On December 25, 2000, over 100 Falun Dafa practitioners, who refused to release any of their personal information, were transferred from the Beijing Chaoyang Detention Center to the Handan No. 2 Detention Center. Being unable to retrieve their names, the police assigned a number to each of them. Then the police conducted physical examinations, thoroughly searching each practitioner's body. Later, the practitioners were divided up and sent to Handan's No. 1 and 2 Detention Centers and various other branch detention centers located in several different counties. The No. 2 Detention Center held 20 practitioners who decided to go on a hunger strike in order to protest against the mistreatment. Some practitioners didn't eat for as long as 9 days. In an attempt to continue to strive for the right to practice, practitioners did the exercises together even when their legs were chained. On January 5, upon learning that some practitioners were sent to labor camps, the detained practitioners stood up together and repeated, "Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is righteous"
Five practitioners from the South, on their way to Beijing, hung a Falun Dafa banner on the outside of the train. When the train stopped at Handan Station, the police found this and sent the five practitioners to the Handan No. 2 Detention Center. Unable to obtain their names and addresses, the police named them Railway 1, Railway 2, etc.
In this dangerous environment away from home, these practitioners continued to hold group practice. Their actions greatly encouraged the local practitioners that were detained in the Handan No. 2 Detention Center.
Originally, the local practitioners from Handan had only spoken to the officers and explained the truth to them during their detention from October 2000. They had not taken any actions, such as, continuing to practice the exercises, until the practitioners from out of town provided them with their own good example. The local practitioners discovered their own imperfections that still remained at the bottom of their hearts. The Southern practitioners encouraged them to be steadfast in obtaining the right to practice Falun Gong. So why have more and more practitioners gone to Beijing to appeal and have not revealed their names? This is because we have a common name, that is, Falun Dafa practitioner. No matter where we are from, no matter where we are detained, every practitioner is a particle of Dafa. Just as our Teacher said in the "Heavenly Circuit" section of Zhaun Falun, "...In the end, thousands of energy channels will join together and turn one's body into one without any energy channels or acupuncture points; they will join together to make one whole body. This is the ultimate purpose of opening energy channels..." Today, many practitioners have stepped forward to validate Dafa in different ways. Isn't this similar to the state of opening the heavenly circuit? Although we did not realize this at the beginning, we can do things well now. We will continue improving ourselves and will not disappoint our benevolent Teacher.
Beginning on January 8, 2001, all of the female practitioners (No information about the male practitioners is available) in the No. 2 Detention Center have held group practice everyday. On January 11, the police chained these practitioners in pairs to punish them. In order to resist this act of vicious suppression, the practitioners continued their practice and went on a hunger strike. They demanded unconditional release of everyone detained. Up until now, the leader of the Detention Center has not ordered his subordinates to beat practitioners. But in last March, Liu Wenming, the former director of No. 2 Detention Center, treated Dafa practitioners with much cruelty. (Liu was later promoted to become Director of the Hanshan Police Branch). Mr. Liu allowed no mentioning of the words of Falun Gong, let alone Falun Gong exercises to be practiced. Once, practitioner Wu Qiaoyun, was sitting in the half lotus position (but was not actually practicing the fifth exercise), yet, after this was reported to Liu, Liu came with several male officers and ordered Wu Qiaoyun to put down her legs. Wu refused. Liu then dragged her to the floor and slapped her face with a shoe. He beat her several dozen times. Ms. Wu's face became swollen and her mouth was bleeding. At the moment, practitioner Sun Qiuying raised her hand and said, " I would like to say something to the director." Liu stopped and asked Sun Qiuying to come forward. When Sun Qiuying got up and stood in front of him, he grabbed her by the hair and beat her several dozen times with a shoe until he was tired. This was still not enough for him; he then ordered his followers to bring in two large sandbags. They ordered both practitioners to sit on the floor, embracing the sand bags, with their hands handcuffed and their feet chained. The torture lasted more than ten hours.
The following is a partial list of practitioners in Handan City that were sent to labor camps:
Mo Suzi, Zhu Jing, Zhang Xiaoru, Li Huarong, Wang Yan, Nie Shuxia, Lin Xiujuan, Lu Bohua, Yan Yuxia, Zhao Meihua, Zhu Taozhen, Guo Fang, Yang Fenglian, Wang Honglan, Wang Danhong, Yang Hongbin(male), Han Meng (male).
This is what is presently taking place in the Handan No. 2 Detention Center since October 2000. What happened before that time at the No. 2 Detention Center, and the situation at the No. 1 Detention Center as well as other detention centers is unknown.
