7000 petitioners arrested in Beijing
Posted by Daniel Teng on Thursday, June 4th, 2009
To prevent petitioners from participating in activities during the June 4th Tiananmen Square Massacre anniversary, authorities in Beijing, have since Sunday, captured and detained over 7000 petitioners in many villages just south of Beijing. Many of them are now detained at Qinghe, Daxin, Chaoyang District and Majialou, which are all holding facilities in Beijing.
Petitioners say the arrests took place at night and were conducted by the Public Security Bureau. One petitioner claimed he was arrested three times.
Petitioner Mr Pu says he escaped from Majialou and revealed that more than 10,000 people are detained in Majialou and in the underground cellars. He says conditions are crowded and terrible.
SOH has learned that the underground Majialou cellars are unknown to most people. Because Majialou isn’t big enough to accommodate all the detainees, the cellars are being used. One woman said the cellars in Majialou are very dark and in the beginning several thousand people were down there now the number is probably over 10,000. There is a main tunnel and no sunlight.
Another petitioner named Mr Zhou says when local authorities detain large groups of petitioners, the number of petitioners in the south side of Beijing decrease from 800 to 400 in a single day. Putting a stop to any June 4th related activities. Many petitioners who make a living by collecting garbage are afraid to walk the streets and calling on the international community for help.
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