunger strikes lasted as long as 7 to 9 days, at that time no authorities cared at all. This detention center opened up a new corridor composed of 8 cells during this period, where almost all detainees were Dafa practitioners with few under other charges. For example, in the cell with the highest count of detainees, there were 37 people among whom only 6 were under other charges, and the rest were Dafa practitioners. The percentage of illegally detained Dafa practitioners was 84%. The number of Dafa practitioners held by this detention center was as high as 160 in the several days around July 20. There were elderly people who were over 70 years of age. These practitioners were not released until after July 24.
Those practitioners who were on hunger strike incurred tremendous damage to their bodies. Some of them were nauseated and vomiting; some Dafa practitioners were further tortured by other criminals. In order to forbid practitioners from sitting on the floor, a cell head ordered the criminals to pour several buckets of water on the ground. In adverse circumstances, all Dafa practitioners followed the requirements of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance). They endured the hardship of hardships, and cultivated the heart of great forbearance.
Among those detained practitioners, some were there because they went to Tiananmen to safeguard the Fa. Since they didnt provide their names or addresses, they were assigned numbers by the detention center. As a consequence, they were even more seriously harmed both mentally and physically.
During that sensitive period of time around July 20, some practitioners were also detained in dispatch offices near their residence. During this period, all firmly cultivating practitioners not detained were also under the surveillance of policemen in charge of the neighborhood and the Residential Committee of the Streets. The purpose was to prevent them from going to Tiananmen.
At this time, whether a practitioner was put into a detention center was closely related to the dispatch offices where his residence information is registered. As disclosed by police, some dispatch offices put in place a "bonus system," i.e. during the several days around July 20, for every practitioner brought in from his own jurisdiction, the policemen would be awarded 100 Yuan RMB (around US$12.5). Also, it was told from other police sources that those in the dispatch offices would face demotion if practitioners under their jurisdiction went to Tiananmen.
Falun Dafa practitioners in Mainland China
August 9, 2000
