Several days after the National Holiday, Beijing police resorted to even more devious and brutal measures to abuse and persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
In Tiananmen Square, plainclothes policemen and hired thugs were used to grab banners from practitioners' hands and then force them into police cars. The intent was to fool tourists into thinking that they could help the police by stopping other practitioners from practicing the exercises or unfurling banners. But once the practitioners were dragged into the police car, the police would immediately close the doors and draw the curtains so that the tourists could not see what was happening inside the car. The police would then violently beat the practitioners. Some practitioners who neither entered the square nor protested were still pushed into the cars and beaten. The police said, "We would rather arrest a thousand people by mistake than let one practitioner go free."
When the police tried to drive the arrested practitioners away one by one, the practitioners would join hands and say loudly: "We came as one, we leave as one." In order to split them up, five or six policemen with batons furiously beat the practitioners on their hands, shoulders, heads, and backs. The practitioners would tell them: "Don't hit people; you know you're violating the law!" This made the police even more furious. When one practitioner stepped out and spoke up, the police rushed over and beat his head relentlessly. This practitioner fell to the ground, and the police stamped down on his head with their boots.
The practitioners were driven away one group at a time. Later, groups of eight to ten were sent to different detention centers. In custody, the groups were split up again, one practitioner to a room. The guards would close the door and draw the curtain so that no one could see inside. Then they would begin to interrogate and beat the practitioner. The police would viciously beat with batons and electric rods any practitioner who refused to give his or her name or address.
Some policemen even used a special baton designed to injure specific places on the body and inflict internal injury. And many practitioners did incur internal injuries. Some were totally bruised and swollen, others had fractured hands or torn foot muscles. The police yelled viciously, "Want to come to Beijing again? Want to practice anymore?"
In everyone's presence, they cuffed one practitioner's thumbs to his toes, then hung him up wearing one thin layer of clothing. Next, they poured cold water all over his body and turned the air conditioner on full blast. When the practitioner was almost frozen stiff, they turned on the heater to blow hot air on him. In this way, back and forth, they tortured him repeatedly.
Worse still: six policemen stepped on a young unmarried woman's abdomen when she refused to give her name and address. They stepped so hard that it made her bleed from her vagina and her face turned pale. Then they threatened, "If you continue to keep silent, we'll strip you and rape you!"
Many practitioners were put into solitary confinement and allowed no communication with the outside world. Under these circumstances, the police tortured practitioners without restraint. How many practitioners have been beaten? How many practitioners have had their hands and feet fractured, or even been tortured to death? Some day, the full truth will be known.
Practitioners in China
Nov. 5, 2000
