Nationally Recognized Firefighting Hero Suffers Persecution for Belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance"

Mr. Dai Dakui, 64, is a retired worker from Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Drilling Team. He lives in Yongchuan City, Chongqing, China.

Mr. Dai is honest and kind, and is glad to help others. People who know him say he is a good person. In 1965, he changed careers from the army to the Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Drilling Team. In 1966, while extinguishing a very large oil well fire, he became a nationally recognized hero. He was the first out of twenty-seven brave men to plunge into a sea of fire. Mr. Dai did a great job. During the time from 1987 to 1996, he succeeded in developing a new advanced method of sewage treatment. In May 1988, he was awarded the title of "Advanced Individual in Environmental Protection" in the southern Sichuan provincial mining area. In August 1990 and March 1991, he received separate awards for environmental protection. In April 1996, he was evaluated as a high-level technician. He was also honoured as an activist in trade union work. Because Mr. Dai made a remarkable contribution to his country and society, the Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Administrative Bureau awarded him the honorable title: "An Elder Petroleum."

As a result of working in oil fields for many years, Mr. Dai had chronic nephritis, bursitis in his shoulders, rheumatism, and his vision had declined greatly. He started practising Falun Gong and cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and in a matter of months he recovered from all these ailments that had troubled him for years.

On July 20, 1999, out of jealousy and spite over Falun Gong's popularity and rapid spread in society, Jiang Zemin began to suppress the practice. Mr. Dai and his wife were harassed by local corrupt officials and were illegally arrested various times.

On January 23, 2001, in a focal point interview program, CCTV (Chinese Central Television) broadcast the "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square." That incident roused a wave of animosity toward Falun Gong practitioners in China. At around that time, Mr. Dai was illegally arrested and sent to a local brainwashing class where he suffered from hideous physical and spiritual persecution. When he saw on television that the alleged burn victims from Tiananmen Square were completely wrapped up in bandages, he said, "This is fake. When people in our petroleum team were burned, their wounds were exposed to the air and treated with external medicine in order to prevent viral infections. When do you ever see burn victims completely wrapped in bandages?" Mr. Dai's words shocked everyone in the brainwashing class. Many sensible people understood what he said was reasonable. The so-called "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square" was truly full of loopholes. After hearing this, the wicked people in the brainwashing class felt extremely flustered, and were beside themselves. They reacted by forcibly and illegally imprisoning Mr. Dai for 15 days for the crime of "disturbing social order."

In September 2002, Mr. Dai and his wife travelled to Tongzi, Guizhou Province. When they returned, both of them were illegally held in a detention centre by local officials and police for 15 days. In addition, these scoundrels extorted four months salary (6,329 Yuan) in "fines" from them. The charge against them was "travelling out of town without asking for leave." Does a retired worker travelling under his own expense have to ask for leave?

At the end of 2001, Mr. Dai unfolded a banner with the words "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" written on it in order to express his own true motivation for practising Falun Gong, and rebutting Jiang's propaganda that Falun Gong was against the government. In June 2003, he was illegally arrested and detained once again. In December 2003, when the court held a public hearing for Mr. Dai, the court withdrew the charges against him because of insufficient legal evidence. However, the corrupt local officials were not willing to release him. In June 2004, these scoundrels created fake evidence, and the local court used it as an excuse to sentence him to five years in prison.

Since Jiang's regime began persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Mr. Dai was illegally sent to a brainwashing class five times. There, he was persecuted physically and spiritually. He was illegally arrested and detained three times, and twice put in jail. In total, police and local government officials extorted 14,529 Yuan from him and his wife.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/27/80431.html