An Eyewitness Account of Falun Dafa Practitioners' Appeal in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province on July 21-22, 1999

By a Practitioner from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province

(Clearwisdom.net) At 3 a.m. on July 21, 1999, several Dafa practitioners from our practice site were illegally arrested in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. When other local practitioners learned of the news on the morning of the same day, they went one after another at the Provincial Government Building Appeal Office to appeal, and they demanded the immediate release of the Dafa practitioners. More and more practitioners arrived, yet they all stood in an orderly way along the two pedestrian sidewalks beside the Provincial Government Building. Around 2 p.m., the Dafa practitioner representatives were led into the reception room inside of the building, where they were secretly abducted and taken away through the back door. The Dafa practitioners at the front door were driven away around 6 p.m.

Early the next morning, practitioners returned to the front of the Provincial Government Building to appeal once again. Even before 10 a.m., all three intersections in front of the Provincial Government Building were placed under martial law, so many practitioners were stopped outside. Gradually, many military police gathered in front of the government building. There was also a photographer taking pictures of the practitioners, so the young practitioners took the initiative to move to the front rows. The many practitioners lined up neat and orderly made for a grand yet solemn sight.

Soon afterwards, a man with a loudspeaker began shouting at the practitioners, ordering them to leave the location within a given period of time. Not a single practitioner left after his announcement, and everyone continued to stand firmly. The man continued his shouting, but just as he began to speak, the loudspeaker malfunctioned. It would never work again despite their attempts to fix it.

There was immediately thunderous applause from the Dafa practitioners, who then looked up at the sun to their left. The sun had changed into a big colorful Falun! Many practitioners were so touched that their tears gushed down freely; for some practitioners, this was their first glimpse of the Falun.

Later, many public buses arrived, and the military police forcibly pushed practitioners into the buses. All the Dafa practitioners were taken to Qilihe Stadium in Lanzhou City, and later they were taken away according to the different districts of Lanzhou City in which they resided.

Dafa Practitioners from Qilihe District were taken to Anxi Road Primary School, where all the practitioners refused to sign their names on the record. After the Dafa practitioners entered the classroom, a person started photographing them individually. A man then came into the classroom and tried to interrogate the practitioners, "You are appealing with the excuse that your people have been arrested. Who has been arrested?" A female practitioner stood up and replied, "My husband was arrested. I was there at the time." The man was speechless and left with his head down.

The practitioners then began to recite "Lunyu" (1) together; their voices were loud and clear. They also read together "Dafa Will Forever Be Pure Like Diamond", "Cultivation Practice is Not Political", and other articles [from Essentials For Further Advancement.]

Around 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the Dafa practitioners were locked in the classroom and forced to watch TV programs assaulting and slandering both Teacher and Dafa. The practitioners could not bear to watch these vicious, distorted and stigmatizing TV programs. They wanted to leave, but there were people guarding and blocking the door. After the conclusion of the TV programs, the unlawful people insisted that the practitioners provide signatures before leaving. The Dafa practitioners still refused firmly. At last, they had no choice but to allow all the practitioners to leave. However, a few practitioners were later arrested and detained at Yangjiaqiao Detention Center.

(1) "Lunyu": the preface of the book Zhuan Falun.

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