Upon learning of the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners by Jiang Zemin's regime, the mayor of Biedermannsdorf was shocked and expressed support for the Falun Dafa Photo Exhibition. He also volunteered to arrange the exhibition location. The local government also sent invitations to every citizen of the city. The mayor also presided at the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition. In his opening speech, he said that he was sorry for the brutal crackdown of Falun Gong. He also appealed that the Western countries should take affirmative action to stop the Chinese government's cruelty. He is fully supportive of the exercise that promotes truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

I would like to take this opportunity to voice my concerns to you regarding the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang Zemin's regime. Jiang Zemin has ordered a scheme to "defame Falun gong practitioners' reputations, break them financially, and destroy them physically." In the past two years, Jiang's regime has systematically carried out a vicious and brutal nationwide campaign of terrorism against Falun Gong practitioners.

I am writing you today to urge you in taking a stance towards the Chinese authorities; letting them know they must stop persecuting Falun Gong, and to release all the practitioners from incarceration immediately. This behavior by the Chinese authorities is clearly unacceptable and something must be done to stop the persecution of these innocent people immediately. We have a responsibility, as a nation of peace, to stand up for individual rights, such as the right to practice Falun Gong.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

xxx xxx, MP
(name omitted to avoid Chinese embassy's interference)

On Sunday, 22^nd of July there was a three minute news story on prime time on the main television channel in Iceland:

• Announced Falun Gong's arrival in Iceland
• Reported latest news from Tiananmen Square
• Pictures from China before and after the ban. The anchor explained a little about the last two years of suppression, referring to Amnesty International.
• Announced the Falun Gong courses in Iceland -- their time, location, and that everyone is welcome.
• Interview with a practitioner clarifying the truth in several aspects, and launching the "SOS! Urgent Appeal."
• The reporter's final words: "It can seem strange that the Chinese Government is persecuting people who want to practice outdoors -- and have truth, compassion and tolerance as their cornerstones -- but [party's name omitted] governments are known to be hysteric, and if three people gather without being in the name of the Party they feel threatened."

To our great surprise, the practitioner was given a written feedback on the interview from an Icelander. The note read: "With a good sense of humour the practitioner's honesty and charm shone through. So Falun Gong won people's hearts."

Later on in the week when speaking to the reporter again, he said that their phone had been ringing incessantly with calls from people who wanted to know more about Falun Gong. Due to this great interest, a special introduction was planned for the two days that the practitioner would get help from three practitioners doing a stop-over in Iceland on their way back from Washington, D.C. to Europe. It was also arranged so that the reporter would come and film the four practitioners doing the exercises to announce the special introduction of Falun Gong exercises. The practitioners were also interviewed.

On the 28^th of July one of the leading newspapers ran an overwhelmingly positive story on Falun Gong. The reporter had been doing preparations for several days, resulting in more than one and a half pages, including nine colour pictures -- one from Tiananmen Square, three from Dafa activities across the world, and five with the practitioner displaying the five exercises. The good coverage included a big column of Falun Gong Facts, an interview with Amnesty International about Falun Gong, and an interview with the practitioner about the situation in China.

One of the things brought up was the vicious arrests and killings of innocent practitioners and the absurdity of then having the gall to call it suicide, not to mention the absurdity of even regarding Falun Gong as a threat in the first place. It is explained that Falun Gong practitioners would never take life, neither their own nor others'. The article explained the peaceful approach Falun Gong practitioners have maintained during these two years of suppression. The article also explained a bit about what Falun Gong is and announced that everyone was welcome to the introduction classes in the park.

The article seemed to have made a good impression on the readers because on the day it was published, 29 new beginners came to the practice site. Luckily there were three more practitioners here by then to help.

The following day the other leading newspaper published an article with this article as a source. They also kindly announced our introduction course.

At the end of the stay in Iceland, when the practitioner no longer had time to contact the media due to other activities, they themselves tracked the practitioner down to ask for interviews and photo sessions. The practitioner was even asked by the chief editor to write an article for a magazine aiming to inspire people to practice Falun Gong.

The media on Iceland was very friendly and supportive. With thanks to them a large number of people came to our practice site, and even more read and heard about Falun Gong and the atrocities towards the Falun Gong practitioners in China. During the entire stay in Iceland, not a penny was put into advertising in newspapers or TV. The media was kind enough to announce the Falun Gong activities on their own initiative. During the last introduction course, 49 people came, much thanks to the Icelandic media.

Sherrill Bey is the hostess of the popular talk show "The Sherrill Bey Show" of TV Stations Channel 19, 21, 25, and 36 in the Chicago area. On the fourth day of the Chicago hunger strike, she came to the Chinese Consulate after having heard about the hunger strikes and was very angry about the brutal crackdown of Falun Gong. She said her program has over one million viewers and will have an even stronger impact than a hunger strike so she planned an hour interview for the next day. The evil force set many obstructions trying to sabotage this event. Practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. The program was a huge success. Sherrill Bey told in the program what is happening in China. She called on the people of Chicago to stand up and condemn the inhuman persecution of Falun Gong and support Dafa practitioners. She also went on the street to collect signatures like a practitioner.

Throsby MP Colin Hollis has pledged to try to help a young Dapto woman free her mother serving three years in a Chinese labour camp for distributing flyers about a spiritual movement.

Mr. Hollis and his staff also will ask Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock for advice on whether the woman can apply for refugee status and move to Australia.

Mr. Hollis believes the woman could qualify for refugee status because she is a member of a spiritual group, the Falun Gong, which is being persecuted by the Chinese Government.

Esther Wang already has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer in a desperate effort to have her 56-Year-old mother released from the camp she shares with 10,000 prisoners including "thugs and hardened criminals."

Ms. Wang, who arrived in Australia in 1995 to marry her Australian fiance Bill and is now an Australian citizen, claimed this week her sister in China was allowed initial contact with their mother but that has now been denied.

Ms. Wang said she and her mother practised Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong - a spiritual movement which teaches meditation, truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance but it was banned in China in July 1999.

Thousands of people in China have been arrested for practising Falun Dafa and millions of books, audio tapes and videotapes have been confiscated and burnt.

Ms. Wang's mother was arrested outside her home in July last year for allegedly distributing Falun Dafa leaflets.

After meeting Ms. Wang on Friday at his office, Mr Hollis promised to try to help Ms. Wang have her mother released and brought to Australia.

"I still have a bit of hope," Ms Wang said later.

September 2001

Ding Yan, female, 32, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Ding Yan, female, 32 years old, from Shijiazhuang City, was illegally arrested for her participation in the Guangzhou City Falun Dafa Conference in 1999. She was later illegally sentenced to 4 years in prison. She was held in a whole string of prisons: the Women's Section of the Shijiazhuang City Second Prison, the Women's Section of the Baoding City Taihang Prison, and the Women's Team of the Chengde City Prison 5^th Section in Hebei Province respectively.

In Chengde City Prison, malicious prison guards created a water compartment (cell) within the prison and used all sorts of devious ways to torture practitioners. Ms. Ding Yan was the one who was tortured to death a few months after she was transferred to this prison. Her ashes were sent to her home in Shijiazhuang City. Her parents protested the cruel torture by refusing to accept Ms. Ding Yan's ashes.

It is also reported that the Baoding City Taihang Prison imprisons many Dafa practitioners. The well-known Ms. Ding Yan was once held in the prison. Ms. Ding held firmly against all evil forces and refused their requests. Her rock-solid belief in Dafa made all the vicious beings tremble. Prison guards had many secret meetings to plan how to persecute Ms. Ding Yan. Her family did not even know where she was at that time.

Baoding City Taihang Prison Location: 5 kilometers south of Baoding City, Mancheng County. Tel: 011-86-312-716-9999.

Ms. Ding's article "Let Life Glorify in the Fa Rectification" (please see below) has encouraged many Dafa practitioners in stepping forward to verify Dafa. Ms. Ding Yan lived up to her holy vows--for Dafa and all beings, she devoted all. Her great life for the Fa rectification will shine forever throughout the whole universe.

Let all our Dafa practitioners send forth our righteous thoughts after reading this note: completely eliminate all evil forces that persecute Dafa; Dafa encompasses everything and leaves out nothing, "The Fa rectifies the Cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated," let all evil in this human world that persecutes Dafa practitioners get immediate retribution in this lifetime.

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Cultivation Experience: Let Life Glorify in the Fa Rectification

Ding Yan

My name is Ding Yan. I'm a 31 year old hairdresser from Shi Jia Zhuang City, Hebei Province.

Since April 25th and July 20th, I have participated in the continuous efforts to protect and to honor the Dafa. What I enjoy the most is to listen to other practitioners' cultivation stories, many of which are very moving. Today, I'd like to share mine with you.

On the afternoon of October 15th, Qiu Liying from Shi Jia Zhuang Oil Refinery called to inform me that the Dafa practitioners in our Oil Refinery were under surveillance. Authorities had received an internal notice, labeling Dafa as a "cult", and had begun to take action against practitioners. Even practicing at home had become a violation.

Upon receiving this information, my very first thought was to inform other practitioners as soon as possible and go to Beijing right away, instead of waiting for the public announcement. We needed to step forward and protect the Dafa. I left for Beijing that night. After watching the national flag raising ceremony, on the morning of October 17th, I made my stand at Tiananmen Square.

My heart was full of joy when I looked at the splendid rising sun, and knew this was "returning home". Suddenly, I was enlightened to one of the principles of the Fa, and I told a practitioner next to me, "Actually, I feel it's no longer important how high I might ever cultivate. My Life has become meaningful simply because I am linked to the Fa rectification."

I met many practitioners from Shi Jia Zhuang City around Tiananmen Square that day. We sat down in a circle at the Square together. One of the armed policemen came over and asked, "Are you Falun Gong Practitioners?" We all said, "Yes." So he called for a police van with his walkie-talkie and told us to wait. At that moment, some practitioners from other places had seen us and came over to join our circle. When the police came with the van, they loaded us all on. As the van was leaving, two more practitioners called out, "Wait a second! We are Dafa practitioners too." But the van drove away without them and took us to the Tiananmen District Police Station.

Nearly 200 practitioners were detained there that morning. Among them was a 75 year old woman from Sichuan. The policeman asked her, "You are so old. Why did you still come here?" The old woman replied, "I used to have many diseases which have all been cured. How could I not come? Look at how strong I am now. Dafa is great!" The policeman then asked her, "So where did you come from?" The old woman pointed her finger to the sky and said, "From the universe." There was also a 15 year old boy. The policeman tried to get some kind of statement from him so he asked, "You are so young. Why did you come as well? Are you here to protect the Fa too?" The boy grinned and said, "Of course!" "Does that mean you quit school?" The boy replied with perfect assurance, "Yes!" There were also couples with babies that were only a few months old. All morning long, more and more practitioners kept arriving at the Police Station.

Around noontime, the police told us, "Everyone will have a mug shot taken(similar to those taken of criminal suspects for the police records) and pay the 30 Yuan fee." They hoped that we would cooperate. But many of the practitioners refused to have their pictures taken, so the police forced them to cooperate. When it was my turn, I told them that I refused to have my mug shot taken and also refused to pay the fee. But he took the mug shot anyway. I told him, "I know what you are doing is morally wrong. If I cooperate, then I'm helping the tyrant to do evil." I had the money in my hands but I would not give it to him. I didn't think he would dare to rob me, and could tell that he knew snatching money from my hands would be considered an indecent act. He still had a conscience. To awaken his conscience, I wanted to build a sharp moral contrast between what he knew was the right thing to do and what he had been expected to do, when the other police would, forcefully grab the money from my hands. He moved his hands toward it, but eventually retreated. Later, he called me into his office privately, and snatched the money anyway. At that moment, I realized that the predestined part of our relationship was over. Because appealing will always result in repatriation(back to one's home town), and talking to an appealing official was not permitted, we just headed straight to Tiananmen Square. We wouldn't say where we came from, nor what our names were, to avoid being repatriated. The police were furious. One of them stood on top of a table and yelled, "We treat you as human beings, but you don't even treat yourselves as human beings. We let you go home but you don't want to go home." This obvious hint pointed directly into my heart. Later, they took about a dozen of us who had refused to reveal where we came from into the corridor. They pushed us onto the ground and handcuffed us with one hand back over the shoulder and the other up from the back. They stepped on our backs and pulled the handcuffs, swinging them back and forth, right and left. Some practitioners moaned in pain. They unscrupulously tortured us right there in the corridor, in plain view of the public. It would make one's tremble to hear the painful moans. I didn't utter a sound. At times, I couldn't even breathe due to the severe pain. They pinched my philtrum (an acupuncture point between upper lip and nose, often stimulated to cause severe pain to awaken a person in coma -- translator ) and slapped my face. When I was conscious, I thought about Yue Fei: his awe-inspiring righteousness, his loyal heart, his suffering of both mind and body, and his endurance in the Feng Buo Pavilion. An incomparable joy and solemnity ascended from my heart. Only a practitioner could understand this state of my mind. I knew that I was on my way, returning home.

When they found that none of the torture had served any purpose on me, they changed my handcuffs to a pair of copper ones and repeatedly asked me whether I was going to tell them what they wanted to know. Their filthy language was disgusting. They also told me that after a while, the skin necrosis would cause my hands to be crippled. However, I never allowed any wicked thoughts to come into my mind. I heard a practitioner from Chengde next to me telling the police, "I don't hate you! If this can help remove any resentment you may have toward Falun Dafa, and I am willing to endure [the torture]."

Almost three hours later, they took off my handcuffs, fearing that my hands might be crippled. They tried to persuade me, asking, "Why would you like to suffer like this? Why don't you just tell us? You're the only one left." As they attempted to persuade us, two guards found that my hands were ice cold, so they started to massage my hands. But my hands remained cold, so they massaged them for a long time. I saw tears sparkling in their eyes. I had discovered benevolence in their hearts, so I told them, "Thank you. Thank you very much. I don't believe what I have done is not enough to touch your heart. How can you treat so many good people like this? I will tell you with my life that Falun Dafa is great! By all means you should remember this. You must keep the benevolence in your hearts and never lose it. Throughout history, human beings have built temples to worship Buddhas and to entreat Buddhas. But who is Buddha? You should never miss this opportunity. What I am saying is for your own good!" Then two more policemen came. I also told them, "You have met so many Dafa practitioners. This is your good fortune. You have confiscated so many Dafa books. Why haven't you bothered to take a look to see what is inside?" One of the policemen said, "I have read the Zhuan Falun three times already and know you are all good people. I believe that doing good deeds is met with good rewards, and being evil is met with evil returns. I also told my son that he couldn't bully others. I am not like those who hit or curse other people. I don't want to be here. They are short of hands so they transferred me here. I am from ..." Thus we talked a lot about the Fa. My heart was full of joy because I knew that all the suffering I had endured had not been wasted. I protect the Fa with my life. I wanted to fulfill my promises. I had settled my previous accounts and awakened the benevolent conscience with Dafa. Before my release, they gave me two books. One was Essentials for Further Advancement. The other was Zhuan Falun. As I felt joyous at getting the books, one practitioner told me that this was a reward for my having passed another test.

I realize that each test along our cultivation path is designed for our improvement. Each test is a stepping-stone. Cultivation is a very serious matter. When I had regained my consciousness for the last time, I felt that I might not be able to bear it, should they torture me again. I thought about death, and about smashing my head against the wall. But then later, I strengthened my already determined mind and told myself that I shouldn't make such a grave decision casually. My heart was full of indescribable joy as I looked upon death as going home. As soon as this thought came to me, the police took off my handcuffs. Several practitioners had been asked to persuade me to cooperate. They asked me this or that. They said that the policemen worked very hard all day long. It was already 7 or 8 o'clock but they still couldn't go home. They asked me to have mercy on them. One of the practitioners said, "Can't you see how good the policemen are? They worked hard all day but are still trying to convince you." I quickly realized that this was yet another test. I knew that what they were protecting were just ordinary people, and not the Fa. It would be a great omission for me to not have had a clear understanding based upon Fa, and tears began to run down my cheeks when I saw these practitioners failing that understanding. I pronounced, one word at a time, "What is benevolence? To let them know the greatness of Fa would be the ultimate benevolence. How can you call this benevolence if I watch them do bad things and, to make matters worse, assist and cooperate with them? You need to clearly understand this. This is fundamental. Our practitioners have advanced, wave upon wave, to appeal. If this has failed to touch them, then we ought to validate the Fa with our lives. Such a vast Fa has come to the earth. It would be humanities' disgrace if we could not find an appropriate position for the Fa. Master has said that there has to be a level of Fa for humanity. It will not do without it. If humanity refuses to recognize the Fa, then how can this level of humanity continue to exist?"

I heard a practitioner say that the Fa would be rectified by Master, who may return some day. Another practitioner quickly responded, "Once we understand the principles of the Fa, and we still have our flesh bodies, then we are the guardians of the Fa at this level. Even though I may have reached consummation, as long as I still have the flesh body, I will protect the Fa." Another practitioner spoke with the force of justice, "Do you still want Master to come back and to endure the suffering? How can you ask Master's feet to step on this filthy land? You have to get rid of that evil thought right now. Even if I were a deity at some level today, I would still come down, not fearing to be an ordinary human being, just so I could stand in front of Master to protect the Fa."

Hearing these words, I couldn't help but burst into tears. A firm, solemn, sacred and righteous feeling arose from my heart.

Looking back, I have found the meanings of the Fa that I had awakened to at Tiananmen Square have risen to a higher level. In fact, it is because I am assimilated with the Fa. In honoring the Fa and protecting the Fa, I have been carried to a very, very high level in the Fa rectification. Master has told us to cultivate to attain the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. I feel that it is no longer important as to whatever high level I could ever cultivate to. My life has become meaningful simply because I am linked to the Fa rectification.

(Clearwisdom.net) This is a belated lament, because I lost my mother two weeks ago. But I believe she wouldn't blame me, and she would be more than happy to see that I can "become more rational and more clearheaded, and, with determination and maturation in cultivation, move towards magnificent Consummation" (Teacher's article: Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts) in Dafa cultivation.

The history that my mother has created with her life encourages me to go more solidly along the path to assist Teacher in Fa rectification, and not to disappoint Teacher in his mercy and salvation. As a daughter, I deeply cherish the memory of my mother. As a fellow practitioner, I am proud to have had such a great and magnificent mother, because she has fulfilled her vows, made in the pre-historical period, with her life to validate the Fa [the universal principles], to clarify the truth, and to save people. Mother has given up her body in the human world, but she has obtained her immortal life.

Recalling my own cultivation way, almost every step is closely related to my mother's. It was our great and merciful Teacher not wanting to lose any of the practitioners who have a pre-destined relationship to obtain the Fa. I have entered the gate of cultivation with mother's help, and have gradually followed the Fa rectification process with mother's reminders and encouragement. Today, my mother has awakened me with her life, to remove human thoughts and genuinely break away from humanness. All of it is with Teacher's diligent attention to us. Superficially we are mother and daughter in the human world, but actually we must have been linked to each other for many lifetimes in order to advance together along the way of assisting Teacher in Fa rectification today.

Mother was a high-ranking intellectual. Before she obtained the Fa, she had an un-bending character, always set on winning and unwilling to admit defeat. Also, because of this, she had committed a lot of karma, which in turn made her disappointed with her work and her life. Her health condition had become worse and worse, and gradually she lost her pure smile as well as patience with life.

One day in 1995, a significant change occurred in mom's life - she obtained the cosmic treasure, Falun Dafa. After obtaining the Fa, she thoroughly changed. Before, she was not interested in anything and was sad everyday. We children dared not say anything to her unless she was in a better mood. After she obtained the Fa she was vigorous, positive, and happy to help others. Every day of her life was substantial and admirable. Dad saw it, I saw it, and my brothers and all our relatives all saw it. The mighty power of the Fa had incisively and vividly reflected on Mom.

During the past years' cultivation, Mom has many times experienced karma elimination and had her body deeply purified. She had also experienced countless tests on her Xinxing [moral character] and had passed through all of them with righteous determination. Motivated by Mom, I also started to cultivate and was melted in the great mercy of Teacher. But as I had been deluded too deeply in the ordinary society and had too many attachments that I was unwilling to get rid of, I did not always treat myself as a genuine cultivator. As a result, I lost a lot of opportunities to advance.

After July 20^th, 1999 Mom especially firmly upheld the Fa, regardless of whether she was arrested or detained or how much suffering she had endured. Her steadfastness in the Fa never changed. Mom felt sorrow for my lack of diligence. She always reminded me to read the Fa more and grasp the opportunity of Fa-rectification cultivation that cannot be encountered in millions of years. But I failed to realize it from the depth of my heart. One day a fellow practitioner came to my home and mentioned her moving stories on assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification. I suddenly awakened at that moment and realized what I should really do as a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period. Teacher once again awakened me with his great mercy. Mom was pleasantly surprised at my changes. It also encouraged her to improve more diligently in the process of assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification -- at least until the thugs murdered her.

As a mother, Mom endured hardships in her life. She was considerate of her family members, amiable to her neighbors, and respectful to the elderly and children. As a practitioner, mom regarded Dafa as being more important than her life. She thought about others first and herself second, disciplined herself with the standard of the Fa, and treated herself as a Dafa particle at all times.

Mom has achieved her great history, of assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification and obtained her immortal life. As her daughter and fellow practitioner, I know I still have many hardships to experience. There are still many people with pre-destined relationships waiting for us to save them. The time of the Fa rectifying the cosmos can only be realized soon when we put down all human attachments and strictly behave according to the requirement of Teacher and the Fa, because all of these are closely bound up with every one of us practitioners.

The attached is the record that my father has written about the whole process of mother's murder. I hope it will draw the attention of people with righteousness and conscience all over the world to obtain justice for my mother. I believe mother's life can awaken more people in the world to recognize the demonic nature of the evil persecuting Dafa and practitioners. It is the duty of every one of us practitioners to save people.

Zhang Liping

August 28, 2001

Zhang Zeyuan

As Zeng Xianmei's husband, I write down the following narration through my tears. This account truthfully records the whole process about how my wife, Zeng Xianmei, was first illegally detained and then later tortured to death. As family members of the deceased, we strongly urge the relevant government departments to give us a convincing answer to a question that we couldn't figure out at all: why had a healthy and optimistic elderly lady died mysteriously in just five days after she had been taken away from home by force?

My wife was born in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. She was 63 years old, the same age as me. We were classmates in middle school in the 1950s and graduated from different universities. Later we got married and had one daughter and two sons. In 1975 we were assigned jobs in Lushunkou District of Dalian City and had since been retired. Our home address is Room 203, Building 3, Hengshan Street, Lushunkou District, Dalian City. The three children have all gotten married and have their own children. During the holidays we often have happy family parties with our children and grandchildren and enjoy a pleasant and sweet life. Both of us had deep feelings for each other and are very healthy. In order to support our children, for them to do a better job in their workplaces, we often did housework for them and helped them take care of our grandchildren. Just when our children were in need of help from their parents and we, the old couple, were in a close family relationship enjoying a happy life, an unexpected calamity occurred.

On the evening of August 8, 2001, several policemen, said to be from the Xigang District police department, forced their way into the home of my daughter's mother-in-law, whose address is 22-1-3, Xinggong North Street No.5, Shahekou District, Dalian City. With the excuse that "someone had accused her," they forcibly searched the home and confiscated a few books and materials about Falun Gong and took away my daughter's mother-in-law. He Yongrui, my daughter's mother-in-law, who is in her 70's, was taken to Xigang District police department for a so-called "investigation." Later we heard the older lady had been handcuffed to a chair the whole time, from that evening until noon the next day, when she was released. When this happened, my wife and I were staying at my daughter's home. The address there is 1-2-2 Rongtai Xiaoqu, No.5 Fengyuan Street, Xigang District, Dalian City.

On the morning of August 9, 2001 only my wife and I were at my daughter's home. We suddenly heard a heavy knock on the door. Several policemen were coming. Knowing that the mother-in-law of my daughter had been detained, we didn't open the door. Half an hour later, three policemen climbed into the room through the window on the balcony. Without any explanation or showing any identification, they forcibly searched the home. They kept querying my wife whether my daughter was influenced by her to practice Falun Gong. They took away six scenery paintings and two passports. Later they found 3 or 4 pictures of Falun Gong that were hanging up, 2 or 3 small photos and one Falun Gong book, and asked my wife to go to the police department with them. They filled out a form recoding the searched materials, and another form, which I didn't see clearly because of the shock of the intrusion. I signed and fingerprinted the forms and the police asked for 200 Yuan [about US$25]. My wife was then taken to the police jeep without being allowed to change her clothes; just wearing her thin, casual house-dress. Five days later, on August 14, 2001, we were unexpectedly separated forever, and she had forever left her family that she loved.

On the afternoon of August 14, my son-in-law Li Xiangmin got the bad news about my wife from a source other than the police department. He immediately arrived at the department at about 3:10 PM with his brother and requested to see her and to be present for the emergency treatment. But the officer at the department said permission from the supervisor was needed. They were kept waiting with no further response. After I received the phone call from my son-in-law, I arrived at the Xigang police department at about 4:50 PM and was informed that my wife was in the emergency room at a hospital. A section chief at the police department said that the relatives should be at ease since the hospital staff were doing their best to rescue my wife; it was not proper for the relatives to go to the hospital as it might affect the treatment. At about 6:00 PM, my youngest son Zhang Yimin arrived at the department and urged them to let him see his mother. I also brought up the request again. The police kept stalling and we kept requesting. We were finally brought to the No.2 People's Hospital of Dalian City and saw my wife, the mother of my children, and mother-in-law.... The delay by now had been about 3 hours since we first arrived at the police department until the police allowed us to be at the emergency department in the hospital.

We really could not believe that the elderly lady, who had been so healthy and optimistic a few days ago and who was always so kind to others, had suddenly died so tragically. It was unbearable to see my wife's naked remains under the white sheets. Although her head was wrapped with gauze, a blood stain the size of a fist could still be seen near her cerebellum through the gauze, which indicated there was injury there. Protruding black bruises were covering her right eye. There was a round black and blue injury about 1 or 2 cm in diameter under the lower jaw, and about 2 or 3 cm inside the middle of the lip. On the right shoulder, there was a large area covered with bruises and some skin had worn off in the middle of the area. Black and blue bruises and injuries were also found on the right costal (rib) area, left waist, and right hip. The backs of her hands were badly swollen. There was a wound on the lower left leg, covered with gauze, with blood on it. The backs of her two feet were swollen and covered with small cuts. We also found her bloody clothes in the garbage can in the bathroom. Anybody can easily judge the cause of the death through these injuries and bruises of different sizes and types on the various areas of my wife's body.

Seeing this, my two sons cried in grief over their mother's body. One of the sons was going to take pictures of his mother and was immediately stopped by the police. He did not understand and questioned what hospital rules or regulations he might violate by simply taking pictures of his own mother. The section chief, Wang, from the police department couldn't answer and then said it was the rule of the procurators' office. Section chief Li Guangming from the procurators' office of Xigang District, however, couldn't give any reasons either, but he, Li, still refused us and then left the emergency room. Under our continuous requests we were finally allowed to take one picture only.

When it suddenly occurred to us to ask for my wife's emergency treatment record, the hospital authorities claimed that it was being composed. After we kept requesting, a female doctor told us that the police had sent my wife to the hospital at about 1:10 PM and she died around 5:10 PM. What's more, we found out that there were no X-ray's or CTs taken and no blood transfusion given at all during the so-called "rescue with an all-out effort." All they used was a small bottle of IV drip, which was still full when we came in, and an oxygen bottle. How could an old lady over 60 years old, who had been tortured for 5 days in the police department and had lost a lot of blood, survive by herself during several hours "emergency treatment" without any blood transfusion?

After taking away a person alive, the Xigang police department did not issue or process any legal documents. Five days later, what they had returned to us was a corpse, completely covered with bruises and wounds. When she was in danger, they didn't inform the relatives. Instead, they blocked the news and delayed and prevented the relatives from seeing her on-site. What's more, they demanded that we pay the costs. It is totally unreasonable and was not carried out according to law.

Until now, we still cannot understand why my wife was tortured to death so tragically just because she practiced Falun Gong. Why? It is a fact: a life had been lost in the space of just 5 days of detention in a law enforcement agency of the state. How are we to come to terms with this? Why did this happen?

I know that after a person dies, they can't come back, but I hope that relevant leaders and government departments in this socialist country, which claims to have "a perfect legal system," can one day offer a satisfactory answer to us, the family of the deceased.

If what I have written down here is not true, let me be punished by the Law of the heavens.

For further details, please call or fax: 86-411-3683120

(Clearwisdom.Net)

This morning, insiders say that one more practitioner has died in Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp. This practitioner was on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. While force-feeding the practitioner, the authorities punctured a lung and the practitioner died instantly. Other practitioners witnessed this incident.

We hope kindhearted people will lend a helping hand.

Recently, most of the practitioners who were on a hunger strike to protest illegally extended detention in Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp were released after they finished the term. Only one practitioner was not released on time.

Beijing City Police Department 7 is a place that detains major criminals. A newly released practitioner said Teng Chunyan (a practitioner and an American resident) was detained in Beijing City Police Department 7.

Recently, Qiqihar Shuanghe, a forced labor camp, set a new rule that visitors have to slander Falun Dafa before they can visit imprisoned relatives.

Practitioner Li Zitao (male) was from Jiangjin Changqing City. He was detained at the Xishanping Forced Labor Institute. The guards induced criminal drug-addicts in the same cell to severely beat him; he died of severe injuries (we are still investigating the details of this event).

Another practitioner detained in the Xishanping Forced Labor Institute was also beaten by criminal drug-addicts in the same cell; similarly, his body has many injuries.

We urgently call on all kind-hearted people of the world to be aware of this matter and please do what you can to help stop the killing and torture.

Recently, the authorities of Tangshan City, its districts and counties began mass arresting practitioners. Anyone who refuses to write the "Guarantee Letter" is put in a "brainwashing school." In Fenglun County alone, over ten practitioners have been arrested.

On August 24, an exhibition aimed at smearing Falun Dafa was opened at Liaoning Provincial Science and Technology Hall in Shenyang City. Many governmental departments and organizations jointly organized it including the Shenyang City Government Propaganda Department, the City Spiritual Civilization Office, the Police Department, Law Bureau, and Science Organization. The department chief Liu Yingchu of the Propaganda Department gave an opening speech.

This is another persecution by the evil forces intended to frame Falun Dafa. We hope all practitioners who read this news will send out righteous thoughts to eliminate the evils that control this exhibition.

Some lawless officials of Dalian City requested that the illegal exhibition defaming Falun Dafa at the China Revolution Museum in Beijing from July 15 to July 29 be held in Dalian on August 26. The exhibition was scheduled to open for 10 days. After that, the materials would be exhibited in Beisan City, Changhai County and other places to deceive more people.

Vicious Policeman, Chen Zhiqiang of the Tiananmen Square Police Substation, often brutally beats practitioners.

Since early 2000, Majialong Forced Labor Camp of Jiujiang City Jiangxi Province began detaining practitioners. The guards apply many Nazi-style torture methods on the practitioners. They have applied handcuffs, shackles, and have used solitary confinement cells for punishment.

We hope that kind people will become more aware of the evils happening in Majialong Forced Labor Camp.

Majialong Forced Labor Camp:

Phone: 86-792-823 6691

Yuan Jiafu (a cadre): 86-792-823 6691

An evil exhibition slandering Falun Gong was held in Jinan City, Shandong Province from August 9 to 23, 2001, bringing retribution to the entire area.

According to the Qilu Evening Daily dated August 24, 2001: "At 7:10 A.M. On August 23, dense clouds suddenly formed followed by a violent storm with heavy rain and large hailstones falling from the sky. Large trees were uprooted. Many advertising signboards were blown down. Several construction sites and buildings were severely damaged." "Starting at 5:30 A.M., some areas of Dezhou City were attacked by wind and hail. The biggest hailstone was 20-millimeter in diameter. The grade of the windstorm was 10. The disaster area covered 14 townships in Dezhou, Yucheng, Linyi, Pingyuan and Qihe. About 734,250 acres of crops were damaged and 18,975 acres were so badly damaged that no crops could be harvested from them. The direct economic loss is estimated to be 170 million RMB Yuan (about US $20.5 million)."

On June 19, 2001 more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners held an experience sharing conference in a practitioner's house in Huanghua City, Hebei Province. Some practitioners told of their persecution when being illegally detained. They also shared their experiences of using righteous thoughts to walk out of jail. Many practitioners listened with tears in their eyes. The conference was successful and all practitioners left safely.

The conference irritated local officials. Several days later, the police arrested more than 50 local practitioners from Huanghua City and the surrounding areas who had attended the conference. On July 21, three flyer distribution centers were seized. Many police were sent out to search for and monitor Falun Gong practitioners.

We should learn a lesson from practitioners in Huanghua City, and Cangzhou City. Information was leaked. The evil took advantage of it and damaged Dafa. We should study the Fa more and identify our xingxing problems, leaving no space for evil.

Police raided the site where Falun Gong materials were being printed in Yinan County, Shandong Province. They confiscated the copier, computer, and printer. It is said that one practitioner did not pay attention and was followed by the police. He had the mentality of "doing work."

During the current critical period, practitioners, please take the Fa as teacher, strictly follow the requirements, work hard at eliminating all of your attachments, and pay close attention to the relationship between Fa-Rectification and self-cultivation. This lesson should make us more rational and more mature.

The police of Yinan County have detained practitioners Lu Jizhi, Li Yanyan and Xiao Su for more than one month.

Officials of Guizhou Province and Guiyang City are holding an exhibition slandering Falun Gong at the Guizhou Museum.. All government employees and military personnel are required to attend.

The police from Baoqing County, Heilongjiang Province illegally arrested and sentenced to forced-labor Falun Gong practitioners who had gone to Beijing to appeal or who had distributed truth-clarifying flyers. Recently, they kidnapped practitioners and forced them into brainwashing classes.

Their actions shocked heaven and earth. At 3:00 P.M. on July 21, 2001, a grade 10 tornado with egg-size hailstones struck a farm and many towns. The roofs were blown off of many houses in Yinghua Village. Crops on 1980 acres were completely destroyed. The damage in other townships and towns was also very serious.

Zhang Shoujian, the director of Political Security Section of Public Security Bureau of Suixi County, Anhui Province, illegally arrested, interrogated, and detained Falun Gong practitioners. He illegally searched their houses and confiscated their property. Since 2000, more than 30 practitioners have been illegally detained. Three of them were sent to labor reeducation camps. Under the direction of Zhang, police used cruel torture to interrogate practitioners in the detention center. Zhang illegally impounded about 10,000 RMB Yuan (about US $1,200) of practitioners' money. He has stolen thousands of RMB Yuan from practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal.

Many practitioners have been in detention centers for over six months. Zhang is still plotting against Falun Gong practitioners. We appeal to all kind-hearted people to pay attention to this matter and to all judicial officers to investigate Zhang's crimes.

Zhang's work phone: 01186-561-6077391 ext. 3122

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 6, 2001, with a heavy heart, I came to Hewan Labor Camp of Wuhan city in Hubei Province where one of my family members has been jailed because he practices Falun Dafa. That day was a regular visiting day.

It was extremely hot that day and the temperature reached as high as 40 ^OC (about 104 ^OF). When I arrived at the Labor Camp gate, I saw several visitors already there complaining loudly that we were once again not allowed to see our family members. I could not believe this could be true and went to the second gate to take a look, only to see a notice on the gate, which said that the visiting date has been put off to the next weekend. The notice date was July 6, 2001.

Many visitors raised questions as to why the Labor Camp had not notified us ahead of time and just changed the visiting date so suddenly? We came here in such hot weather in order to see our dear family members who have never done anything wrong. One old lady, together with her husband and sister who are also in their old age, started their trip very early in the morning of such a hot day. A young woman, holding her baby, was anxiously waiting to see her husband, with her entire face covered with sweat. Another lady, who had not seen her husband since last October, almost got heat stroke in the burning sun. All these Falun Dafa practitioners' family members have been looking forward to this day for so long, the once a month visiting day set up by the Hewan Labor Camp. However, their visitation rights were rejected and no one knew whether they would be allowed to visit on the next visiting day.

Many of them said: we used to blame our family members. Now, when we recall the details, our family members did not do any thing bad. They have always tried to be good and honest people at home and at work. The good people are jailed. Where is the justice? Now, we hate Jiang Zemin's criminal gang, hate them because they arrest and jail good people...

Most visitors requested that the Labor Camp officials help them take the daily living necessities to their family members, but no one showed up from the Labor Camp. Some visitors phoned several times to the Labor Camp and asked the officials to give us a reason for changing the visiting date. When a vicious guard at the gate heard the visitors' requests, he said ferociously, "No visiting is allowed! That's it! No reason! If you dare, go ahead and sue us!" The unreasonable words from the vicious guard caused public anger. The visitors all walked to the gate and strongly asked to be allowed to visit their family members. When one old man was standing at the gate, the guard turned on the electric lock and sandwiched him between the two sides of the gate. The guard's action allowed visitors to see their brutality. Many visitors pushed on the gate and scuffled with the gate guard. The guard started to beat people and his attitude was very cruel and fierce. He even shouted, "Go home and wait to collect the corpses!"

A policeman beat people in broad daylight and the victim was even an old man (a Falun Dafa practitioner's family member). Such a scene made visitors only more worried about their family members' safety. In the dark corners behind the high walls where no one can see, what kinds of brutality must our family members be facing?

The vicious guard called many policemen out. They were holding submachine guns and standing in front of the gate, sternly facing those empty handed ordinary people. All of a sudden, groups and groups of police cars came to the Labor Camp gate and those who were holding loudspeakers got out of the police cars. Seeing their fierce actions, as family members of Falun Dafa practitioners, how can we believe the propaganda on TV and in the newspapers? In the end, no one was allowed to visit his or her family members that day.

I believe that my loved one has never done anything wrong. Good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil. We must support our family members who are still incarcerated!

By a Falun Dafa Practitioner's Family Member

Appendix: Please Rescue the Falun Dafa Practitioners Jailed in the Hewan Labor Camp of Wuhan City!

According to reports from a criminal prisoner who was just released from the Hewan Labor Camp, Hewan Labor Camp is currently using 8-10 criminal prisoners to deal with one Falun Dafa practitioner. Instigated by the Labor Camp officials, these prisoners beat and torment Dafa practitioners almost every day. By doing so, the prisoners' imprisonment term can be reduced and they can be released earlier. These criminal prisoners even bragged that they could satisfy their brutal instincts by beating people in the Labor Camp.

To protest their illegal persecution, some Dafa practitioners are doing a hunger strike. The prisoners then dragged those Dafa practitioners on hunger strike to sand piles in 40 ^OC hot days. They pressed them down onto the sand piles and force-fed them rice soup. The released prisoner said, the Labor Camp officials threatened, warned, and told the prisoners not to reveal to the outside that the Labor Camp is torturing Dafa practitioners.

Thus, we are calling for people with a conscience to rescue the Dafa practitioners who are being persecuted in Hewan Labor Camp of Wuhan city.

Tumu Village is located about 100 km northwest of Beijing. In this ordinary, remote place, some extraordinary things have happened. This village has many Dafa practitioners, so it is a place that the evil fears the most. The local officials have utilized all possible means to brutally persecute practitioners. Since 1999, local practitioners have unceasingly stepped forward to validate Dafa. As a result, the Tumu Village officials have used this chance to arrest and beat the practitioners, hoping to fulfill their desires for money and political power. The following gives some examples of persecution of the local practitioners:

(Note: the average yearly income for a family in this area is 2000 to 3000 Yuan)

1. In July 1999, Liu Yushu, the former chief assistant of Tumu Village Falun Dafa Assistance Center, went to Beijing to safeguard Dafa. Before he was able to reach Tiananmen Square, he was arrested, sent back, and fined 500 Yuan.

2. In November 2000, four practitioners from Taipingbao Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. They were arrested and taken back by local township officials. They were handcuffed, left out in the yard in the freezing cold for half a day, and fined 5000 Yuan. Then they were sent to the Huailai County Detention Center and held there for 10 days.

3. In early December 2000, a female practitioner from Quanpingbao Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa, and she was detained in Miyun County [of Beijing] for two days. After they got her name and address through deception, Tumu Village officials took her back and viciously tortured her for one day and one night. She was punched, kicked, shocked by electric batons, force-fed with alcohol, and burned by cigarette tips. Her mouth and other parts of her body blistered badly from the burns. She was fined 1000 Yuan and held in the detention center for 15 days.

4. In December 2000, Liu Junmei and her husband from Tumu Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. On December 27, township officials took them back from the Zhangjiakou office stationed in Beijing and interrogated them throughout the night. At the entrance of the township government meeting room, even before they turned on the light, the officials kicked and punched the couple into the room. About ten people beat them together, and when the practitioners were beaten down to the floor, they would drag them up and continue the beating. Both of the practitioners bled from their noses and mouths. The officials then shocked them with electric batons and later used a hand-cranked telephone's wire to shock them. They connected the husband's two hands to the telephone wire and had him hold a stick up with both arms, while forcing him to stand in a severe crouch. Any tiny movement away from this pose would result in shocks from the telephone wire. At the end of this torture, he was drenched in sweat. They handcuffed Liu Junmei to a tree, and forced her take off her coat and stand barefoot in the snow. They tortured the couple until early next morning, and then tried to force them to curse Teacher. The husband refused to cooperate, so they grabbed his hair and slapped his face hard repeatedly. Finally they gave up and handcuffed the couple to the heating pipe. They also found 140 Yuan while searching the couple and took it away.

The next day, the township government officials found the couple's family members and asked them for money. They demanded 4000 Yuan for each person and finally settled for 7000 Yuan. At first they gave a receipt for the money, but later they tried to destroy it. In the evening of December 28, the couple was released. Just two days later they were tricked into going to the detention center again and held there for 15 days. The officials demanded another 1000 Yuan for their release. Liu Junmei's family was poor already, but now they are heavily in debt. These wicked people want to use this as a way to shake Dafa practitioners' beliefs.

5. In December 2000, two Dafa practitioners from Jiazui Village and Bawuzhuang Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. They were arrested in Beijing, and the policemen kicked and punched them into the police car. They were then taken to the Zhangjiakou office stationed in Beijing and handcuffed there for 8 hours. When the local township officials picked them up, it was already after 2 am. The policemen did not pay any attention to the 50-year-old female practitioner who had gone without food and water for the whole day. Once they arrived at the local township government office, they tortured the practitioners in several ways, such as punching and kicking, hitting them with bamboo sticks, and shocking them with electric batons and telephone wires. The female practitioner was completely defenseless, with extremely poor eyesight. The other practitioner passed out several times, his whole body twitching and not able to speak. Both practitioners' faces and bodies were heavily bruised and cut from the beatings. They were tormented like this until dawn. The officials then tried to force them to write and sign guarantee letters, but they refused. The officials forced their thumbprints onto the guarantee letters. Later, the practitioners were handcuffed to a tree in the yard and left in the freezing cold. The practitioners were exhausted and at the end of their strength from the torture and lack of nourishment. Still, these "people's servants" showed no mercy. When the practitioners' family members requested to have them sent to the hospital, they said: "No need to bother, it is easier to handle if they were dead."

   The next morning, fearing that two other practitioners from Jiazui Village would also go to Beijing to validate Dafa, the officials forcibly took them from their homes to the local township office. They detained the four practitioners until 3 pm of the third day. Before releasing the practitioners, the officials fined the two who went to Beijing 4000 Yuan each and the other two 1000 Yuan each.

6. When the officials finished torturing the two Dafa practitioners mentioned above, they summoned three family members of Liu Yushu from Tumu Village and two other practitioners to the government office. They purposely showed them the suffering of those practitioners who went to Beijing. They slapped Liu Zhaohui's face repeatedly and shocked him with telephone wires.

7. On December 31, 2000, the local township office again sent people to Taipingbao Village and found five practitioners who went to Beijing to validate Dafa. Because the practitioners did not sign the guarantee letter promising not to practice Dafa and go to Beijing, they forcibly took three practitioners to the local township office (their car was too small to hold 5 people). They spent the whole day torturing them, punching, kicking, shocking them with electric batons and telephone wires, and taking away their coats and handcuffing them in the open yard, barefoot in the snow. They were especially cruel to one female practitioner. When her hands and feet became numb from the cold outside, they took her into the house and put her hands on the scalding heating pipe. Her skin immediately blistered, and later the blisters burst. She finally recovered from this after a month. The practitioners were tortured until 10 pm, and they had to walk 5 kilometers to get home.

   On the same day, a practitioner from Yezi Village was taken to the Langshan Police Station. They suspected him of distributing Dafa materials and wanted to interrogate him to find the source of Dafa material. When the practitioner refused to speak, one of the policemen came across and slapped the practitioner's face hard. Four or five policemen then hit him until they were exhausted. They threatened him with labor camp and jail terms. Since practitioner still did not speak, a policeman said, "It looks like you need some special treatment." He then picked up a tricycle axle nearby. The other policemen came over and helped to hold practitioner down on the floor. They laid the iron axle on the practitioner's foot, and two people stepped on the ends of the axle. They rolled over his legs, from the thigh to the calf, and then both of his hands. Still not satisfied, they rolled over the practitioner's fingers. One policeman then hit the practitioner's thigh, kidney area, and buttocks with the iron axle, causing excruciating pain. Since they still did not get what they wanted, they handcuffed the practitioner to the heating pipe. When the night came, he could not even stand firmly, and he was covered with cuts and bruises. The next day, he was sent to the detention center and held for 15 days.

8. After the Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year's Day ) of 2001, the police took another Dafa practitioner in Yezi village from his classmate's house to the government office. They punched and kicked him repeatedly, and then released him.

9. In May 2001, the policemen went to one Dafa practitioner's house in Shiying Village. Because the policemen found one Dafa book, this practitioner was taken to the local township office and detained for one day and one night. Ten days later, the practitioner was again taken to the government office for interrogation and torture. They shocked him with telephone wires, and several people forced his fingerprint onto a guarantee letter. He was sent to the detention center and held for nine days.

(To be continued)

Huailai County of Hebei Province is located over 100 kilometers northwest of Beijing. In this ordinary town, something extraordinary happened. A lot of Falun Dafa practitioners live in this town, so this is a place that the evil is most scared of. The evil tried all different ways of torturing the practitioners. Since 1999, the practitioners there have constantly stepped forward to validate Dafa (the law and principle of the universe). The Tumu Town officials seized the opportunity to torture and detain the practitioners in order to reach their goals of extorting money and accumulating political assets. The following is a record of the persecution against local practitioners:

(Note: The net annual income of an ordinary family in that area is 2,000 -- 3,000 Yuan [about US240 - 353]. )

10. In May 2000, a practitioner from Shangbalu Village went to Beijing to validate Dafa. After he [or she; gender unknown] was caught by the police, the practitioner did not cooperate with the evil and did not give out his name or address. He was illegally detained in Beijing for over 2 months. Later a family member went to the different detention centers in Beijing to find him. After the family member recognized the practitioner, the Tumu Town officials took the practitioner back to Shangbalu Village and fined him 4,000 Yuan.

11. On July 18, 2001, the evil people from Shacheng Town in Huailai County went to Ji Xinfeng's home to arrest Ji (he is detained now). Ji and his wife did not want to cooperate with them, so they did not open the door. The evil mobilized a large number of policemen and government employees and surrounded Ji's home for 3 days. Ji and his wife, standing on the top of their house, exposed the evil and revealed the truth to the surrounding onlookers.

In the morning of July 20, eight practitioners from Tumu Town heard the news and came to Ji's home to send forth righteous thoughts. After the thugs found the eight practitioners (five women in their 60's and three males), they started to beat the practitioners without any consideration of the practitioners' age or gender. All the eight practitioners were pushed into the police vehicles. One old lady was severely injured from the beating and she was in agonizing pain and had to lie down on the ground. The practitioners were directly sent to a detention center. The detention center refused to take them over since the thugs did not follow any legal procedures. The Tumu Town officials had to take these practitioners back.

After arriving at the town government office, the thugs cuffed the practitioners in the yard. That night, after having enough alcohol and food, the thugs started their brutal torture of these practitioners. They wanted to force the practitioners to write the so-called "guarantee letters" [of giving up practicing Falun Gong], to give out information about other practitioners, then to fine the practitioners in order to make money.

That evening, the heavens, seeing the evil crimes, started to cry. The gang left the five female practitioners in the yard standing in the rain. They took the three male practitioners into a room, took off their handcuffs, started to kick and beat them. The beating immediately made one practitioner's eyes severely swollen and purple. After a while, the thugs, possibly becoming tired, said, "These practitioners are not afraid of beating. Let us electrocute them with the telephone [which can generate electricity by turning a crank in the phone]." In the past this method has often been used to torture practitioners. To an ordinary person, this is very cruel and agonizing. According to medical science, the duration of the electric current cannot go longer than 2 seconds; otherwise, the person's heart cannot tolerate it and the person will fall into a coma.

The thugs first electrocuted one of the practitioners. After shocking this practitioner for a while, they saw that this practitioner did not succumb, so they started to shock the other two. The thugs used one cuff to connect the two cuffs that were holding the hands of the two practitioners. The wires that were connected to the electricity were applied to the two handcuffs. Over 20 thugs took turns rotating the handle of the phone to generate electricity. While doing this, they burst into fits of laughter. The Town Deputy Head Jia Haiwen and the Deputy Party Secretary Li Yingjun also turned the handle of the phone in person. After the two officials got tired, they let other thugs take over. The agonizing pain made the two practitioners cry out. In the quiet night, even the residents living far away from the town government office could hear the cries. During the electrocution process, the handcuffs became tighter and tighter and finally cut into the practitioners' flesh.

After quite a while, seeing that the two practitioners still did not give in, the thugs separated them and started to electrocute them one by one. The thugs made each person raise his arms and cuffed the two hands to the back of a long bench. The two feet were tied to the legs of the bench. The wires were still connected to the two cuffs. The thugs then started to generate electricity and they electrocuted the two practitioners this way until 2:30 am. The torture lasted 4 hours. The thugs still did not succeed. They then cuffed the practitioners in the yard and planned to resume the torture next evening (they were afraid of being seen during the daytime). The officials said that they did not believe that they could not make the practitioners give in.

The next day, the practitioners were cuffed to a pole in the yard for a whole day. They lay down on the ground, which was wet after the rain. They were even not allowed to put on the clothes brought to them by their families. The 5 female practitioners were forced to raise their arms to hold a pole and squat down. They would be kicked and beaten if their gestures did not perfectly meet the requirement.

On the night of July 21, when it was quiet, the thugs shut the door and prepared to torture the practitioners, especially the three male practitioners. They cuffed the five female practitioners to a tree and let them watch the three male practitioners being tortured (since among the eight practitioners was a mother and son as well as some couples).

On the 4^th day, the practitioners staged a hunger strike to demand an unconditional release. After detaining the practitioners at the town government office for 5 days and seeing that it was impossible to brainwash or fine the practitioners, the thugs sent them to the detention center. Once the vehicle reached the detention center, it started to hail, which made a big racket. Their crimes had even enraged the heavens. The detention center did not dare to take the three male practitioners because of their wounds, but they did detain four of the female practitioners for 15 days. After going through many troubles, the three male practitioners were finally released. Several weeks later, the officials felt that the three male practitioners would have recovered from their wounds. They then went to the practitioners' homes and brought two of the three practitioners to the detention center again. The two practitioners were detained there for 15 days. The third practitioner was not at home at that time and thus escaped the arrest.

According to incomplete statistics, the evil people instigated a total of 32 incidents of illegal beating, detention, and electrocuting the practitioners in this town. They also went to the practitioners' homes many times to illegally ransack the houses and molest the families. They took away the practitioners' personal belongings at will. They also forced the families of the practitioners to pay them bribes. Besides the bribes, they fined the practitioners a total of 32,500 Yuan without giving any receipts. During the detention of the eight practitioners in Tumu Town, the shameless town officials came out and urinated in front of the female practitioners, who were cuffed in the yard. When beating the practitioners, the thugs wore on their fingers a kind of metal ring that has sharp hooks. When they hit the practitioners, they drew blood and left a lot of holes in the practitioners' clothes.

The Tumu Town Government in Huailai County, (86) 313-6836014

Major officials: Zhang Youtang, Town Party Secretary,

Hooligans: Jia Haiwen, Town Deputy Head; Li Yingjun, Deputy Party Secretary

The hatchet men: Zhang Fangbing, Yu Hongshun, Sun Zhixin.

The Huailai County Langshan Police Station: (86) 313-6836106

(Clearwisdom.net) Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province has been hit by severe thunderstorms. The water level of several rivers has risen drastically. Seven people died and one is still missing, according to the news from Ming Daily News Net on September 3, 2001.

According to the Sichuan Disaster Relief Commission, the thunderstorms began last Friday at 3:00 AM, and lasted until noon the same day. The water level in Jingsha River and Yabi River rose significantly. Four counties and 18 towns in Panzhihua City were affected. Houses collapsed and farmland was flooded. There were also power and water outages in many parts of the area.

On September 3, the Ming Daily News Net reported that the areas upstream of the Yangtze River and the Minjiang River were hit by torrential rain for days. The water level in Yibing City, rose drastically. That Sunday afternoon, the flood water level reached a record high of 15.8 meters [about 51.8 feet ] for this year.

West China Metropolitan reported that Yibing's highest water level exceeded 16 meters Sunday evening, making it this year's largest flood peak.

(Clearwisdom.net) For a long time, I had been in a state of depression and pessimism. I felt that I was not doing well and that I was not qualified to be a Dafa disciple. I felt that I had not kept up with Teacher's Fa-rectification progress and that I had delayed other people's attaining of the Fa. With such a feeling, I had no confidence, I was down on myself, and I was quite dejected.

One day, I suddenly realized something was wrong. I love Dafa from the bottom of my heart. I am willing to follow the principle of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance; I want to follow Teacher to go home. Thinking more deeply, I saw that I had indeed given up many ordinary people's bad thoughts and habits and that I had been getting closer to the realm of selflessness and altruism. Wasn't the feeling of my being no good attacking my confidence in cultivation? Thinking this, I left the state immediately. As I further studied the Fa, I gradually realized that it was a kind of demonic interference.

When I shared my experience with other practitioners lately, I found that many practitioners who had done quite well were in such a state as well. As a consequence, they were restrained in their efforts of promoting Dafa and rectifying the Fa.

I looked more closely at my state of mind -- why had I been affected by this demon? This demon looks like modesty on the surface, and yet in reality, it affects Dafa disciples' improvement, and that is actually because there is a deeply hidden attachment that the demons are taking advantage of. I had a notion that had become a habit, and that is that whenever I did something, I always wanted it to be perfect. If I didn't achieve what I expected, I would feel regret. This was actually an expression of vanity, because behind my wanting to do something well was the desire for others' approval and praise. Thus, whenever I shared experiences with others, I would always go through a self-examination and try to be modest. The hidden motive behind it was that I already knew I hadn't done well, so there was no need to criticize us anymore. Or, if I presented myself as being somewhat less capable, then I would still look pretty good even if the job had been done poorly. Over time, this attachment formed a very strong notion that was hard to detect, and I even felt that I was modest and looking inside. In reality, these attachments are the effects of fame, self-interest, and emotion, hoping that one will be seen as such and such.

There is also another similar attachment, and that is covering up. I have found that for the vast majority of people, when others point out their defects and attachments, they immediately start to defend themselves rather than keeping their hearts calm to sincerely listen to the words of the other person. They find a lot of excuses, trying to explain why they did it this way or that way, and even give a big explanation using the principles of the Fa. In fact, at that moment, it is the attachment of covering up taking effect. Sometimes, I would keep explaining on and on why I had not done well earlier, what principles I had enlightened to, etc. But later I found that when I was giving the explanation, I was trying to cover up why I had not done well because I didn't want others to criticize me. Moreover, since I already know that I didn't do well, that means I have upgraded and improved now. When I discovered these cunning and complex attachments, I sighed to myself: if Teacher had not transmitted Dafa and taught us the path to return to our origin and to the truth, we would be controlled by these notions that are formed after birth, and we wouldn't even know it. We would have even treated them as an important element of success in life and would have desperately clung onto them. We have really deviated further and further away from the truthful, benevolent, and forbearing nature of the universe. Life's burdens become more and more and become heavier and heavier, and as a result, we fall ever deeper.

In the Changchun lecture, Teacher said: "The people of today have become very deceitful and cunning. People nowadays know how to conceal their hearts, and they know how to use cover-ups to cover up that heart. Once I see this kind of person, I know it's very difficult to save him. When he is given a hint to awaken, he himself doesn't even realize this concealment or those things that are being covered up. What's more, when you point out his real problems, when my Fashen pinpoints his problems, he even tricks my Fashen as if he were dealing with an ordinary person and will fake it, 'Oh, I was wrong.' And then he will use another cover-up to cover up his actual cover-up, using another cover-up (not an official translation)."

The demons and the old forces in the universe can take advantage of these warped notions and bring trouble to our Fa-rectification work. Thus, to completely eradicate these demons and old forces, we must have a clear understanding of these demons' different permutations, find our attachments, and rid ourselves of them quickly, because in the new universe in the future, there is nowhere for these things to exist.

To all depressed and pessimistic Dafa disciples, please pull yourselves together! How can these incompetent, dirty, and ugly things obstruct the disciples of the Master Buddha and affect our progress in assisting Teacher's Fa-rectification?!

After overcoming all the bad thoughts, my heart was peaceful and filled with pity towards the ignorant people. I said to them, "I would like say a few words. Think about it, everyone--the safest thing for us to do would be to not say anything in this kind of situation. However, do you know that ..." I cannot remember what I said afterwards since it was a long time ago. But after I spoke, everyone was silent and a few cadres even shed tears. The President had to break up the meeting. No such meetings have been held since then.

I realized that when we clarify the truth to people, including those who assist the evil, we are also saving them and should be compassionate. This is most powerful and effective, and is what the evil fears the most.

(Clearwisdom.net) One night in April of this year, I was distributing Dafa fliers near home alone. I was in a good state of mind, and was ready to go home. Seeing that there were not many fliers left, I decided to finish them all; in fact, I was pushing it a little. This presented a weakness, and the evil made use of it -- an old man turned me in to the Xijiaolu police station.

My "fear" emerged during the arrest. I was cooperating with the evil when I got onto the police vehicle by myself, which was a big mistake. I adjusted my state of mind later, when I came to the Luyuan police branch. I remembered Teacher's words: "If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstances, evil is bound to be afraid of him." Immediately I was full of strength: What is there to fear? I am a noble cultivator of the Great Law. I have done nothing illegal, and since I am here today, I am ready to give up everything.

They searched me, and locked me in an iron chair with both legs secured. Later on they came to handcuff me. I said I had done nothing wrong, that I was not a criminal, so why should I be restrained? I struggled to refuse the handcuffs. In the end, although they did force them on me, they took them off a few minutes later. Afterwards I realised that as long as I have righteous thoughts, evil is bound to be afraid. Dafa disciples all have abilities and what we say is bound to produce an effect.

I was later taken back to the Xijiaolu police station and on the way I kept an eye out for an opportunity to escape. I was determined to give away nothing, but remembered that my name was on both my beeper and the notepad in my bag. I thought they would recognise me from my trip to Beijing to appeal last time, so I gave my name, only to find that they had forgotten who I was even before I'd finished. I deeply regretted it. Too many human notions had stopped my divine side from rectifying things. At the end of the interrogation I wrote: "Falun Dafa is good," "Falun Dafa is the righteous way," "I am innocent" and I put down my name. In fact all these actions were cooperating with the evil, because my righteous thoughts were not strong enough. The root cause was not enough depth in my study of the Fa.

I talked to them about Dafa, about good and evil being rewarded accordingly; they shied away to avoid hearing. It was evening when I demanded to phone my husband to ask him to bring me food. They let me, taking me downstairs. When I had finished, they brought me to the second floor again, two of them keeping an eye on me while watching the TV, both in their 20's. Not after long, my husband came. They told him that a car would come to take me to labour camp in Tiebei, for a maximum of three years, and one or two years at minimum.

Hearing this I was alerted, my heart said that they must not send me there, as I still need to go to spread the truth! "Oh, Teacher help me, I must escape." At that moment, the opportunity came. My husband was going out to buy me food and I followed. I turned my head and saw that the police officers did not notice, and I walked out.

My husband was later caught by those evil policemen, and accused of helping me escape. My husband denied the charge and was beaten viciously by a number of police officers. He shouted loudly accusing the police of brutality. They were alarmed and brought him upstairs, handcuffing his hands behind his back. At this point four or five officers took turns beating him. They removed their badges, so that their numbers could not be seen. They played another trick this time, forcing my husband to admit that he was also a Dafa practitioner. They said wickedly: "Let's beat you to death. If we beat you to death, we will repay you."

Interrogation records were submitted twice, and were rejected both times. Then they tied my husband up and searched our home for books on Falun Dafa. When they did not find any, they took my husband back to Xijiaolu, to threaten him, continuing to assault him into admitting to being a Dafa practitioner. My husband said at last: "Is there anything wrong with practicing Dafa? My wife would even return the extra change she was given back to the shop. Isn't she trying to be a good person?" This infuriated the police, "Then you mean to say Falun Dafa is good." And then beat him more savagely.

My husband was detained illegally for fifteen days, with no written documentation. As a result, he lost his job as well. I left my home and went to stay with my parents. The Xijiaolu police rang up the police in my parents' neighbourhood, informing them that I practice Falun Gong and distribute Dafa information. I was captured again and used righteous thoughts to make another escape. I have not been able to go home since.

Falun Gong, which is banned in China, issued an appeal for intelligence on Chinese officials and members of the security forces implicated in repression and pledged to launch prosecutions in US courts.

The group has already slapped U.S. civil lawsuits on several top Chinese officials during visits to the United States under legislation that extends U.S. jurisdiction over foreign cases of torture.

"Falun Gong practitioners are going to prosecute mainland Chinese officials who have participated in the campaign of violence and hatred against Falun Gong," the group said in a statement.

It called on Falun Gong adherents in China and elsewhere to provide detailed information of abuses allegedly carried out by state officials as part of the hardline drive against the group launched by the Chinese government in 1999.

It said it was looking for evidence of crimes including "arbitrary arrest and detention, murder and gratuitous killing, torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, rape, the pillaging and ransacking of practitioners' homes, forced brainwashing, and filing of false charges."

Hoping to hit offending officials in the pocket, the group asked for information on investments, real estate, bank accounts and equities held by Chinese officials abroad.

Falun Gong is targeting U.S. officials under the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The legislation gives U.S. courts jurisdiction over acts of torture committed outside the country but a suit can only proceed if defendants are served with legal papers while in the United States.

To that end the groups asked for information about travel plans of top Chinese officials.

Last month, the group served papers on Zhou Yongkang, [party's name omitted] Party General Secretary of Sichuan province while he was on a visit to Chicago.

In July, activists lodged a 50 million-dollar suit against Zhao Zhifei, Public Security Chief of China's Hubei province during a visit to New York and a similar lawsuit was filed against former premier Li Peng by survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

http://www.europeaninternet.com/china/news.php3?id=637579§ion=default

Figure legends: Where and how is Chi Jian's family?

Rescue Chi Jian Family Coordination Committee

Telephone: +33-(0)4.76.82.58.19
Fax: +33-(0)4.76.82.59.46
Email: gtd@upmf-grenoble.fr
Website: http://espace-europe.upmf-grenoble.fr/gtd/accueil.htm

Waving to the spectators	Exercise demonstration	Their performance was applauded

Chatting with a Congressman	Celebrating with the trophy

FOR TWO YEARS NOW, Janet Xiong has felt the chill.

In the streets of New York, her adopted city, there have been taunts and jeers against the meditation movement she follows, called Falun Gong. In her native China, friends have been hauled off to prison for those same beliefs.

Halfway around the world, the 47-year- old city researcher from Flushing was told, Chinese authorities were asking questions about her. Police wanted to know about the role that Xiong, a U.S. citizen who arrived from China 14 years ago, plays in the Falun Gong spiritual movement, target of a brutal crackdown in China. First, the word came back from a Falun Gong practitioner from Forest Hills, who was detained and interrogated while in China on business. "He told me, 'Never go back again because they are watching you,'" she said. Then another practitioner, a woman, was questioned. "She was asked the same questions about us," Xiong said.

The Chinese government's relentless drive to beat down the popular meditation movement echoes, faint but chilling, in New York. Government officials have appeared at "seminars" in Manhattan to decry [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous terms omitted], egging on local Chinese immigrants to oppose the movement. In one session, the consul-general told his audience that immigrants who have not become U.S. citizens were expected to obey Chinese laws, which ban Falun Gong. Further poisoning the atmosphere for local Falun Gong practitioners, powerful organizations in Chinatown -- which had expressed no concern about Falun Gong before the government crackdown started in July 1999 -- began holding countermarches against the group, their charges echoing the government's virulent accusations. Even small details have not escaped the government's hawklike attention: The New York consulate contacted a councilman in Queens when he issued a routine proclamation praising Falun Gong.

It is a highly unusual attempt by a foreign government to tackle a spiritual movement within U.S. borders -- complementing a campaign inside China that the State Department and human rights monitors say includes widespread brainwashing and torture. "It just shows how desperate, in my experience, the PRC [People's Republic of China] really is," said Gail Rachlin, Manhattan-based spokeswoman for Falun Gong.

For those who have watched Falun Gong adherents practice their slow-motion exercises in public parks, it's hard to imagine what the fuss is about.

The movement's founder is Li Hongzhi, once a clerk and trumpet player in China. He studied with a Buddhist monk and then Taoist masters, he told Newsday in 1999 in one of his rare interviews. Li, said to live at an undisclosed location in Queens, explained that in the late 1980s, his spiritual masters encouraged him to teach qigong, a traditional Chinese meditative exercise.

[...] In 1992, Li began to teach. According to the Master, as he is called, there is a wheel of energy within the lower abdomen that spins off a healing force. (Falun Gong means "wheel of the law.") Through exercises and meditation, followers try to cultivate this force, which Li says brings both mental and physical benefits. The idea that the connection between body and mind can improve health is hardly new in the Far East, but the focus on physical well-being -- Li, 50, says he has never been sick -- helped make the movement hugely popular in China.

"The Chinese government chose for a long time just to ignore them," said James Richardson, dean of the law department of the University of Nevada in Reno and a sociologist who has studied the crackdown on Falun Gong. "They were under the guise of just an exercise regime. The medical care in many parts of China is so poor that the Chinese government actually recommends these exercise regimes."

[...]

But in April 1999, Falun Gong members protested outside a student newspaper in China that would not recant its negative coverage. The government refused to order it; 10,000 Falun Gong adherents responded by protesting outside party headquarters in Beijing, seeking recognition for their movement. While Li says he has no interest in political might, this show of force sent shock waves through [party's name omitted] leadership in China, [...]

[...]

On July 22, 1999, President Jiang Zemin ordered a crackdown. According to Falun Gong, 50,000 of its practitioners have been detained in China; 10,000 sentenced to labor "re-education" camps; 1,000 committed to mental hospitals where torture and forced use of psychiatric drugs are common. So far, the group says, it has identified 265 people tortured to death in police custody.

Amnesty International, finding that torture or force-feeding hunger strikers had caused many of the deaths in police .custody, called the abuses "appalling" and urged the international community to speak out. And a State Department report on religious freedom that covered the early months of the crackdown largely confirmed the Falun Gong allegations to that point. It said "there were numerous credible reports of police involvement in beatings, detention under extremely harsh conditions, torture (including by electric shock and by having hands and feet shackled and linked with crossed steel chains), and other abuses of detained Falun Gong practitioners."

THE CHINESE CONSULATE in Manhattan is in a shopworn building that used to house a "motor inn" -- a portion of the sign is visible -- at the end of 42nd Street, across from the Hudson River. The ground floor has a brightly lit office where people line up for passports and visas.

In most consulates, the walls display colorful, scenic pictures of the homeland, a welcome to tourists. But at the Chinese Consulate, visitors are welcomed with posters featuring graphic pictures of dead bodies: charred by fire, ripped open with scissors, beaten on the head with a spade, hung from a rope.

[...]

These same posters, in English and Chinese, found their way into the hands of counterdemonstrators who jeered Falun Gong members when they marched through Chinatown on April 21. About 500 practitioners marched, hoping to counter the government propaganda campaign.

[...]

Wai Lind Lam, 54, a Falun Gong practitioner from Manhattan, said one of the opponents tried to burn her hair with a cigarette lighter during the China.town march.

"They said, 'Don't burn yourself,' and that kind of thing," said Yun Song, a 30-year-old actuarial consultant from Manhattan who is a Falun Gong practitioner. "This is one of many instances that we got disturbed or harassed."

Guan Liang, chairman of the umbrella group that led the Chinatown counterdemonstration, the United Chinese Associations of Greater New York, said in an interview that his association has not had contact with Chinese Consulate officials about Falun Gong.

And a spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York said he had no information about meetings between government officials and the Chinese community in New York about Falun Gong.

But information on a Web site maintained by the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan makes clear that the government has, in fact, been urging Liang and the New York Chinese community to join its crusade against Falun Gong.

[...]

ACROSS the country, Chinese consulates have not been shy about expressing that view to American elected .officials.

City Councilman Sheldon Leffler, a Queens Democrat, said he recalled issuing a proclamation on behalf of the council in support of Falun Gong practitioners on a Thursday. On Saturday, he went to his district office and found a two-page letter with a book and a videotape from the New York Chinese Consulate.

"It was basically saying they were disappointed I had presented such a proclamation," he said. Leffler didn't consider it threatening, but added, "When you get something from [party's name omitted] China saying you shouldn't have done this ... it's a bit of pressure."

But because of China's importance in international trade, officials in some U.S. cities, including Seattle, have rescinded proclamations. More than a dozen mayors have reported pressure from Chinese officials who often mention the importance of China-U.S. trade, The Associated Press reported.

In a speech in New York, Consul-General Zhang Hongxi even suggested that China's ban on Falun Gong was binding on Chinese immigrants living here if they have not yet become U.S. citizens.

"Of course, if you still hold the Chinese passports, that is, if you are still Chinese nationals without being naturalized as the U.S. citizens, you have dual obligations, you must abide by both the Chinese and the U.S. laws," he told the audience, according to a transcript on the consulate's Web site.

While the Chinese government can't enforce its ban in the United States, a number of New Yorkers have felt its force. In some cases, Falun Gong practitioners here said they've been unable to return to China to visit relatives.

Zhen Mei Xu, a 44-year-old Jackson Heights resident who works as a secretary at the United Nations, said she was turned back at Beijing International Airport when she went to visit her ailing father in August last year.

"I was not allowed to enter my own country," she said.

Wei Lu, 50, a textile designer from Manhattan who is an organizer of local Falun Gong activities, said she had gotten a passport extension pending a background check. "They canceled it," she said, adding that the consulate would not explain why. But Falun Gong practitioners assume the Chinese government knows of their connection to the group by photographing demonstrations or exercise sessions.

For some, the stakes have been higher.

Chunyan Teng, a Flushing woman who is a professor of traditional Chinese medicine at New York College for holistic Health, Education and Research in Syosset, was sentenced to three years in prison in China for leaking information about the abuse of Falun Gong adherents in mental hospitals to foreign reporters. The State Department has urged that Teng, 38, a legal permanent U.S. resident, be released on humanitarian grounds and allowed to join her family in the United States.

Last month, her mother, Yun Fang Qiu, 70, of Flushing, made a tearful plea at a news conference outside the Chinese Consulate for her daughter's release. "Chunyan did nothing but telling the truth," she said. "For telling the truth, she was put into prison and was tortured there."

The following week, a colleague at the school, Lorraine Kabacinski of Huntington Station, took part in a hunger strike for 48 hours to call attention to Teng's plight. "She actually introduced me to Falun Gong," Kabacinski said, adding that it had given her an inner calm. "I'm so grateful to her."

Janet Xiong, too, joined portions of a 130-hour sit-in across the street from the Chinese Consulate on 42nd Street, hoping to help Teng, a friend and .fellow Falun Gong practitioner in Flushing.

"We met almost every day, even in the snow," she said. "She was very determined. We practiced meditation for two years."

Xiong gestured toward the river. "You have the Statue of Liberty here -- New York is like a symbol of democracy," she said. "It's a harbor for liberty. But people are suffering in mainland China, and what are we doing here? Keeping quiet?"

For the first time in three interviews, Xiong's emotions pushed to the surface. As the emotions surged in her throat, she said she was crying. "I put myself in their shoes," Xiong said. "If I were there, I would probably do the same thing. I would probably be in jail. It's like something that could happen to me."

http://www.newsday.com/features/ny-feat-fcov906.story

FRENCH FAMILY OUT OF CHINESE LABOR CAMP, BUT "FREE"?Grenoble, Sept 4. (Agence France Presse) - "Three Chinese members of the Falun Gong movement who live in France and who were detained while visiting relatives in China have been released, a support group announced here Tuesday. The trio, a couple and their teenage daughter, were seized in a raid on August 7 while visiting family in north China's inner Mongolia region. Ivan Samson, a member of a support group, said the family had made it known that they were 'doing well, were out of prison but they can't say when they will come back to France.' The spiritual group identified the family as Chi Jian, a researcher in the southeastern French city of Grenoble, his wife Sun Fenglong and their daughter Chi Yifan, all of whom hold French residency. The Chinese government has a previous record of detaining overseas nationals or residents when they go to China to visit relatives, the Falun Gong information center said..."

PRO-BEIJING GROUP HOLDS "PRIVATE" ANTI-FALUN GONG EXHIBIT IN HONG KONGHONG KONG, Sept. 3 (AP) - Falun Gong members found themselves barred from an "anti-evil cult" exhibition Monday after security guards forcibly removed a follower from the entrance of the exhibition hall. Dacky Sin, 32, was picked up and taken away by three uniformed security guards at the Hong Kong Exhibition Center, which has been staging an exhibition portraying Falun Gong as a self-destructive cult. Another Falun Gong follower, Chau Sing, said that she, Sin and six other members were trying to deliver a letter Monday afternoon expressing the group's view to the conference organizer, the pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po. Chau said about seven or eight security guards ordered them to leave, saying the exhibition hall was a private area and that they were "not welcome" at the three-day exhibition that ends Tuesday. Sin was later released and had some bruises on his neck, but the other Falun Gong followers left on their own.... The Falun Gong members were later released without being charged, but the arrest marked the toughest action Hong Kong has taken on the group.

REPORTED FALUN GONG SENTENCES 'DISTURBING' TO U.S. WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) -The United States said on Monday it was disturbed at reports that Chinese courts had sentenced 45 alleged Falun Gong organizers to prison terms of up to 13 years. The official Beijing Daily said on Sunday that the 45 were sentenced in Beijing over the past few days for organizing protests, making banners and printing leaflets in defiance of a government campaign against the spiritual movement. "We find those reports disturbing. As we've noted many times before, China is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which includes provisions on the freedom of expression," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a daily briefing. "We've raised with China on many occasions our concerns about the crackdown on the Falun Gong and reports of torture and mistreatment of detained and imprisoned practitioners. We're going to continue to raise those issues," he said...

PREMIER ZHU RONGJI FIELDS HUMAN RIGHTS QUESTIONS ON VISIT TO IRELANDSept. 4 (Irish Times) - "Forceful interventions on human rights issues and the situation in Tibet have been made by the [Irish] Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and by the President, Mrs McAleese, on the second day of the four-day official visit to Ireland by the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji. Trade matters and common interests on the United Nations Security Council were also discussed. The Taoiseach surprised some observers by repeatedly stressing the need for stricter Chinese adherence to universal standards of human rights. He specifically highlighted the case of Mr Zhao Ming, a postgraduate student at Trinity College Dublin and follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, who is currently detained without trial in China. Mr Ahern extracted a promise from the Premier that he would inquire about the case... The pressure was maintained by the President, Mrs McAleese, whose meeting with the Premier extended beyond the scheduled 20 minutes to a full 45 minutes as the two engaged in a 'healthy and very frank discussion and exchange of views...'"

U.S. FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS START 900-MILE PROTEST MARCHSEATTLE, Aug 22 (Reuters) - "A dozen members of the banned Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong started a 900-mile (1,440-km) trek from Seattle to San Francisco on Wednesday amid a chilly rain to protest China's campaign against the group..."

U. OF TEXAS STUDENT CALLS FOR RELEASE OF HER FATHER FROM CHINESE PRISONSept. 5 (Daily Texan) - It has been more than two years since the Chinese government arrested Danielle Wang's father. Today, unsure about her father's whereabouts, Wang, a civil engineering sophomore, clings to hope that she will someday see him again... After the arrest, Chinese officials told her aunt, who lives in China, that Zhaiwen Wang would have a court hearing in December. On Christmas Eve 1999, Wang saw her father on CNN, escorted into the proceeding wearing only an oversized police jacket, with his hair faded from black to gray and with several missing teeth. "I could not believe that this was my father," Wang said. "I had never seen that look on his face before. He looked so beaten up. It was so hurtful." He was sentenced to 16 years for leading the Falun Gong rally. It was that image of her father that steered Wang into a depressive state that caused her to neglect everything, except the idea of traveling back to China to help him. She stopped eating regularly and spent hours sobbing, imagining what her father was going though. "I just wanted to get back to China to find him. Then, I realized, I had to do something to help the victims of Falun Gong, because if we don't stand up, there will be no voice... I am not scared because I think what I'm doing is right," she said...

STORIES TO WATCH - MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS (visit www.faluninfo.net for full stories)

• Hot Topic for Bush's visit to China in October: The release of Dr. Teng, a New York resident, held in a Chinese labor camp for the last year and a half for exposing the maltreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China... Falun Gong's request to Bush? "Bring Dr. Teng Home!"
• Hunger Strike Enters Second Month - 130 Falun Gong practitioners held in notorious "Masanjia" labor camp in northeastern China - famous for its maltreatment of women - China denies the claim, but won't admit any journalists or foreign observers. International appeals continue in cities around the world, demanding release of these innocent people, whose lives may now be in danger.
• Falun Gong to Seek Legal Retribution for Chinese Persecution - in an international call for detailed information regarding any officials involved in torture, rape, and murder of Falun Gong practitioners in China, the Falun Dafa Information Center relayed the group's intent to prosecute mainland Chinese officials through legal means. See also recent charges brought against Chinese officials traveling in the US.
• Recent Arrests in Hong Kong and Macau - Several practitioners of Falun Gong in both Hong Kong and Macau were arrested during their peaceful protests outside the Chinese liaison offices. Similar previous peaceful protests have gone undisturbed by local police - is this a sign of compromising the "one country, two systems" policy?