February 4, 2000
On the night of February 4, 2000, the Eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, many Falun Gong practitioners from US, Australia, Japan and Mainland China gathered at the Tiananmen Square to appeal to the Chinese central authorities to stop their brutal persecutions against Falun Gong by holding up banners of Falun Dafa and practicing the serene meditative exercises on the Square peacefully. However, the Dragons New Years Eve witnessed the brutal violence of the Chinese communist regime.
Uniformed police officers, plainclothes agents and armed policemen were all over the Square. Many police vans were moving around the Square. On the corners of the Square, there were many police vans. Passersby were questioned and body-searched and were asked by the police whether they were Falun Gong practitioners. Some were taken to the police vans without any reason. I was also grabbed by the police rushing out from a police van and was forced to get on the van.
At 11pm, in the center of the Square, two Beijing practitioners, Ms. Lili Bai and Ms. Shu-ge Wang, each held up a flag with Falun emblem. While the police officers rushed over to seize the flags, they risked their lives to protect the flags. They were pushed down onto the ground and were brutally beaten up by the police officers. Even after they were taken to the police van, the police officers still continued to slap their faces madly. Other arrested practitioners on the same van asked the police officers to stop beating them, however, the police officers continued their violence and humiliations. Later, many practitioners on the Square held up banners reading, Falun Dafa practitioners have no hatred or anger and Falun Dafa practitioners appeal to the government because they trust the government etc. All of them were brutally beaten up by the plainclothes agents and uniformed police officers and then taken to the Tiananmen Square police station.
A teenager practitioner who took photos on the Tiananmen Square and her young friend (a daughter of a fellow practitioner) were also taken to the Tiananmen Square police station. At that time, several hundred practitioners had already been detained there. The film of that teenager practitioner was exposed by the police, but the bright teenager practitioner was able to save another film. Later, she managed to escape from the police station and told us her experience.
We arrived at the Square at 11:30pm. At that time, many practitioners had already walked towards the Square. At the Southeastern corner of the Qian-men, we saw dozens of practitioners being detained inside the outdoor steel banisters guarded by the uniformed and plainclothes officers. Police vans full of arrested practitioners left one after another and took the arrested practitioners to the Tiananmen Square police station. In less than 15 minutes, more than 20 police vans left. Many practitioners were pushed onto the police vans before they were able to walk into the Square.
At 11:55pm, a lot of armed police officers rushed to the Tiananmen Square from the direction of Mao Zhedong memorial hall and history museum. Meanwhile, uniformed police officers, plainclothes agents and armed policemen started to madly chase, beat up and arrest practitioners. Practitioners were not afraid at all. They kept holding up banners and practicing Falun Dafa exercises. Near us, a female practitioner from Shi-jia-zhuang also held up a red banner. The police rushed to her and a dozen of other practitioners around her. Some practitioners were beaten to the ground. A Beijing practitioner named Li-juan Luo questioned the police why they beat people. She and other practitioners tried to help those practitioners who fell onto the ground, but they were also taken onto the police vans. During the whole process, plainclothes agents of the government videotaped how they treated innocent and peaceful practitioners. At last, the police started to search practitioners all over the Square and pushed all the rest 200 people on the Square onto the vans. The police might also realize that almost all the people who went to the Tiananmen Square on the New Years Eve were practitioners.
At 0:20am, the authorities imposed a curfew on Tiananmen Square. There was not a single person on the Square except armed police. A black car that had toured around the Square for a long time finally went to the direction of the Ministry of Public Security.
Before the New Years Eve, many practitioners had already been detained by their local police stations. They were told that they would be detained for a few days until the holidays were over. Many practitioners were warned not to go to Tiananmen Square by local police officers. They were threatened that they could not expect to spend the New Year at home if they went to Tiananmen Square.
At 1:00am of February 5, a witness saw at least 4 buses full of practitioners; each one had about 100 practitioners.
Chinese New Years Eve Witnessed Brutal Violence on Tiananmen Square [2]
February 5, 2000
Today it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, the year of Dragon. At 2:30pm when we passed by the Tiananmen Square, the Square was still under the curfew. Around the Square, there was an armed policeman in every few meters. Behind the steel banisters around the Tiananmen Square, crowds of people were standing quietly there and looking toward the Tiananmen Square. There were about several thousand people. It appeared to us that most of them were Falun Dafa practitioners. Their silence sent the Chinese government a clear message that it is totally wrong to treat Falun Dafa and its kind-hearted practitioners so brutally and inhumanely.
An old gentleman told us the bloody violence against Falun Dafa practitioners on the Tiananmen Square last night. The wife and daughter of this elder were both arrested last night on the Square.
This gentleman told us that last night the police arrested and intercepted every person they met. Many police vans were full of arrested practitioners.
Three practitioners from Lin-yi of Shandong Province, Qun Zhao, Wei Xu and Hong-shen Li held up a banner on the Square last night. After about 20 seconds, 6 police officers rushed over and beat them onto the ground. They could not stand up after a long time. The police tried to tear off the banners madly. Later, the three of them were taken to the police van by some other police officers. The 4-year-old daughter of Wei Xu cried for her mother and was also taken to the police van in a short while. Her father is still being illegally detained in Shandong province.
A 5-year-old practitioner called Tian Yu held up a banner of Falun Dafa with his parents on the Square. The whole family was taken to the police van.
At the northeastern corner of the Square, more than 100 practitioners sat down simultaneously to do the sitting meditation after a 40-year-old woman said, sit down. The police rushed over and madly beat these practitioners. They grabbed the hairs of female practitioners and dragged them onto the police van. A practitioner from Australia named Dai fell down onto the ground after being kicked on the back three times by a police officer and was then taken to a police van. A practitioner from Lin-yi district of Shandong Province named Zhen was severely beaten, and there was blood on his face. A female practitioner from Hong Kong, You-qun Wang, was arrested at about 8:30am when she was holding up a banner.
Practitioners from Ba-yan County of Hei-long-jiang province, Men-lin Fei, Lin-yan Ju and the other four were taken to the Tiananmen Square police station.
According to our knowledge, in alone, about 100 practitioners from Lin-yi district of Shan-dong province were arrested. About 30 people from Shun-yi county of Beijing were arrested. More than 40 practitioners from Shi-jia-zhuang, Xin-ji and Lin-cheng etc who came with us were all arrested. Many practitioners from Jiang-su province were arrested in the hotel before they went to the Tiananmen Square.
We estimated that over 1,000 practitioners were arrested on the Tiananmen Square on the New Years Eve.
History will remember this darkest Spring Festival.
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
