Latest News from China - 09/23/2000

[China] Practitioners from northeast China tortured at Beijing Detention Center On July 19, 2000, over 20 practitioners from northeast China, unfurled banners at the Tiananmen Square. While being beaten and dragged, we were pulled by a number of policemen toward a police van. One senior practitioner lost her shoes. I refused to get on the van. The police behind me then violently pushed me, causing my head to bump against the stairs. They also hit my left shoulder, and forcibly bent my left hand to a position of 90 degree to my arm. They even brutally struck the head and face of a deaf-mute practitioner. We were taken to a police station near Tiananmen Square. There were already about one to two hundred practitioners there. Many appeared to have been beaten, some very badly. I was taken to Yanqing detention center of Beijing. After getting out of the van, 50 of us were separated into two groups and asked to stand against a wall. An officer in her 20s started to beat us and pushed us to the ground.. One practitioner shouted, "Stop the beating!" They brought me to a dining room that had a wet floor. There, you could not see a solemn and sacred law-inforcement organization of a country. None of the employees were wearing uniforms except the guards. The environment was "dirty, chaotic and bad". The officers there were cruel and vicious. Two officers put the electrical clubs on a table, and asked me to tell them my name and address. I refused. They then used an electrical club to shock my arms. When the club touched my arms, it emitted smoke and sparks accompanied with sounds "Pa, Pa". I bit my teeth tightly and kept silent. They then came up and slap my face so hard that I felt dizzy and had blurred vision. Seeing that I was still silent, one officer went to the kitchen to get a jar of water and poured it on the top of my head. Another one grabbed a mop and put it on top of my head. While letting the dirty cloth touch my face, he swore, "In a while, I will cover your head with a spittoon and a urinal." Two of them kept swearing. One of them later brought another electric club (I was told by a female doctor that it was bought recently and brand new), and started their torture again. They shocked almost all parts of my body including my scruff, two arms, two legs, the inside of the thighs, face, neck, mouth, head, and even breasts. By now, I had scars all over my body. When they were shocking my waist, I could not bear it any more and bumped my head against the radiator. My head had a big cut and the blood was gushing onto the floor. Then they stopped beating me and asked me to borrow some money to have the cut sutured in a hospital. I was handcuffed and brought to a hospital. When I came back, the doctor at the detention center could barely recognize me because the left side of my face was red and stiff and I had lumps all over my neck, legs and arms. I suffered from tics when I was sleeping during the night. On the following day, blisters appeared and the wounds started to fester. My mouth was swollen so severely that it could not open. To protest their brutal torture, we started a hunger strike. On the third day, I was handcuffed and taken in a police car along with another practitioner. The car raced through the streets with sirens wailing and security cars running in the front and back. The practitioners said, "See how scared they are. We are just an elderly female and a kid without any weapon." Upon arrival at a compound, we were separated and sent to different locations. I was taken away by the police from Ding Zhou of Hebei Province and brought to a detention center. I was assigned to a small cell where 12 people slept on a bed that was big enough for only 8 people. Thus I and other 5 people slept on a straw mat on the floor. When a practitioner from Ding Zhou saw how badly I was beaten, she burst into tears. Both her and her husband were sent to the detention center for practicing Falun Dafa. They were arrested while she was having a phone conversation with a practitioner and the conversation was wiretapped on July 20. Two practitioners in their 60s were caught when they were doing the sitting meditation at the Tiananmen Square. We were interrogated in turn several times a day. We took this opportunity to spread Dafa and to tell them the truth about Dafa. Finally they said, "Actually we did not want to do this." We could tell that they disliked the suppression against Falun Gong. A director showed his sympathy to us, and said, "How come they beat you so badly." Another one took a very detailed record during the questioning. I showed him the wounds and scars to let him record the locations and the condition of the injury. A high-ranking official said, "I have read Zhuan Falun, and found that it has very profound meanings. But I am not able to quit smoking." I told him, "Do not worry. You can gradually get rid of this bad habit, and it will not affect your study of Dafa." He replied, "Dafa cultivation is a serious matter. You cannot cheat me." Since we all went on a hunger strike, they finally released us on July 25. When I was back home, my husband saw my wounds and almost burst into tears. I was brutally tortured simply because I could not bear to see Dafa and the practitioners suffer the injustice and the truth being suppressed, and exercised my legal rights bestowed by the Constitutions to tell the world the truth. Surely all the people with kindness and conscience would feel sad about the suppression and the inhumane torture the practitioners have suffered. [China] Some people in Changchun who had written pledges at a detention centers came out to work for the police as secret agents. Some practitioners tried to help them, and ended up being arrested. We would like to remind the practitioners in China to spend more time on Dafa study. In the current adverse and complex environment, we shall clearly realize that any of our attachments will be taken advantage of by the evil forces and be used to further persecute the practitioners. [China] Shandong Dafa practitioners Li Tianmin and Jiang Zhong sentenced to prison Li Tianmin, a 30-year old male, is a former assistant of Falun Dafa Assistance Center in Weifang City. He was arrested July 20,1999 for "disclosing state secrets" (this accusation was later dropped by the court) and "organizing Dafa practitioners in Weifang City to attack the local government". He has been detained ever since. On February 2, 2000, he was tried at the Intermediate Court of Weifang City and sentenced to 4 years' in prison. In the court he said,"I refuse to hire a lawyer to defend me because I am innocent. I will defend myself." When the judge asked him why he signed the interrogation record, he rolled up his sleeves and pants to show the still clearly visible wounds and replied, " This is the evidence that shows (the police) obtained the confession through torture." The judge was silent and the people in the courtroom were in an uproar. Li Tianmin was tortured in jail with various inhumane means. He has written a petition letter with his blood to show the injustice that he suffered. At the detention center he fought to create an environment for Dafa study and exercise with his life, and finally obtained special permission for doing Dafa study and exercises. On the Chinese New Year, it was snowing heavily in Weifang City as if it was protesting against the injustice to Dafa practitioners. Li Tianmin recited