[Minghui Net] With great benevolence and forbearing hearts, Tan Xiaorong (female) and other Dafa practitioners at Lanzhou University clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to the public. Though their great deeds have benefited many people, they are now being punished and deprived of their most basic human rights.

Tan Xiaorong and three other practitioners thought that the kind-hearted people living in remote areas far from the city should also have a chance to be saved. So, on June 2, 2001, they gathered together and traveled to the Dingxi Region of Gansu Province, which is known as the "toughest place to live." They painted words with red paint along the road, such as: "Falun Dafa is good!" "Falun Dafa is a righteous practice!" "The Fa rectifies the cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated." "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." However, some foolish local people reported them to the police, and the patrolling police illegally took them into custody.

Tan Xiaorong, female, is a Ph.D. student in the Biology Department, Class of 1998. With her were Zhang Lumin (female), a 22-year-old undergraduate student of the Class of 1999 in the Chemical Engineering College, and Duan Jinhui (male), an undergraduate student of the Class of 1996 in the Physics College. In 1999, Duan Jinhui was suspended from school for a year because of his legal appeal for Falun Gong. Also among the four, Zhu Gaofeng (male), an undergraduate student of the Class of 1997 in Environmental Science College was suspended for a year from school in 1999 for legally appealing on behalf of Falun Gong.

On the afternoon of June 5, officers of Lanzhou University Security Division cooperated with vicious police from the Lanzhou City Public Security Bureau and raided the dorms of the four practitioners. All Dafa books were illegally confiscated and the students' freedom of belief and the security of their personal property were severely violated.

Besides these four students, many others at Lanzhou University who have appealed for Falun Dafa have also undergone harsh treatment. Liu Jianxin, an undergraduate student of the Class of 1997 in the Law Department, went to Beijing for the third time to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong before New Year's Day, 2001. He was illegally sent to a labor camp in Beijing, and is now imprisoned in Beijing's Tuanhe Labor Camp. Wang Yunbo, an undergraduate student of the Class of 1997 in the Business School and Chen Duoju, an undergraduate student of the Class of 1998 in the Mathematics Department, were illegally arrested in late March of 2001. The police transferred them to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center from the Qilihe Police Substation of Lanzhou City, where they remain in custody. The authorities of Lanzhou University have never looked into these matters.

While the university strictly controls the information mentioned above, authorities show no consideration for the students' lives and have shirked all responsibility to uphold justice. Hoping that the school would talk to the police and get the students back, a Ph.D. student and a teacher reported to the president of the university, Zheng Xiaojing, about the truth of Falun Dafa. For this, they were severely criticized by the department head and the officers at the Security Division. Moreover, in order to show his firm stance, President Zheng took all the letters and the truth-clarifying materials that had been delivered to him by a student, and turned them into the Security Division. As a result, this student was severely punished. Another student went to Captain Kang of the Security Division, in hopes that he would be sympathetic to the students' situation, and get the students back to the university. He was also severely criticized by the captain, and was told, "The students should be kept under 'democratic dictatorship.' We will 'fight to the end' against the students." [These were widely used phrases during the Cultural Revolution in 1960s -- translator's note]

Now, a message released by the school says that the four students who wrote the slogans are to be sentenced. Tan Xiaorong's husband, Zhang Qihu, a Ph.D. student from the Class of 1997 in the Mathematics Department, distributed Dafa truth-clarifying materials in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, where he had been working. He was illegally put into custody by Xuzhou Normal University for several months, and has since been sent to Yancheng Labor Camp of Jiangsu Province.

Please consider the practitioners of Lanzhou University who are suffering persecution. We hope more people with kind and righteous hearts will speak out against the human rights violations in Mainland China, and make a joint effort to stop the crimes committed by Jiang Zemin's political gang.