Bearing Witness to History: World Falun Dafa Day at a Corner of Tiananmen Square

By a Dafa practitioner in Hebei

(Clearwisdom.net)

1. At a Corner in Tiananmen Square

   Just past noon on May 13, 2000, World Falun Dafa Day, I went to Tiananmen Square together with a young girl and a young boy. I had a red Dafa banner in my pocket. There were not many tourists at the Square, but there were numerous plainclothes, uniformed police and police vehicles. All of a sudden, several policemen ran hurriedly. The young girl called out excitedly, "Look! People practicing the Falun Gong exercises!" We saw about a dozen Dafa practitioners in a semicircle doing the "holding the wheel in front of the head" exercise movement close to Chang'an Street. The three of us then ran towards them. As we ran, we took out the banner with "Falun Dafa is good" on it and unfurled it. The girl and I each held one end and we shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Suddenly, our scroll was snatched away by some police. I turned around and saw several Dafa practitioners about one meter away unfurling a large yellow banner, which was about five meters long and one meter tall. Several uniformed and plainclothes police were trying to snatch the banner away. I quickly went there to help protect it. A female Dafa practitioner whom I had not met before and I held the banner tight, refusing to let it go. A police officer viciously was striking at her wrist with a baton ...

   On this day, at the square, there were two young practitioners, an 18-year-old girl from Shandong province and a boy who had also just turned eighteen. They walked about with their camera, taking pictures of each other, and at times of the magnificent feat of Dafa practitioners safeguarding Dafa. They went back and forth all day long, capturing an entire roll of Dafa practitioners validating Dafa and the vicious police brutality. Then they gave the film to other Dafa practitioners for them to bring back.

   With plainclothes, uniformed police and police vehicles abound on the streets of Beijing, a 40-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner and her daughter together, on rented bicycles, went and posted several dozen flyers about the truth of Dafa. They posted them in the areas where the most evil factors were likely to be, such as on trees and buildings by the Tiananmen Square, the appeals office, and other government departments. The mother and her daughter returned home safely.

   On the afternoon of May 13 alone, I saw as many as one hundred Dafa practitioners, who refused to give their names, illegally detained inside the iron cages in Beijing's Tiananmen Square sub-bureau. At the time, all of the detention centers in Beijing were full.

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2. Practicing the Falun Gong Exercises in the Forced Labor Camp

In the fall of 2000, I was illegally imprisoned in the fourth brigade in Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province. There were approximately 150 Dafa practitioners imprisoned in three brigades and 12 classes. The Dafa practitioners in this labor camp became one body and created the environment. We did not acknowledge the illegal re-education through labor; we refused the forced labor or to wear the forced labor camp's uniform. Later on, we were locked up in the observation room every day. The prison guard ordered the detainees to strictly monitor us. Dafa practitioners in all squadrons and classes communicated through secret channels and came to the decision to validate Dafa and practice Falun Gong exercises together at 2 p.m. in the open area in front of the building. On that day, we sat on our small stools as usual, quietly reciting Teacher's articles and studying Fa while lending an ear to activities downstairs. Suddenly, right before the appointed hour, we heard the sounds of the exercise verses downstairs. The sixteen Dafa practitioners in the room immediately stood up and went toward the door. Six to seven criminal overseers in the room quickly grabbed the Dafa practitioners running in the front. The overseers went all out, trying to drag them back into the room but Dafa practitioners spared no effort to get out. They were at an impasse. On the corridor outside, Dafa practitioners held tightly to the metal railing with both hands, refusing to be dragged back and called out, "Falun Dafa is good!"

The overseers went after the Dafa practitioners who ran out first. We took the opportunity to slip by them and went downstairs. We practiced the "holding the wheel in front of the head" when we got to the open area in front of the building. In no time, the overseer who monitored me grabbed me by the waist and attempted to drag me upstairs. At this time, there were still thirty to forty Dafa practitioners in the open area. Some of them were doing the "holding the wheel;" others were not able to stand still as they were being tackled by the overseers, but one of their hands still managed to "hold the wheel." Some Dafa practitioners were being pushed to the ground, and some were being dragged away. I was carried upstairs by a tall and sturdy criminal. In the corridor upstairs there were still Dafa practitioners holding tight to the railings in a continuous standoff with their overseers. Sounds of the practice verses continued to echo upstairs and downstairs ... .

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