A note from the author: After reading articles on the practitioners in the jail of Fengtai District of Beijing, who refused to be questioned, went on a hunger strike and refused to memorize the jail rules, practitioners in Sanhe County felt actions like these were right according to their understanding of the principles of Falun DaFa. The crackdown policy of the government on Falun Gong is fundamentally wrong. On the other hand, practitioners were tested for their faith in Falun Dafa facing pressure from the government. The policemen, who brutally treat the innocent Falun Dafa practitioners during the crack down, are committing bad deeds.
At the end of March of 2000, The Beijing Military Museum opened an exhibition attacking Falun Dafa with lies and deceiving information. On April 1, there were over thirty practitioners from Sanhe of Hebei Province at the exhibition. They told the visitors the truth and the facts. They pointed out that all the contents of the exhibition were a hoax. Later they practiced exercises in front of the gate of the exhibition hall. They were arrested as they were about to finish the first set of exercise.
They were sent back to the city of Sanhe. Instead of being sent directly to a detention center, the police divided the practitioners and kept them in every local police station responsible for the district where the practitioners resided, and tortured the practitioners there. They used various ways to punish the practitioners. Xinji police station stripped off the clothes of two male practitioners leaving only their underwear on. They handcuffed them on a street in freezing conditions. They handcuffed two old ladies to a utility pole on the busiest street, exposing them publicly. The police also demanded the practitioners to repent and pay 2500 - 6000 Yuan RMB as a penalty. Otherwise, the police would send them to a detention center. Finally, the thirty-five people were illegally sent to a detention center. Thirty-one females were held in one jail cell at the beginning. The practitioners insisted that they did not do anything wrong and were not prisoners, so they should request a change of the conditions and not accept the fines, and the police should stop torturing and extorting confessions from practitioners . The ward supervisor heard what the practitioners requested through the jail surveillance monitor and thus separated the practitioners. Then, all practitioners started their hunger strikes.
In the detention center, thirty-one females all together stopped eating food and drinking water for nine days. For the first three days of the hunger strike, everyone continued practicing exercises. Some practitioners began to show karma eliminating states in their bodies. On the forth day, practitioners started to vomit due to the karma eliminating process. When the jail's bathroom was opened, no practitioners went there. They did not go to the bathroom for two days. They also refused to answer the questioning. They all laid on beds and stayed still. Practitioner Zhao Shuying told the interrogator, "I have said what I have to say before, as long as I have one breath, I shall still practice Falun Dafa. I am not afraid even if I shall be jailed or beaten to death." She passed hand written scriptures to the practitioners in another cell during her stay. After a policeman found out about it, he dragged her out of the cell and slapped her face. This time, all practitioners from the same cell rushed out of the cell to stop the police from beating her. Only then, the policeman stopped the torture. The practitioners realized that this was not a tribulation of one person. The tribulations came towards Falun Dafa. In the jail, the practitioners wrote a letter to the police department, entitled "It is not a crime to appeal to a higher governmental department," and asked the government to release the practitioners without any conditions. The head of the detention center was so afraid and angry that he had blisters all over his mouth. It was said that he could not even eat for three days. Then he visited the head of the city police department because he felt that he could not take the responsibility if anyone died. April 10 was the tenth day that the thirty-five practitioners had been detained. The detention center wanted to release the thirty-one female practitioners who were on a hunger strike. However, the female practitioners said if the center did not release the male practitioners they would not leave. Finally, all practitioners were released. Even the practitioners who had been detained since the Chinese New Year's Eve were released. They realized that as long as they could act together, transcend together, the situation would definitely be changed.
One of the practitioners, Li Fengxia, was sent back to Huangzhuang police station. The police asked her to slander the Teacher and Falun Dafa. She refused to do so. The police got mad and handcuffed her across her back from 4 o'clock in the afternoon and took off her clothes leaving only her underclothes on. They forced her to kneel down on the ground and asked her to remain in that position until nighttime. At 9 o'clock at night, the deputy chief took a record, the chief ordered to torture and extort a confession. One policewoman whipped her with her belt. Every ten whips she was asked if she would continue her practice of Falun Gong and if she would slander Falun Dafa. Finally, they broke the leather belt into several pieces without having her give in. They pull out a lot of her hair. Then they shocked her with an electronic prod. However, the police chief was surprisingly shocked himself on the first hit. Even the telephone nearby was jumped up by shock. The policemen did not dare to use the electronic prod any more. Then they used a rope to make a knot and continued beating her with it. When one person got tired, another took a turn beating. Finally the rope broke. Chief Huang stepped on her ankle with his shoes. They beat her until midnight. Finally they used up all their methods and asked why she was so stubborn. After the beating finished, they handcuffed her the whole night. On the second day when police came to work, the police humiliated her again and handcuffed her in a hallway in the sight of passersbies. Her husband went to the police station and saw her being beaten badly, her hair was very messy due to the beating, and she was handcuffed to a pole. He asked her who beat her and she did not say anything. He was angry and looked for the police chief for an explanation. After ten days when Li Fengxia was released, her husband learned the details of her torment by the police. He said if police beat people again, he would take his child and go to appeal to the high-level government(he was not a practitioner.) After Li Fengxia was released, her hip and thigh area was still bruised and swollen very badly. She could not sit down in the detention center because of the wounds and pain.
There was a couple who, working as teachers, was also detained in the center. In the jail, the head of re-education bureau came to talk with them. They were told that if they stopped practicing Falun Gong, their teaching positions would be changed from temporary to permanent and their child's employment status would be changed from farmer to a favorable non-farmer job. However, the practitioners said that they would give up everyything to continue practicing Falun Dafa.
April 12, 2000
(Translated on Apr. 25, 2000)
Category: Accounts of Persecution
