[Minghui Net] On the morning of January 1, 2001, many of us went together to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to validate Dafa. [great law and universal principle] We were caught and sent to the Tiananman Police Substation. There were many practitioners detained there and together we recited "Lun Yu" [the foreword in Zhuan Falun] and poems from Hong Yin. [a book of Teacher's poems] Then we were transferred to the Chaoyang District Detention Center. On the way to the detention center, we chanted, "Falun Dafa is good," "Dafa rectifies the earth and the universe," "Reinstate the innocence of Teacher Li." After we reached the detention center and got out of the vehicles, we were pushed into interrogation rooms, where we were asked our names and home addresses. The guards grabbed the hair of those practitioners who refused to cooperate and violently struck their heads against the wall. During the torture, my lip became bloody. I was stripped of all my clothes and pushed into a cell for a body search. After a short while, my clothes, which had been damaged, were thrown into the cell. My sweater and coat disappeared. So I had to stay in the detention center for over twenty days with only a thin layer of clothing. Nobody in the detention center cared about my condition. Later, a practitioner took off one of her sweaters and gave it to me to keep warm.
There were 25 Dafa practitioners detained in Cell No. 610. We all went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. The guards ordered the prisoners to watch us day and night. As long as one practitioner did not eat for one day, all people in the cell would not be allowed to use the toilet and sleep. We were deprived of our basic human rights. Everybody had to urinate in their pants. Some practitioners could not withstand the torture, and started to eat. Later I was dragged into a restroom and showered with ice-cold water on the top of my head. I was tortured for a whole night. The first hunger strike failed. After noticing that the guards began slandering and cursing Teacher and Dafa, a female practitioner went to defend Teacher and Dafa and was dragged out of the room. Then we heard the sounds of beating and torturing, which lasted for one or two hours. She was then tied to a cross for two days and nights. After the torture, she was thrown into a different cell. She was still detained there after one month.
When the spring festival holiday was coming, [Chinese Lunar New Year, January 23, 2001] the police became afraid that more Dafa practitioners would go to Beijing to appeal. They interrogated those of us who had not given our names and addresses, several times. All these interrogations ended up in failure. On the 27th day of the 12th month in the Chinese lunar calendar year, [late January] police were exasperated and sent me to a different police substation. I was put in the room for on-duty guards. Everyday I was disciplined by many different guards. In order to force me to tell them my name and address, they did not allow me to rest and interrogated me at any time. To protest this unfair treatment, I went on another hunger strike. Seven days later they sent me back to the Chaoyang District Detention Center (It was said to be the biggest detention center in Beijing. It is located on the most eastern side of Beijing, near Sanjianfang, north of the Beijing No. 3 Pharmaceutical Factory.)
This time I was put into Cell No. 605. Many Dafa practitioners on a hunger strike were force-fed by the guards with a mixture of steamed corn bread and a large amount of salt, which was held in a washbasin. Those practitioners who firmly refused to be force-fed were tied up to crosses and their heads were fixed there with sealing tape. They were not taken off the crosses even after the force-feeding was over; and the feeding tubes were not pulled out from their stomachs even after two days and one night. How cruel and inhumane this treatment was! Some practitioners had been on a hunger strike for over a month and their lives were in peril. They were sent to a hospital for emergency treatment, but after the treatment they were taken back for further detention.
Later, the five of us who did not tell our names and addresses were put into one cell. During the interrogation, the guards crushed some practitioners' nails with batons. The genitals of some female practitioners received physical trauma from the the guards' repeated kicking. Some practitioners were stripped of their clothes and forced to hold chunks of snow and stand outside. The guards clamped pliers to practitioners' bodies and they became covered with blood. To protest this extreme torture, we went on another hunger strike. The guards were extremely vicious, and they stopped the running water and food for prisoners and used this to force these prisoners to beat, torture, and shower cold water onto Dafa practitioners day and night. Four to five days later, seeing that we were determined in our hunger strike, the guards started to force-feed us. The guards were even more sinister this time. Several of them stepped on me, held me down, and then tied me to a cross. After my legs, arms, and head were fixed and could not move, they started to force-feed me with the highly condensed salt water. The tube was not removed after the force-feeding was over, so I felt the extreme pain every time I breathed and my eyes were full of tears. The suffering was beyond description. Since I did not eat or drink for a long time, my mouth felt dry and burning after that much salt water was forced into my body. Even so, the guards still required prisoners to force us to work at night, sit on a hard board [a method of torture], and stand for long periods of time. They also poured cold water on our bodies.
In the seventh day of the hunger strike, one practitioner (No. 4247) was on the verge of death. She lost control of her bowel movements and urination. She was sent to a hospital for emergency treatment. Her whereabouts since then are unknown. Later on, the police had no choice but to let us go. The police confiscated all the money which I had bought with me to Beijing, so I was penniless. I walked out of the gate of the detention center in bloodstained pants and worn-out slippers and with a plastic bag as a belt.
After so many days of torture, I could not utter a word. I begged on my way. On the next day, I reached Tiananmen Square and tears welled up in my eyes. So many Dafa practitioners, who cultivate themselves following the principle of "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance," are so unfairly treated. Is this "the best time period of human rights in the history of China " as claimed by Jiang Zemin [Chinese President] and his regime?
Two days later I returned home and continued to plunge myself into the powerful stream of the Fa-rectification.
A Dafa Practitioner from China
March 2001
