Written by a Falun Dafa practitioner from Shandong Province in China
My mother-in-law’s family started practicing Falun Gong in the second half of
1996, and they have all benefited a lot from the practice. Unfortunately, this
wonderful practice has suffered persecution and oppression since April 1999.
At that time I had not yet started practicing Falun Gong. Officials from the
town government constantly came to my home and tried to persuade us not to practice.
Three people from the town committee and three policemen from the police station
were in charge of watching our family. They came and went all day long, and
wouldn’t let us rest in peace.
On the night of July 19, 1999, they climbed over the wall and entered our yard.
They broke down the front door, arrested my father-in-law, my brother-in-law
and his wife and took them to the town office. My mother-in-law was so frightened
that she cried continuously. Only my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and my
brother-in-law’s two children were left at home. Both his room and our room
were filled with people. Somebody was sent to call me back from my parents’
home where I was staying at that time because I was six-month pregnant.
Very soon, the director of the Family Planning Committee leading a bunch of
other people came to my home. They wanted us to expose and criticize Falun Gong.
Later on, the town committee forced my boss and several co-workers to join
them in watching my mother-in-law and myself near our home. On July 25, 1999,
on my elder brother’s demand, I was taken back to my parents’ home. My workplace
sent two people to watch me everyday. On July 26, three people from the education
committee came and took my husband away. They extorted 1,500 Yuan [500 Yuan
is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China] from me, which they
said was to pay for the living expenses of the people who lived with him. After
I went back to the school, the education committee demanded an additional 300
Yuan, claiming that it was supposed to pay for the expenses of the people who
watched me, although they didn’t give me a receipt. My brother-in-law, his wife
and my father-in-law didn’t come home until they had paid a “fine.”
My brother-in-law paid 5,000 Yuan, his wife and my father-in-law each paid 60
Yuan. While the staff from the town government was monitoring my home, they
often knocked on our door late at night, closed their car doors loudly and blew
the horn to keep us from sleeping well. After July 20, 1999, I was laid off.
On December 27, 1999, six members of our family went to Beijing to appeal,
intending to report the true situation to the central government, but instead,
we were persecuted for trying to speak up.
I. The persecution my husband has suffered
At the Tiananmen police station, my husband was beaten in the face with the
piece of iron shown in the picture, to such a point that both his cheeks turned
blue and his eyes black. His eyes swelled into the shape of a thin line, and
he could no longer open his mouth. Later he was sent to the Beijing Office of
Shandong Province where he was illegally detained. The officers there beat his
face with a stiff paper tube, and confiscated more than 200 Yuan from him. They
handcuffed him to a female practitioner and didn’t allow them to sit down, forcing
them to squat instead. They didn’t give them any food or water, or allow them
to go to the bathroom. During that time, he witnessed how several officers severely
beat an elderly practitioner.
He was illegally detained at a detention center for a month, where he wasn’t
given enough food. Moreover, he was forced to wash clothes for the criminal
prisoners, and was beaten by them. He wasn’t allowed to practice the Falun Gong
exercises. During his detention there, he once heard a guard forcing a practitioner
to eat excrement and drink urine. After my husband was released, he was illegally
detained by his work unit until the end of the year, and he couldn’t get enough
food there either. Right after he was allowed to come back home and spent the
Chinese New Year with us, he was taken back to the workplace for detention again.
During the two Congressional Meetings in 2000, his work unit again detained
him in a room, where people took turns watching him.
In February 2000 (lunar calendar), my entire family and I were detained at
the Town Judicial Department. My husband, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law
and his wife were all severely beaten; my brother-in-law’s wife didn’t recover
until a month later, and she had to be led by the arm in order to use the bathroom.
My brother-in-law’s leg has developed bumps. The wounds on my husband’s hand
did not heal until several months later.
At that time my baby was only a little over three month’s old. Since I wasn’t
provided with any food for three days, I was not producing any milk to feed
him; he was so starved that he wouldn’t stop crying. On the fourth day, seeing
that my baby was on the brink of death, the town committee official sent my
baby and me to my parents’ home.
In March 2000, my husband and my brother-in-law’s wife were again illegally
detained for 15 days, and were sentenced to heavy labor. After their release
in early April, they were again detained at the Town Judicial Department, and
then they were taken by their work unit and detained at their work place for
several days.
After they were released and allowed to go back to work, they were only assigned
to run sundry errands, and have not received any salary.
II. The persecution I have suffered
Although I had not yet started genuine cultivation practice, I had read Zhuan
Falun. The physical and mental benefits I observed in my whole family convinced
me that Dafa was wrongfully accused and treated. Therefore on December 27, 1999,
holding my newborn son who was only 30 days old, I determinedly went to the
Bureau of Appeals in Beijing to clarify the truth. At that time I did not even
know how to do the Falun Gong exercises, but I had my righteous faith in Dafa.
There was a big crowd outside of the Bureau of Appeals; police had been brought
in from all over the country to intercept Dafa practitioners. From time to time
I saw people being beaten up. I was pushed into a van, where two young fellows
snatched 200 Yuan from me right away. One of them slapped my face twice. The
van took me to a hotel next to the Bureau of Appeals, where an employee from
the Bureau of Appeals watched me. He deceived me and took 1,900 Yuan from me,
as well as the book Zhuan Falun and an exercise tape. In the evening, the Assistant
Director of the police station and the Vice Party Secretary of the town office
came to the hotel. The next morning they dragged my baby and me to the Beijing
Office of Shandong Province and fetched my husband. My husband had been beaten
so severely that they couldn’t recognize him. They took us back to our hometown.
My husband was detained at a detention center, and I was detained at the town
police station. My mother-in-law had already been detained there for two days.(Originally,
my mother-in-law had intended to accompany my husband to Beijing, but had been
intercepted by police along the way. Therefore, my husband had gone to Beijing
by himself where he suffered the persecution described above. After my mother-in-law
had been re-arrested and taken back to town, they handcuffed her to the iron
railings of the police station facing the street and humiliated her in front
of passersby).
Later, succumbing to coercion by police, my parents paid 2,000 Yuan but had
to also write a “sponsor statement” before they were allowed to take
me home. My brother-in-law and mother-in-law were detained again. When police
tried to extort money from them, he said he had no money, and they weren’t released
until more than a month later.
Since April 1999 my family has not had a single peaceful day. My husband has
frequently been detained, and our source of livelihood has been cut off. My
mother-in-law and my brother-in-law’s wife had to grab others’ discarded vegetable
leaves or forage for wild plants to eat.
Due to constant harassment and arrest at the hands of evil persons, my husband
and I had to leave our one year-old son at home and become destitute and homeless.
Posting date: 2/Apr/2003
Original article date: 22/Mar/2003
Category: News from China
