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Latest News from China - 06/24/2000

July 2, 2000

[Shandong Province] Practitioners from Linyi Suffered Inhumane Mistreatments

Since this May, the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in Linyi City and its surrounding counties has reached an extreme extent. Some work units even hired the local ruffians to persecute practitioners. They used the rubber clubs or electrical clubs to beat up practitioners, and lighters and cigarette butts to burn practitioners. They also forced the practitioners to humiliate the Teacher. They put the photocopies of Teacher's picture or the name of Teacher on the ground and forced the practitioners to step on it. The practitioners would be beaten up if they refused to do that. Some of them even used scorpions and snakes to bite practitioners. A few practitioners got seriously hurt from the biting. It was said that they would be rewarded 500 Yuan for successfully "transforming" each practitioner.

Some work units detained practitioners and held "transformation" classes for them. During the class period, the practitioners were only paid basic living expenses and the expenses of the classes were to be paid by the practitioners themselves. The length of the class was temporarily set to be three months. On expiration, the class would be renewed if the practitioners could not be transformed. A person in charge of the transformation said, "The upper officials have said that we could deal with Falun Gong like dealing with birth control. We would not overdo no matter how we do it."

Up to the time of this report, the above persecution is still going on.

[Shanxi Province] An Exam Carrying Contents to Slander Falun Dafa

In the middle section of Shanxi province, an exam was held among employees of government institutions to promote legal knowledge. The exam contained contents that were used to slander Falun Dafa. The Jiexiu City then removed Dafa practitioners who refused to take the exam or who failed the exam from their posts.

[Shanxi Province]

Practitioners Li Yunhu and An Yunyun, a couple from the Pingyao County of Shanxi Province, have been continuously detained up to now in the Pingyao County Detention Center after they went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 27 of 1999.

Liu Maorui, born in 1982, was given 2 years of forced-labor after going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong for the first time in October 1999.

[Henan Province]

Wu Zhongmin, a practitioner from the Shan County of Sanmenxia City of Henan Province, has been in extended custody up to now in the Shan County Detention Center for practicing Falun Gong at the Tiananmen Square in August 1999..

Practitioner Li Hui, 22 years old, a student from the Zhengzhou Polytechnic University, has been under extended custody for over 5 months in the Detention Center of Shan County.

[Beijing] Practitioners Are Encouraged by Teacher's New Article

Practitioners in China were greatly inspired by Teacher's new article "Towards Consummation". Recently, many practitioners have walked out to practice Falun Gong in public areas and some of them got detained.

On the evening of June 19, over 20 practitioners got arrested when practicing Falun Gong in the Mudan Pavilion of the Zizhuyuan Park. After being detained for over 40 hours in the local police station, a few of them were sent to the detention center of Haidian District for detention. The whereabouts of some practitioners is unknown.

On the morning of June 20, 4 practitioners got arrested when practicing Falun Gong outside of the Foreign Language Publishing House of the Haidian District. They had introduced Falun Dafa to the passersby and hanged a banner printed with a brief introduction to Falun Dafa before they started the practice. Among them, the male practitioners were given detention already.

In addition, three female middle-aged and old-aged practitioners, along with another 3 practitioners whose names are temporarily unknown, went to Tiananmen Square to unfurl the banner of Falun Gong and got detained in the Qinghe Detention Center afterwards.

They had been overcautious and staying home in the past. Teacher's new article "Towards Consummation" enabled them to get rid of fear and decide to stand out to defend Dafa.

[Heilongjiang Province] The Acheng Detention Center of Heilongjiang Province Tortured Practitioners on Hunger Strike

Recently, police from Acheng City detained over 20 practitioners for all kinds of reasons. The environment in the jail was very bad. The detained practitioners were forbidden to study and practice Falun Gong. They therefore started hunger strike on June 14, 2000 to require their unconditional release.

Since the jail blocked the news, the practitioners outside the jail did not know their hunger strike until 5 days later. Moreover, all the detained practitioners have been in extended custody. On June 19, over 150 people including practitioners and the family members of the detained practitioners went to the Acheng Detention Center to request the release of all detained practitioners. Nobody in the detention center paid attention to them. Therefore, 7 representatives including a lawyer and several family members went to the Acheng Police Department to have a dialogue with them.

On that evening, another 20 practitioners got detained including a mother and her 17 years old daughter. Zhang Cheng, one of the seven representatives, was suspected to have transmitted an article about Acheng City police's persecution against practitioners to the Minghui Net, because he had a PC at home. Therefore, he got detained and his home was ransacked. The over 150 people had been waiting outside the detention center on June 19 stopped eating or drinking. The practitioners who got detained on June 19 also started to abstain from food and water in the detention center.

By the time of this report, the practitioners have been on hunger strike for 10 days. The practitioners who got detained on June 19 have been on hunger strike for 5 days. The police would force-feed them with salt water and half-raw corn cereal every two to three days. None of the detained practitioners gave in. Yesterday the Acheng City police department sent out some armed police to beat up practitioners who had been on hunger strike for many days. After the beating, they continued to force-feed the practitioners. The family members of the practitioners went to the Acheng City police department to report the situation in the detention center. However, the police department completely denied what was happening in the detention center. Therefore, the family members had to go to the People's Congress of Harbin City to tell the truth and hope that they could investigate into the matter.

[For previous article of how the police in Acheng City persecuted practitioners, please visit: http://www.minghui.ca/eng/2000/Mar/12/china_Acheng031200.html]

[Hebei Province] Practitioners from Langfang Held a Group Practice

On the morning of June 21, practitioners from Langfang (City, east of Beijing) gathered in the square in front of the People's Bank of China. They lined up in good order and started to practice the Falun Gong exercises at 5am.. A few practitioners who passed by or came later also joined the practice. Over 100 people stopped and watched them. The 6-meter-long banner reading "Falun Xiulian Dafa" and "Falun Dafa Brief Introduction" appeared extremely eye-catching.

In addition, about 19 practitioners walked out to practice Falun Gong in a group outside the South Gate of Langfang on June 16. On June 17, a dozen of them continued to practice Falun Gong there together and all of them got detained afterwards.