We are Falun Dafa practitioners in Linyi City of Shandong Province. Like many other practitioners in China, we went to Beijing in the face of the pressure, to kindly present to the Central Government the truth of Falun Dafa. Later, we were all severely beaten up and some of our fellow practitioners were even beaten to death. We still held firmly to our beliefs in Falun Dafa, and used our kind hearts to clarify that " Falun Dafa is good, and practicing Falun Dafa is not wrong!"
Leaders of the city government paid an unusual amount of attention to Falun Dafa practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa. The local government leaders of each practitioners hometown, following the order of their superiors, went to Beijing in person to take the practitioners back to their local police stations, and then sent the practitioners to their local detention centers and labor camps respectively where they were isolated from the outside world. Dafa practitioners in jail, who promoted Falun Dafa to their cellmates with their kind hearts, were treated with brutal torture. Some practitioners were put in handcuffs and shackles, and some other fellow practitioners were punished with the heavy torture device Di Mao (floor anchor) intended to be used only on convicted criminals awaiting execution. Every time the practitioners were placed on it, they had to remain in a torturing, lying position for half a month. Still, some others were put in shackles of 24 kilograms. Various types of tortures have been used on Dafa practitioners in order to forbid them from studying the Fa and practicing Falun Gong exercises. Almost everyday, the practitioners were severely beaten up for studying the Fa and practicing exercises, and everyday we were moved to tears by these touching cultivation stories of Dafa practitioners. Everyday we made time to recite Hongyin (the collection of Teacher's poems) and Essentials for Further Advancement, and earnestly improve ourselves and assimilate ourselves to Dafa.
The number of days that a person can be detained is clearly stipulated by law. However, the law has always been broken when it is applied to Falun Dafa practitioners. Some fellow practitioners were not released even after their detention exceeded the specified time by a dozen or even dozens of days. They were also forced to pay bail ranging from 1,000 Yuan to over 10,000 Yuan (about $120 to $1,200, 2 to 20 month average wage) in cash. Some leaders bailed Dafa practitioners out by first paying the bail or signing a written pledge for them, and then pressed the relatives of Dafa practitioners to pay back the money or deducted the bail amount from their salaries. In order to pay bail, Dafa practitioners whose families were already poverty-stricken had their families broken apart and were separated from their spouses and children. However, when they where released, the date written on the release document was that stipulated by law, while the exceeded days were not allowed to be mentioned.
Some fellow practitioners, after being jailed, were taken back by their workplaces and then were detained again. Some were detained for several months in their villages, towns and schools (for students and teachers). Some were sent back to their homes, to be watched by family members who were not allowed to go back to work until the practitioners were forced to renounce their beliefs in Dafa. Some other local governments brutally tortured Dafa practitioners with all possible inhuman means. Practitioners were subjected to being bitten by snakes, stung by scorpions, burned with boiling water, burned by fire, etc. Dafa practitioners were injured both physically and mentally; some were even crippled or tortured to death. How harrowing and heart breaking were all these persecutions that Dafa practitioners have suffered!
This summer, accompanied by three persons, two from our workplaces and one from our families, we were transferred to "re-education" classes. We were divided into three classes: beginning class, intermediate class, and advanced class in which Dafa practitioners were monitored 24 hours a day. In these classes, everyday, we were forced to watch videos slandering and smearing Falun Dafa and listen to materials condemning Falun Dafa. After that we were asked to write down our understanding in about 500 words. At the beginning, we all wrote down our own cultivation stories about the benefits we have gained after practicing Falun Gong. Later, we were forbidden to write or to speak about how good Falun Dafa is, instead, we were forced to condemn Falun Dafa as a dangerous threat to society and families, and curse Falun Dafa and our Teacher. We refused to write and curse. We were then asked to copy the materials that condemned Dafa, and were taught to curse Dafa sentence by sentence. If we refused, we were tortured by whatever means they could think of, (some thugs were bought in from the society to torture Dafa practitioners). Facing these most evil persecutions, some fellow practitioners could not endure the brutality, and had written what they should not write, said what they should not say, and have done what has tarnished Dafa and themselves. However, all of this was done against our own wills. We declare here that what we have written, said and done against our own wills, has all been invalid, our hearts for cultivation have never ever changed!
Why we had handled all this with compromise, even yielded to all these degenerated things? Should we still defend human beings even if our temporary comfort was deprived? Our Teacher taught us, " Human beings! Think about it! What should you believe? What shouldnt you believe? Why do you practice cultivation? For whom do you practice cultivation? For whom does your life exist? I trust you will weigh such questions properly. Otherwise, what you will lose can never be made up. When Dafa manifests itself to mankind, these are not the only things that you will lose." (from Dafa Cannot be Exploited in Essentials for Further Advancement). If you are of pure gold, you will not be sifted out. If you fail one big test, get up immediately and catch up until you meet the ultimate standard. Our Teacher said in Harmonizing the Fa in Hongyin "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere, and rectifies all abnormalities; Seek further advancement together, and bright is the future."
Practitioners from Linyi, Shandong Province August 26, 2000
