Greetings Master!

Greetings fellow practitioners!

My name is Lau Yuk-ling. I am a practitioner from Hong Kong, and one of the 16 practitioners charged in the framed up legal suit. It's my honor to attend the Southeastern Fa Conference. On behalf of the 15 other practitioners, including the four Swiss practitioners, I will report to Master and my fellow practitioners details of the event.

Early last March, practitioners in Changchun successfully showed films of Jiang Zemin's persecution of Falun Gong on network TV. After that, Jiang Zemin outrageously issued secret orders to kill Dafa practitioners. The situation in Changchun called for immediate action. In order to stop the brutal suppression carried out by Jiang Zemin's group of scoundrels that has lasted for three years and to help the precious Chinese people know the truth about the persecution, four Swiss practitioners decided to go to Beijing to validate Dafa. Their visas to Beijing, however, were suddenly cancelled by the Chinese Consulate for no reason. So they decided to hold a peaceful appeal in Hong Kong. They put aside their work, families, comfortable lives, and traveled thousands of miles to Hong Kong to safeguard the truth of the cosmos and rescue the practitioners being persecuted in China. They planned to hold a three-day hunger strike in front of the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong.

At 8:30 on the morning of March 14, the Swiss practitioners started the hunger strike in front of the China Liaison Office while alternately doing the practice with the music and sending forth righteous thoughts. It was a peaceful atmosphere. Behind them, we Hong Kong practitioners hung up a banner with the following words, "Stop Jiang Zemin's Killing Order, Urgent Rescue of Falun Gong Practitioners." Soon after we got there, the police received a phone call from the liaison office and arrived at 8:50 a.m. Many reporters came too. The Swiss practitioners read a statement explaining why they came to appeal and exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in China. By 9:10 a.m., the police were warning the Swiss practitioners that their sit-in was obstructing other people and that they should leave. At around 10:00 a.m., the police placed a row of iron barriers in front of the flagpole, which blocked the thoroughfare from the flagpole to the liaison office building. Then they put iron barriers along the pavement, which blocked of the pavement, and left only a small opening for pedestrians. At one p.m., they parked two police cars on the pavement. Dozens of police officers arrived and completely obstructed the way. That is when several more Hong Kong practitioners joined the peaceful appeal. At 1:10 p.m., Superintendent Zhao of the West District gave the order to forcefully arrest practitioners. The Hong Kong practitioners joined their arms and made a circle and protect the Swiss practitioners in the middle. My thought was that we couldn't let the police take away the Swiss practitioners and we had to extend the time of the appeal, even if it was for one extra minute or second.

Because we totally ignored the unjustifiable request to leave, the police started to use violence on us. They used a method of pinching the acupuncture points that is not easily seen by an observer. While holding the practitioner's head they pressed hard on the acupuncture points with their thumbs. It is a method used to handle criminals. Because it stops the blood from going to the head, one will feel pain, weakness, difficulty in producing any sounds and in breathing, and a choking sensation. Almost every practitioner experienced the agony of this attack. In this way, the police forced us to loosen our linked arms. Though we had the will to insist on the appeal, we were separated by the police one by one and carried into police vans. Only then did I realize that the back of my right ear was swollen. I also had swelling in my left pinky and beneath the nail. Nine practitioners were injured. Inside the yard of the police station, they asked us to get out of the van. We firmly refused to follow their orders. We knew that we hadn't violated any laws and shouldn't be have been arrested in the first place. We tried to reason with them. Still, we were carried one by one from the van to the interrogation room. I struggled while being carried from the van.

In the police station, we repeatedly stated that we appealed in front of the China Liaison Office because of the bloody suppression of Falun Gong in China. And we kept saying that our peaceful appeal was legal and that we shouldn't be treated like criminals. We didn't follow any of their requests, and didn't show our ID or sign any documents. The final signature was to obtain bail. As long as you signed the form you could be released. However, you would have to report to the police station when requested. Otherwise, you were likely to be fined and sentenced. We completely ignored everything and maintained only one thought: do not follow any of their unjustifiable requests. Thus we were detained in the police station for nearly 30 hours. At around 5:00 p.m. on March 15, the police team handling serious crimes escorted the 16 of us to the West District Court, where two trumped up charges were read to us. The first was that our appeal caused inconvenience or obstruction to others; the second was that our banner caused inconvenience or obstruction to others. Yet when we went to court on March 22, the number of charges had increased to 7, among which was refusing to get off the police van when requested. Three practitioners were charged with obstructing the police (during the trial this charge was extended to nine practitioners). The fourth charge was assaulting police. A policewoman said that Lu Jie bit her while we were in the van. The fifth and sixth charges alleged that I assaulted the two policewomen who carried me out of the van. The seventh charge accused Wang Yaoqing of assaulting a policewoman from behind while we were in the interrogation room. Each and every one of the seven charges was totally made up. So evil!

For the trial, the government was represented by one of the most prestigious attorneys in Hong Kong. The police listed 31 people as witnesses, and the court summoned 19 of them. The security people of the China Liaison Office and the policemen started to perjure themselves, immediately after they swore to tell the truth, by putting forth one lie after another. Under the pressure, the judge showed obvious favoritism towards the plaintiff and insulted our attorney. Five practitioners testified during the trial. The attorney for the plaintiff had interrogated one of them for three days. The trial started on June 17 and lasted for 26 days. On August 15, the judge stated his verdict: all seven charges were deemed valid despite the fact that no evidence was presented to support the charges and all testimony from practitioners was ignored. He said the testimony given by the four witnesses for the defense were not reliable and that the practitioners evaded the plaintiff's questions. However, the testimony of the witnesses for the plaintiff was credible. He insulted practitioners during their testimonies and insulted our attorney. I do not want to say too much about that.

During the five months from March 14 till now, we studied the Fa, exchanged experiences, looked within ourselves, and deepened our understanding of the Fa. During the period from March 14 to June 17, we looked for shortcomings in ourselves. We realized that the evil took advantage because we had human thoughts. Master says in Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston, "But sometimes, because we don't keep up our Fa-study, we handle like an ordinary person some of the things we do to spread the Fa and save sentient beings. This makes a lot of the sacred things we do not so sacred, it prevents us from doing them well, and it also causes people in society not to understand us sometimes. So it not only prevents you from improving, but also causes Dafa some losses."

Through diligent study of the Fa and looking within ourselves, we found the not-so-well-cultivated sides of ourselves. During the whole event, especially when the police used violence, some of us became angry and showed the competitive mentality. We were not able to stay calm like the Swiss practitioners. We kept emphasizing how unfairly the police had treated us. Also, our thought of protecting the Swiss practitioners was a human thought. Therefore, it didn't have a positive result.

We found ways in which we did not live up to Dafa's requirements and our various attachments. Through Fa study and experience sharing, we realized that it was good to have our shortcomings revealed. Once we found them, we eliminated them. Since then, we have been diligently cultivating benevolence, requiring ourselves to treat sentient beings with kind thoughts and to melt everything with the power of benevolence. Through two large-scale experience sharing conferences in Hong Kong, many practitioners changed their attitudes toward the event. At the beginning, they didn't understand us and regarded it as something that only concerned the 16 of us. Later they really cared about us, tried to comfort us, and took the case as their own business. Many practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts during the trial. Practitioners joined together and became one body to improve as a whole. In addition, the practitioners around the world also cared about us. Practitioners in every country sent forth righteous thoughts around the clock. Canadian and American practitioners called us on the phone and exchanged experiences with us for hours. Three American practitioners, one of them a lawyer, came to Hong Kong to help us. Canadian and American practitioners held hunger strikes along with us. All this fully shows what Master says in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington D.C. Fa Conference", "The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." We are all disciples in the same practice. We are one body.

After group study and discussion, our righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger. We realized that though we have omissions, the evil is not allowed to make use of our loopholes and we need to completely deny the old force's arrangement. Master Li said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston," "But even so, it's actually because the old forces insist on testing Dafa disciples' xinxing that they've done this. That's definitely the case. If it weren't, this definitely wouldn't have happened. The best way to deal with this situation is for Dafa disciples to walk their paths righteously, to try their best not to let the evil or the old forces take advantage of their gaps, and to solidify their righteous thoughts. The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things."

Following this Fa principle, we strengthened our righteous thoughts and believed that our peaceful appeal was the most righteous and best thing. Even from the standpoint of the Fa principles of this human world, it was just and completely within the requirements of Hong Kong's Basic Rule of Law. The Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong residents have the freedom of expression and assembly. Our peaceful appeal was doing nothing but exercising those freedoms. In addition, we did it completely out of our compassion for others. Though our actions appear to be the same as those of everyday people on the surface, everyday people act out of their own self-interest whereas we act out of upholding the Truth of the universe. This is precisely what a Dafa disciple of the Fa-rectification period should do.

The seven charges made against us were all groundless. Based on the facts, let's take a look at the first charge of "blocking the street." The sidewalk in front of Chinese Liaison Office is approximately 9 meters wide (over 36 feet), and at the time of our appeal, there was very little pedestrian traffic. The total area of the sidewalk outside the Chinese Liaison Office is approximately 140 square meters, and we only took up a space of 7 square meters. We left plenty of room for pedestrians and staff members of the Chinese Liaison Office to pass by us in all directions. Besides, the normal walking route of the Chinese Liaison staff members when entering the building is along the driveway on both sides of the main entrance. Very rarely do people walk through the central passage at the main entrance where we were. In addition, in the 7 square meter area that we occupied, our 2.56 x 1.56 meter banner stood between the Swiss and Hong Kong practitioners, so how could it obstruct the street as it was alleged to? Actually, what really obstructed the street were the policeman's barricades, police cars, and the police themselves. How absurd it is for them to charge us with blocking the street . The police were the ones who broke the law by arresting good law-abiding people. How can it be called "interfering with the police" if we refused to follow instructions that actually violated Hong Kong law?

The policemen said that they had recorded all of the charges against us on videotape as proof of our guilt. However, when viewing the videotape, there is not any evidence for charges No. 4-7 of assaulting police. From the videotape, we can see that Lu Jie never opened her mouth, yet a policewoman claimed that Lu Jie bit her. The two policewomen who gave testimony in court said that I grabbed the right side of her neck with my hand. Later she changed her story and said that I had actually grabbed her throat, but there is not such a scene in the videotape. Even with groundless testimonies such as these and countless loopholes in the prosecutor's case against us, the judge still made the decision that the charges were valid and found us guilty. This indicates that certain people in Hong Kong have been blatantly used by the evil to persecute Dafa and Dafa practitioners. It is our responsibility to assist Master Li in Fa-rectification and "Rectify all that is not righteous" ("Dafa is Indestructible"). Therefore, I felt we should rectify the unrighteous court decision and refuse to accept the verdict of "guilty."

After the guilty verdict was issued on August 15, our first test came when the police wanted to take our fingerprints and pictures. Dafa disciples live their lives according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, how could we possibly be labeled as criminals? To deal with this test, we first remembered to keep our righteous thoughts strong and not cooperate with the evil beings that were controlling the policemen to do bad things. We remained calm and un-afraid, and remembered Master Li's teachings in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference," "Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people. Don't take a detour when you run into difficulties. When you see something that does us harm, or when you see something blocking our validating the Fa, don't take a detour -- you should face it, and clarify the truth and save those beings."

So, on the morning of August 16, we didn't avoid the problem and set forth with determination to clarify the truth to the policemen at the station. There were twelve of us in all. Officer Deng from the Important Case Section thought that we had come to get our fingerprints and pictures taken and said, "We only asked for nine of you to come, and you didn't all need to come." At that moment, a female inspector named Chen Qian also passed by. We took this opportunity to clarify the facts about how Chinese practitioners in mainland China have been persecuted, the real reason for our coming to the station, and the responsibility the police have for the future of Hong Kong's Basic Rule of Law and the "One Country and Two Systems" policy. While listening to us, they kept nodding and finally said, "In fact, we indeed admire your spirit in insisting on upholding your beliefs." We then gave them truth-clarifying materials and asked them to pass the materials on to officer Zhao. Upon doing so, they had completely forgotten about taking our fingerprints and pictures and officer Deng left to ask his superior for permission for us to leave. Shortly after he returned and said, "You can leave now." In this way, clarifying the facts of Falun Dafa to them allowed this miracle to appear.

Another difficult test we faced was whether or not to pay our fines. All sixteen of us were ordered to pay fines ranging from 1300 to 3800 Hong Kong dollars (approximately $163 U.S. to $475 U.S.). Our defense lawyer had appealed on our behalf and asked the judge to postpone the fines, but his request was denied. I received the highest of the fines. I had no concern for how much money I had to pay, but we are Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period and didn't commit any wrongdoing; how could we pay the fines? Doing so would be the same as our admitting to a crime we didn't commit and giving into the evil's persecution. As Dafa disciples, we should consider Dafa first. Our actions directly affect Dafa's reputation in the human world. After discussion, we had strong righteous thoughts and firmly refused to pay the fines. We told our lawyer that we were innocent and will not pay the fines, and he replied, "If you don't pay the fines, you may be put into jail." We remained firm in our innocence at this point and completely denied the old force's arrangements in our thinking. Dafa disciples should not be arrested and imprisoned for validating Dafa, and we should not be afraid of the evil. With Master Li's protection, what should we be afraid of? We should firmly believe in Master Li and Dafa. Wherever there is problem, that is where we need to clarify the truth. August 19 was the deadline for us to pay our fines. We didn't pay them and on August 20 we went to the Western District Police Bureau to clarify the facts to Officer Zhao in person. Afterwards, we went to the Western District Court and asked to meet the judge, but he was unavailable. We mailed him the truth-clarifying materials along with a letter asking for an appointment to improve mutual understanding and trust between us, but he has yet to reply as of now. In the meantime, we made good use of the weekends to walk around the crowded areas of Hong Kong to distribute truth-clarifying flyers and VCDs. We will continue to be diligent in the future and follow Master Li's teaching, "Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them." ("Hurry Up and Tell Them").

The false charges of the Hong Kong police against the sixteen Falun Gong practitioners is not simply a conflict between Falun Gong practitioners and policemen, nor is it a simple legal issue. It is the full manifestation the spread of the persecution of Falun Gong outside mainland China through pressure from the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong. It was a just and magnificent action for the Swiss practitioners to go to Hong Kong and join the Hong Kong practitioners for the peaceful appeal, and it was within the limits of the law. If one can be falsely accused of blocking the street for having such a small-scale peaceful appeal, then isn't the Basic Rule of Law and China's "One Country, Two Systems" policy nothing but empty talk? Four to five well-trained policemen were brought in to forcefully arrest one unarmed female practitioner. Because she tried to free herself when inflicted with pain, she was accused of assaulting the police. Isn't this outrageous?

In fact, Jiang Zemin's persecution of Falun Gong in mainland China has long spread over into Hong Kong. Dozens of Hong Kong practitioners have been placed on a blacklist and over thirty practitioners have had their return certificates confiscated from them. More than five practitioners have been illegally detained by police in mainland China when they went to the mainland on business trips or personal visits, and as of now, three of them are still in detention.

For some time now, the meeting spaces for Falun Gong events have been restricted in Hong Kong. From July 2001 until now, we have applied over seventy times for a space to hold a Fa-conference and other Dafa activities, but they were all turned down.

The police have also used several means to create difficulties for our continuous peaceful appeals outside the Chinese Liaison Office. On November 10, 2001, they suddenly got angry and took away our banners during a peaceful appeal.

During this year's anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China by Great Britain, more than 130 overseas Falun Gong practitioners were denied entrance into Hong Kong due to the Chinese dictator's impending visit. One practitioner was even forced into a body bag and carried onto a plane. Recently, when Zhang Cuiying came to Hong Kong to hold an art exhibition on Chinese traditional culture, she was also denied entrance into Hong Kong.

All of these facts show that it is the Hong Kong policemen, under pressure from the Chinese Liaison Office, who have violated Hong Kong law. It is Jiang Zemin and the Hong Kong government who have been damaging the "One Country, Two Systems" policy by denying our right to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. It is Jiang Zemin that should have been put on trial, not us.

This political show trial has aroused the attention of many circles in the international community. We hope our peaceful appeal can awaken justice and conscience in people's minds. Together we can end Jiang Zemin's persecution of Falun Gong. Everyone needs Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance). We hope all kind-hearted people in Hong Kong will have a bright future.

"Never in history has someone who persecuted those with upright faiths ever succeeded." ("Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts") It is pointless for any evil force to try and damage Dafa. Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts are powerful. Let's follow Master Li's teachings, study the Fa well, clarify the truth, and send forth righteous thoughts. Let's closely follow the Fa-rectification process of Master Li and assist Master Li in Fa-rectification, establishing our mighty virtue in the process.

In conclusion, I would like read Master Li's poem "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions" to encourage mutual improvement amongst fellow practitioners:

A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly

If you have noticed anything inappropriate in what I've said, please kindly point it out to me. Thank you everyone!