Bearing Witness to History: Experiencing July 20, 1999

On July 19, 1999, police arrested the people in charge of the original Falun Dafa Association in all areas of China concurrently. Facing this persecution, and with trust in the central government, on July 20, we appealed at the Appeals Office of the central government and State Council to express our desire to have these people released. At that time, the situation was very grave. We didn't know the consequences for appealing in person, but honor permitted no turning back. We stepped forward in order to let people know the truth. We wanted to verify that Falun Dafa is good with our own personal actions.

After we arrived at the Appeals Office, they first let us send in representatives to negotiate. We divided ourselves into several groups. Once representatives in the first group were arrested, then other groups would continue the appealing effort. We just had one purpose, which was to clarify the truth to the central government, to let leaders of the central government be able to hear and learn the truth of Falun Dafa and to stop the persecution of Falun Dafa and Falun Dafa practitioners. Other Falun Dafa practitioners quietly stood outside and waited on both pedestrian sidewalks of the road. Young male practitioners stood in the front to protect the elderly and female practitioners behind them in case anything happened.

In fact, the Appeals Office never had any inclination to listen to Falun Dafa practitioners' opinions or suggestions. Asking for representatives was just to buy more time. In the end, nobody was allowed to enter the office to express their opinion. After a while, a motorcade with a police car in front passed by. Somebody recognized that it was Li Lanqing's car (he has become the head of the 610 Office during the persecution of Falun Gong). Then after some more time passed, large numbers of regular police and armed police continuously arrived. At first they just watched the appealing practitioners. Then, lots of large buses arrived and armed police separated practitioners into groups. The police started to arrest practitioners and put them onto the buses under the supervision of the armed police. Practitioners held each other's arms to resist the arrest. The police then started to beat practitioners regardless of whether they were men, women, seniors or children. A practitioner near us was beaten and lay on the ground, his face covered in blood. Some police took off their leather belts to beat practitioners; some dragged practitioners by their clothes and hair to the buses; some twisted practitioners' arms; others held their neck to drag them to the buses. Some armed soldiers with compassionate thoughts could not bear the scene and turned around to cry. Despite the police brutality, practitioners shouted, "Police, stop beating us", "Comply with the Constitution", "Release the practitioners!" to stop their vicious conduct.

The appealing practitioners were forcibly taken to Fengtai Sports Stadium. There may have been several thousand spread around the stadium. After we arrived at the stadium, many police, armed police and city-protection team members also came to record information of the practitioners one by one. The sky was grey and dark. Practitioners sat close together in circles; some were practicing the 5th exercise while others were resting. Later it started to rain. The practitioners who brought umbrellas gave them to others, leaving themselves in the rain. The scene was very touching. The police, armed police and city-protection team members were also watching with admiration.

Gradually it stopped raining. Suddenly some people shouted, "See, the Falun!" All practitioners followed the voice and looked up to see Falun appearing intermittently in the sky; many people saw this magnificent scene. All Falun Gong practitioners started to applaud warmly. Later police requested practitioners to gather together according to the district and county they were registered in. No one cooperated with them. The police again used violence. All again started to shout together "police stop the beating", "comply with the Constitution", "release the practitioners!"

On the morning of July 20, there were fake articles of Teacher circulating around, even around the Appeals Office. There were more and more fake articles after we arrived at Fengtai Stadium. At that time, all of us didn't know they were false and all believed them and passed them around to read. Later we gradually discovered that it was the evil 610 Office that took advantage of practitioners' pure and compassionate minds and intentionally fabricated these articles in order to stir up something.

Around evening, police, armed police and city-protection team members separated the practitioners into small groups and had armed police watch every group. Then, big buses drove into the stadium. They wanted to send the practitioners to different places to deal with them. Because we didn't cooperate with them when they tried to load us into the buses for the third time, police used violence on the appealing practitioners. Several police carried one practitioner to the bus; or dragged practitioners by the hair along the muddy ground to the buses or dragged practitioners' by their clothing to the buses or twisted their arms to push them into the bus. The brutal police didn't treat practitioners as humans. Practitioners both in the buses and on the ground again shouted, "Police, stop the beatings", "Comply with the Constitution", "Release the practitioners!"

The buses drove away once they were fully loaded. Practitioners on the ground held each other's arms and formed a human wall in front of the buses. A male practitioner lay on the ground in front of the bus to keep the bus from driving away. Police, armed police and city-protection team members adopted fiercer brutality to beat practitioners.

Among the first several buses, some took the practitioners to remote suburbs and left them there. Some sent them to a district or county police station to register and then were released and others were released on the way to nowhere. The last group included about 7 or 8 buses of practitioners that were sent to Daxing County Detention Center. Every one of the buses was so full that it was hard to turn your body around. Every bus had plain-clothes police. They always tried to covertly gather information about practitioners. After we arrived at the detention center, they detained practitioners within the buses for almost the whole night; no one was allowed to use a bathroom. The next morning, they registered all practitioners one by one and then asked various district and county police stations to pick them up. The practitioners were registered again at the district or county police station. Afterwards, ordinary practitioners were allowed to go home. Those that were on their blacklist were directly sent from the police station to the detention center, including several practitioners that we knew.