(Clearwisdom.net) World Falun Dafa Day was first celebrated on May 13, 2000. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, countless practitioners have gone to Beijing to clarify the truth about Falun Gong and appeal for justice. On the first World Falun Dafa Day, Tiananmen Square and the Tiananmen Police Station were filled with practitioners' purely benevolent voices and never-yielding bodies. I would like to share what I witnessed on that day.
When I did the Falun Gong exercises at my school (our former exercise site) on the morning of May 11, 2000, I was reported to the police. Therefore, I decided to go to Beijing to appeal for the freedom to practice Falun Gong. I met around 10 practitioners on my way and I knew about half of them. Six practitioners wore a "Falun Gong" T-shirt―a common garment worn by Falun Gong practitioners before the CCP's persecution--which had the Falun emblem on the front and the three characters for Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance on the back. Some practitioners wore a jacket over it. I didn't wear the T-shirt because I was concerned that if I did I might not be able to keep this precious T-shirt. Actually, this fear showed that my "xinxing" was not high enough. Another practitioner was able to wear it and bring it safely home because he had the firm thought, "I must bring the T-shirt back."
We separated into smaller groups after getting off the train at Beijing Station. I led another practitioner. Though I was not familiar with Beijing, where to go came to me naturally. We shortly arrived at Tiananmen Square by bus.
Tiananmen Square was very big. We had not set a place to meet, but within a short while, we all gathered together. One practitioner bought yellow chrysanthemum flowers and we each took a stem. We made a circle and kept silent for a few minutes. Nobody came to interfere with us. Then we walked towards the Monument to the People's Heroes. Those practitioners wearing Falun Gong T-shirts took off their jackets. The Falun Emblem and the words "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance" startled the universe and moved the gods at the square. I kept my hands in the Heshi position. A policeman in plain clothes approached me immediately and dragged me into a bus waiting on the side of the square. Several practitioners had been forced onto the bus already. Gradually, all the practitioners in our group were arrested and forced onto the bus. Some were even beaten. The bus took off after it was full. It first circled around the square once before it headed away.
At around 9 a.m., we were taken to the Tiananmen Police Station. Practitioners all lined up there. The police asked for the name and home address of each practitioner. Almost none of the practitioners gave them the information. The practitioners refused to give this information because they did not want the CCP to use it to implicate their employers or the local authorities. I wore my best shirt and tie, because I thought that it was the most sacred act to go to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. A policeman asked while pointing to me, "Is he also a practitioner?" Another policeman answered, "Yes. They all are. There are lots of them."
We were blocked in an empty courtyard between the main building and the walls of the police station. The courtyard was not big. Several practitioners who seemed to be from Hebei Province were there already. They went to clarify the truth at Tiananmen Square at around 5 a.m., which they had done several times previously. It might have been the first time for some practitioners to wear the Falun Gong T-shirt at Tiananmen Square. The police reported it to the Department of Public Security. Those practitioners wearing the T-shirt were taken into the building for interrogation. Some were beaten and some practitioners' identities were discovered.
As more and more practitioners were arrested, the courtyard gradually filled with practitioners, including seniors, children, students, and people of different occupations. Some female practitioners wore make-up and formal dress as if to celebrate a holiday. When more and more people came, the police ordered the male practitioners to stand at the front and the female practitioners to stand at the back. Sometimes practitioners chatted with each other in low voices, but most of the time it was quiet. Practitioners were calm, because we all came to Tiananmen Square for the same purpose.
Some practitioners were taken into the building and beaten. Policemen from other cities' Beijing representative offices kept coming to look for practitioners from their regions. Some practitioners were identified and forcefully taken away.
The sun moved to the middle of the sky and practitioners spontaneously started doing the exercises. One person led the exercise and all of us followed him. We did the second exercise, "Falun Standing Stance." After we finished, we started reciting Lunyu from Zhuan Falun, Teacher's articles, and poems in Hong Yin. The police turned on their loud speakers to disturb us, but practitioners remained undaunted. We continued reciting. The loud speakers quieted down, became louder, then quieted down again. This cycle repeated a few times before the speakers became completely silent.
A few young armed policemen were watching us. Some practitioners benevolently clarified the truth to them. The police tortured us by not letting us go to the bathroom. Practitioners requested to go a few times but they ignored us. Some seniors and children were arrested in the morning, but they were not allowed to go to the bathroom either. The police said, "If you tell us your name and address, we'll let you go to the bathroom." At around 5 p.m., some young female practitioners (later I heard they were from Qinghua University, Beijing) spoke with the police. One female practitioner said, "If you don't let us go to the bathroom, I will knock my head against the wall." An armed policeman said, "If you die, the blame goes to your Teacher. You will be reported as having committed suicide." At last, the police gave in and allowed practitioners to go to the bathroom one at a time.
At around 6 p.m., police went to the courtyard to count the practitioners. They counted 10 to 20 practitioners, including both male and female, and took them away in groups. I was in the second group to be taken away. We were put on a bus with all the curtains closed. A policeman followed each practitioner. We were taken to the Beijing Police Department Thirteenth Division Detention Center. The police strip-searched us. They beat us if we did not tell them our names and addresses. Late at night, one could still hear the practitioners' cries of pain from being beaten and tortured.
On May 13, 2000, like any other day, Tiananmen Police Station arrested several hundred Falun Gong practitioners. The actual arrest number is higher. Not all the practitioners were taken to the Tiananmen Police Station because the local authorities were pressured by the CCP to prevent practitioners from their regions from going to Beijing. The Beijing representative offices had bribed the on-duty policemen at Tiananmen Square that once they arrested a practitioner, if they could identify the practitioner or the practitioner told his name and address, the police would let the local police take the practitioner and imprison him at their Beijing representative offices.