[Tianjin] Bring calamity to the country and the people: the Head of the municipal Party Committee in Tianjin demanded that all the local practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal around the National Day (Oct. 1, 2000) be put into labor camps
A reliable source reports that Zhang Lichang, the Head of Tianjin municipal Party Committee, had a meeting recently with Li Shenglin, the mayor of the city. In the meeting Zhang demanded that all Falun Gong practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal to the central government around the time of the National Day be put into labor camps, with no exceptions. Song Pinshun, deputy secretary and concurrently chief officer of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau, is in charge of the Falun Gong issue in Tianjin.
The attacks on Falun Gong in a magazine in Tianjin led to the incident at Zhongnanhai on April 25, 1999. Eager to keep their present rank, or to be promoted, some of the government officials in the Tianjin area have been aggressively helping Jiang Zemin persecute local Falun Gong practitioners.
[Mainland China] Chinese Internet police start action
After China's Central TV station (CCTV) broadcast stories about the Chinese Internet police through its special TV program "Focused Interview and Discussion" on Oct. 9, 1999, all contents not in compliance with the requirements of China's "Public Information Internet Security Policy" and "BBS Security Management Regulations" will be deleted from BBS and the message boards of China's major domestic internet server. All practitioners who try to reveal the truth of Falun Gong through China's domestic network, please take care.
[Beijing] Tuanhe labor camp in Beijing tortures Falun Gong practitioners by not allowing them to sleep
It has been well known that Tuanhe labor camp in Beijing tortures and "re-educates" Falun Gong practitioners by using electric shocks. Since last month, the scoundrels in the camp have employed harsher means -- preventing practitioners from falling asleep. They force the criminals detained in the camp to watch practitioners at night. Practitioners are allowed to sleep only one to two hours a day, and are still required to fulfill their quota of farm work. If they do their work slower than usual the following day, practitioners are not allowed to eat. Practitioners are often also assigned extra work to do at night. Even the criminals detained in the camp regard this as too inhuman and help with some of the extra work.
Some "well re-educated" practitioners were allowed to visit their families around the Mid-Autumn Festival. But officials on the labor camp were enraged when these practitioners returned because more than half of them said that they would continue to practice Falun Gong.
[Mainland China] 500 Dafa practitioners from Shengli Oil Field went to Beijing to safeguard Dafa during the National Day holidays
Close to 500 practitioners from Shengli Oil Field went to Beijing to safeguard Dafa during the National Day holidays. For so many Dafa practitioners to step forward from an area that has a relatively small population and number of practitioners was not easy. The majority of them were beaten, arrested on Tiananmen Square, and sent back under police escort. Since the detention center was already full, some of them were kept in custody at their own work place, while others were kept in temporary detention units. Efforts have been made to find out their current situation. Some of these practitioners are thought to be suffering from very severe abuse.
[Harbin] Practitioners from Harbin keep going to Beijing and clarifying the truth about Falun Gong
Recently, Falun Dafa practitioners from Harbin have persisted in going to Beijing to clarify the truth about Falun Gong and to reveal the fact that Jiang Zemin and his followers have seriously violated China's constitution. In order to expose how Jiang Zhemin and his kind oppressed Falun Gong practitioners, they put up posters in conspicuous places such as residential buildings, bus stations, shopping centers, office buildings, schools, and so on. Some people were shocked after reading the posters, saying that people's lives have been declining tremendously due to the widespread corruption among government officials, and yet Jiang Zemin was still trying to make their lives even harder. They wondered whether he might be insane. Some said that whoever slaughtered good people would be punished by the Gods, and that good would be rewarded with good, and evil with evil.
At present, some policemen in Harbin make the decision about whether to release practitioners or not based upon how much money can be collected. They threaten Dafa practitioners' families: no money, no freedom. Some of the family members said that they had already paid three times and couldn't even find any place to borrow money any more. One practitioner has been illegally kept in custody for six months just because he put up a banner with the words "Falun Dafa" and practiced the exercises in front of a department store for about 40 minutes, which attracted many people who stopped by to watch. Policemen told his family that the practitioner could be released if they paid 5,000 yuan (about $600, more than half a year's salary of a common worker in China). The son of the practitioner said that they couldn't afford this since his mother was unemployed and he himself had a salary of only 400 yuan (about $50) a month. The officer said: "you can pay 3,000 yuan if you can't afford 5,000. With no other choice, his son had to borrow 2,000 yuan from his employer (about 300 yuan has been deducted from his monthly salary so far for that sum), and bought back his father's freedom.
Since some practitioners were detained several times, their family members have paid police over 60,000 yuan (about $7500, about 9 years' salary of a common worker). We couldn't help asking: what law are such fines based on?
Some practitioners have already completed their one-year sentence, but haven't been released due to some new policies by higher-level government officials. Now in order to be released, practitioners must write a statement not only promising never to go to Beijing to appeal again, but also denouncing Falun Gong. Practitioners who refuse to write such a statement will be sentenced three more months to the labor camps, and that sentence will be automatically extended for another three months if the required statement is not received by the camp official at the end of the first three month period.
