Bearing Witness to History - My Experience on July 20, 1999

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 20, 1999, when Jiang and his followers launched the persecution of Falun Gong, I went to Fuyou Street in Beijing with another practitioner. When we passed Beihai Park, we saw sentries posted every several steps. After a while, we found the Falun Dafa practitioners who were going to appeal. The practitioners were lined up neatly on the sidewalk, but they did not affect the traffic even one bit. Some people stopped to look, some of them asked what was happening. Somebody said the police had arrested several busloads of practitioners and taken them somewhere. Shortly, many military policemen were ordered to come. They stood in front of us step by step and stared at us. The practitioners co-operated with each other: the young fellows stood on the first line holding hands; the practitioners on the second line grasped tightly the clothes of the first line's practitioners; all the lines were like this. After a while, the policemen started to pull the practitioners into waiting buses, and they beat the practitioners while pulling them, one by one. The buses were filled in no time. I was separated from the practitioner who had come with me. I still held her bag. Later, she told me that she was kicked and pulled into a bus. Many practitioners stood in the bus when it departed. The practitioners told the policemen the truth of Falun Dafa, but the police did not want to listen, and they would not allow the practitioners to talk. The police told the practitioners that they would beat anyone who spoke. The practitioners were carried into the Fengtai Stadium after a long, winding trip.

All Falun Dafa practitioners are like one family: We felt kindness towards each other although we did not know each other before. We shared our food. More than 2,000 practitioners in total were taken there. The policemen separated us into groups with one or two hundred practitioners in each. We were roasting under the hot sun in the stadium.

In the afternoon, it became cloudy. The sun looked like a moon, white with brilliance. Somebody shouted: Falun. Everyone looked up. A Falun was seen rotating in the sun, clockwise and counter-clockwise, constantly changing color. The kids jumped and skipped with happiness. After a while, our Master appeared inside the sun performing big hand signs which were very beautiful. We thought maybe that was Master eliminating the evil and encouraging his disciples. The policemen surrounding us were surprised that they couldn't see it. It suddenly began to rain, and quickly turned into a storm that grew more and more violent. The practitioners held umbrellas for each other, and many practitioners were soaked.

After the rain stopped, the policemen asked us to enter the room, and asked our names and addresses. Nobody answered but only clarified the truth. The policemen finally dragged the practitioners to the buses and beat them.

The whole group of practitioners cooperated together. The police could not arrest a single practitioner. When they pushed a practitioner into the buses, other practitioners all blocked the road to stop them from leaving. As a result, they had to release the practitioner. Some practitioners jumped out from the window of the bus. Later, many more policemen were dispatched. It became darker and darker, and the police shouted through the loudspeaker non-stop, ordering practitioners to go to different places according to the district, city or province they came from. Nevertheless, not one practitioner moved. Somebody shouted: "Falun Dafa practitioners have not done anything wrong!" Then the policemen started dragging the practitioners to the bus insanely. They took the young guys away first. The practitioners refused, but the police continued to beat and pull them to the bus. Some practitioners jumped out from the window of the bus. It took the police quite a while to fill one busload of practitioners and drive the bus away. We were in the last bus; the policemen kicked and pulled us to the bus. Many shoes and bags were left behind in the stadium.

We were taken to the Shijingshan Stadium. Some practitioners kept on clarifying the truth to the police non-stop that we are good people, and asked them why they were kicking and beating us, but the policemen didn't admit to it. There were also some practitioners who got off at the Stadium and went back to Fuyou Street, but then they were arrested again. We were driven to Haidian District's Yongfeng Police Station to be registered. All the Beijing practitioners were sent back, and only those of us who came from out of town were driven back to the Fengtai Stadium. It was 2:00 am when we arrived in the stadium. There were many practitioners detained in the stadium who all came from different provinces and cities. We were later sent to a bus bound for Hebei Province. We departed in the very early morning, with our next stop being Baoding City. There was very little traffic on the way. Later, we heard that the police had stopped traffic.

When we arrived in Baoding, there were many practitioners there. After we were registered, we went to the toilet. There was a corn field there. Four female practitioners and I jumped over the wall and tried to get away. I entered the corn field alone, and they walked on the road. Later I heard the sound of motorcycles. I was not sure if the four practitioners were chased. I got out of the corn field, jumped over a wall, and then with great difficulty walked on the road from the paddy field, with so much mud on my pants and many bloody traces on my legs. I wanted to ask someone coming from the paddy field for directions, but I found he had also just escaped from the police's custody. So we walked together on the road, and finally arrived at the train station.

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