Falun Dafa practitioners who went to appeal in Tiananmen Square before this New Year Day (Jan. 1st, 2001) have been unlawfully detained in custody in Bayan county, Heilongjiang province for more than four months. Among them, Liu Zhipeng and Ming Xiaoguang were illegally sentenced to labor re-education in a labor camp. A dozen of other practitioners who promised not to appeal were transferred to a detention center and were released after their families were fined 1000~5000 Yuan RMB (roughly 2-10 months' monthly income of an average worker in China) by the police. When released, the authorities of the detention centers and prisons confiscated the practitioners' money. Shi Juqiu stayed in the detention center for only one day yet had to pay 200 Yuan for food. Moreover, the center took another 90 Yuan from her upon her release. Nobody can be released without paying a fine. One single man who promised to give up practice has not been released because he had no family members to pay the fine for him. Sun Maojian from this county was sentenced to labor re-education on May 8, 2000.

Sun Xue is a 46 years old man. His stomach was "resected" (surgically cut, usually due to cancer) before his practice of Falun Dafa. He was very temperamental and couldn't work. He received more than 40,000 Yuan per year from the government as a subsidy for medical care and it was still not enough for him. When he began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996, he threw up dirty blood for three days until finally an egg-sized tumor was expelled. He has changed tremendously since then. His diseases are gone, his temper is good and he can do any kind of work each day. He hasn't asked for any subsidy from the government since then. There are medical care receipts of about 18000 Yuan that remained unreimbursed after starting his practice of Falun Dafa. When his family wanted to seek reimbursement from the government, he stopped them. Such noble conduct was even considered a "mental disorder" by the local security office.

He went to appeal in Beijing last February. After he was "picked up" by the county policeman, the police in the local police station beat him severely with a leather belt until the belt was broken. More than one month later, he was still in detention. To protest the illegal detention, he and other detained practitioners staged a group hunger strike. Soon he was released.

On May 13 (World Falun Dafa day), he was arrested again while he was at home doing nothing that broke the law. In the jail, just for protecting the Falun symbol badge, he was beaten up viciously by the deputy director Ren Dezun, the prison guard Zhang XX, and prisoners. As a result, three of his ribs were broken. The sound of scraping broken bones could be heard when he breathed. His belly was also swollen like a pregnant woman because he couldn't urinate. Later, he put his Falun badge under his tongue and clenched his teeth. In order to take the badge away him, those bad guys pried open his teeth but they found nothing. They thought he had swallowed the badge and finally gave up. He requested to have an examination in a hospital in order to expose their evil deeds but was refused. He was only allowed to have the practitioner Sun Maojian take care of him in his prison cell. He was detained there for over five months. His family feared he had kidney failure because of his dropsy and he was eventually released upon their demand.

Wang Xiaodong is a 35 year old woman. Her husband, Sun Maojian, and their child all practice Falun Dafa. She was illegally detained for more than three months after she and six other practitioners went to appeal in Beijing during the Spring Festival of last year (2000). She was released after 4-day hunger strike. On May 8, 2000, she went to practice exercises on a farm with another 20 practitioners and was arrested the next day and sent to labor camp where she has been detained until this day.

Tian Xiaodong was arrested when she was having a talk with three practitioners. The director of the police station, Fan Qingmin, claimed that he was responsible for the crackdown of a Falun Gong site in order to take credits and seek rewards. These three practitioners were detained for over three months. Tian Xiaodong was detained after her appeal in Beijing on June 21, 2000. The police officer, Dou Jiang, took a phone book with him and asked her whom she had contacted. The bad police even took her to the "Tiger chair" [A severe punishing tool used in prison.] and clapped her face severely. But she never gave in. She was released when her family bailed her out after four months in jail. The principal of her school, Luan Hejun, ordered three teachers to monitor her in turn every day from 3am to 9pm. She was not allowed to work and her and her child's freedom was severely violated. This also caused much resentment among the teachers. Later she lost them and went to her parents' house. The deputy director of the police station, Gao Zhiqiang, went to her house and encountered her cousin, and asked him, "Do you know where Tian Xiaodong is?" But her cousin said that he didn't know. The deputy director said, "I'll arrest you since you don't know." This teenager was scared and told him. As a result, they went to her parents' house to arrest her. The arresting process lasted for quite a long time and eventually her family took her back. The police did not give up until her father wrote a guarantee promising to give 5000 Yuan to the police station for the traveling expense should she go to Beijing again. Her work unit kept making trouble for her. Her daughter, Sun Yueming, went to Beijing to appeal with her last June. Since she and her husband were both arrested, Yueming had to live with her husband's brother. This March Yueming's school undertook the process of the "million-signature drive" (Translator note: these signatures are collected mandatorily against people's will and defame Falun Dafa.). Yueming refused to sign. The next day, she was forced to sign the banner by her teacher. However she also wrote an "X" sign right behind her signature to show her rejection.

Gao Fuzhi was beaten until two ribs were broken by the local vicious policemen, due to his appealling to the central government.

Right before the Spring Festival of 2000, He Miao was busy with her business in her shop when the police came in and asked her to go to the police station. They told her that both Tian Xiaodong and Fei Mongqi (both are practitioners) were there. Hearing this, she went with them. However, she found none of the two practitioners after she arrived. The deputy director of the police station, Gao Zhiqiang, insisted that she be sent to the labor camp if she did not quit practicing Falun Gong. But other officers had different opinion on this issue so they cursed and argued with each other badly. He Miao escaped by this opportunity. On the morning of Feb. 14, Gao Zhiqiang and Li Jun (head of the political department of the security bureau) wanted her over to the police station for a talk, but she rejected. They then asked two policemen to take her by force. At that time, she held a scissor in hand and vowed to protect Dafa with her life. The evil police dared not take action against her. She later fled her home and her family was harrassed, deceived, and frightened many times in order to force her back to home.

Li Yunzhi had an outdoor practice in Bayan County with six practitioners in December 1999. She was sent to a detention center and held there until before that Spring Festival. She was arrested again at the sixth day of the first lunar month with another six practitioners. She was detained for over three months and released after a hunger strike. She was arrested again the second time for three months for sending Master Li's articles to other practitioners. The date for her third arrest remains unknown.

Sun Aihua, 55 years old, was jailed twice for a total of seven months because of her appealing and practicing in public. The police asked her to go with them this Spring Festival but she refused their request. Later the police took her forcefully to the police station by car. She was beaten up and verbally abused for several hours until she was semi-conscious. She was released and bailed out by her family.

The practitioners in Mainland, China

April 21st, 2001