The Persecution in Beijing's Huairou Detention Centre

By a Falun Dafa Practitioner in China

In December 2001, four practitioners and I went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. Under the national flag in Tiananmen Square and in the face of police brutality, we unfurled banners and shouted statements to appeal against the wrongful treatment of Falun Dafa practitioners.

On December 12, over fifty of us were sent in a bus to the Huairou Detention Centre. All the way down the road, we shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is righteous!" When the police beat us, we shouted together out the windows, "Stop beating people!" Then the police went to close the windows. This caused many passers-by to peer into the bus. Some of the policemen knew that Falun Dafa practitioners were innocent, so they did not interfere. Upon seeing their reactions, the other policemen also stopped attacking us. We could see the power of people’s sense of justice.

The voice of "Falun Dafa is good" echoed in the sky over the city of Beijing. We did not stop shouting until the bus was out of the metropolitan area. Many practitioners' throats were hoarse, and the policemen were moved by our words and actions.

At about 9 p.m., we arrived at the Huairou Detention Centre. I was assigned to Cell 26. It was the middle of winter, and the cell was freezing cold. There was no bedding, toothbrush or soap, not even toilet paper. The window high up on the wall did not have glass - only a piece of damaged mesh cover. When the wind blew in, it brought a piercing cold, which was difficult to bear for practitioners from the south wearing thin clothes. We were unable to go to sleep that night.

Once a female practitioner from Henan Province had her menstrual period and asked the guard for a piece of toilet paper, but the guard turned down her request. As a result, the practitioner's pants became soaked. We realised that this was not something we should passively tolerate and protested together. The police then took us outside the cell. They forced us to stand for a long period of time with our heads touching our legs and hands placed behind the back. Noticing that another practitioner and I were wearing overcoats, they came over and pulled them off. Quite a few practitioners lost consciousness from the severe torture.

Practitioners from more and more cells began hunger strikes to demand their release and to be declared free of wrongdoing. The police paid no attention to the Falun Dafa practitioners' physical condition and used all means to coerce them into disclosing their names and home addresses. On the fourth day of my detention, the police split up the Falun Dafa practitioners in Cell 25 because they went on a hunger strike together. Four of them were sent to our cell, and they said that they had been on hunger strike for 8 days. From then on, we also started a hunger strike in protest. Due to the extended period in which they did not eat, the practitioners became extremely weak. In addition, the piercing, cold wind and their thin clothes gave them an even more difficult time. When I was sent back to my hometown, they had been on hunger strike for ten days. I do not know anything about their current situation.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/2/4/18393.html