The Epoch Times
 |
||||
|
|
|||
|
||||
years ago. In order to read the Falun Gong books in their original language, he
started to learn Chinese by himself over a year ago; he can now read “Zhuan Falun”
and some other Dafa books in Chinese. Out of his appreciation for Chinese culture,
he visited China. His intention was to travel, visit his old friends and to improve
his spoken Chinese. In the meantime, he also wanted to clarify the truth about
the persecution of Falun Gong to the Chinese people he would meet.
Because
Peter was aware that Falun Gong was severely suppressed in China, he was quite
careful when he talked about Falun Gong with Chinese people. Peter, his family
and his friends were all surprised at his being arrested, because he almost never
distributed Falun Gong material in public places (except once). They could not
imagine how the police found out that he practiced Falun Gong. From his experience,
one can see how widely and severely that CCP government persecutes Falun Gong.
The following article is based on a voice recording of Peter detailing his experiences.
My
name is Peter Valk. I am 28 years old. I am a Dutch citizen. At the beginning
of May 2005, I went to Hong Kong. I obtained a visa there to visit mainland China
for half a year and I planned to stay in China for that long.
Let me first explain
why I made this trip. In 2003, I started to practice Falun Gong. Through Falun
Gong, I appreciated Chinese culture much more. One year ago, I started to learn
Chinese by myself. Now I can mostly read the books of Falun Gong in Chinese. I
was hoping that during my travels, I could also improve my spoken Chinese. Furthermore,
I have been to China several times. During that time, I met several people whom
I wanted to meet on this trip. I was hoping that during my travel, I would get
a chance to see them.
After two weeks of travel in the southern part of China,
I arrived in a place called Dali in Yunnan Province. I stayed there in a hotel
for a couple of days. On the morning of May 24, somebody asked me if I had ever
heard about Falun Gong. This person told me that it was difficult nowadays to
get a book and he asked whether I knew something more about it. I immediately
knew that this person worked for the Chinese government and that they were looking
for me. That day, I thought about leaving right away. I hoped I could just take
a bus to go elsewhere. But I finally decided to stay.
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
||||
That night, someone knocked on my door and said that there was a telephone
call for me. I immediately knew that this was not good. But I felt that there
was no other choice than to open the door. Outside, there stood about 15 policemen.
One policeman asked me in English if I could go with them for an investigation.
We left the hotel. In the car, they wanted to blindfold me. I refused because
I felt that was very intimidating. Then they let me sit with my head between my
legs, and covered me with a dark cloth.
When we arrived at the police station
or the 610 office which specializes in the persecution of Falun Gong, they took
out all the Falun Gong related material from my bag. They confiscated my material
and gave me a paper and took my fingerprint on it. Then they made me sit in the
middle of the room. There were 10 people in the room. There were people asking
questions, people running with cameras and people taking notes.
They asked
me many questions. I did not mind telling them about my good experiences with
Falun Gong. I told them basically everything about that. But when they asked me
specific things, such as names of people or certain events, or things I felt could
harm other people, I was not willing to tell them. They were not satisfied with
my answers in any case. They told me that I was not cooperating well.
They
told me that I had violated the Chinese law and that I would also be punished.
I told them that in normal circumstances, I would not violate any law and my intention
was not to harm people. I said, the persecution against Falun Gong is itself against
Chinese law, because the Chinese law also guarantees freedom of religion and freedom
of belief. Of course, they did not agree with me on this point. Furthermore, they
asked me who sent me to do this. When I told them that this was entirely my own
idea, and that no one had ever told me to do this, they seemed disappointed and
did not really believe that either. But this was the truth. At six in the morning,
they allowed me to go to sleep. The next day, questioning continued. But they
realized that it would not really go anywhere.
In these two and a half days,
they only allowed me to go out once for 10 or 15 minutes. They did not allow me
to make a phone call, even though I requested this several times. I felt that
I should inform my embassy and my family about the situation. They did not allow
me to do that. They did not allow me to practice the exercises of Falun Gong or
to read the books. Basically I had to sit there all day and sometimes they came
to ask questions. Sometimes they made me feel that I would be released if I cooperated
a little bit. Sometimes they made me feel that I would have to stay there for
a long time and anything could happen.
On the second night, they told me that
the next morning they would put me on a plane to a South East Asian country. The
next morning, we left with three police cars. We drove to the Kunming police station.
Over there they took a photo of me, asked me to put my signature on a form that
stated that I agreed that I would pay for the ticket. They took my fingerprint
and handprint.
They told me that since I had violated Chinese law, I would be
expelled from China for 5 years. Then they took me to the Kunming Airport and
put me to the plane for Bangkok.
Right now, I am staying in Thailand. I am happy
that I am free, but I am still very concerned about the situation in China. I
am sure that the treatment I received is not the same that Chinese people suffer.
A Chinese person in my situation would probably be kept in prison for several
years and even be tortured. We all know from reports and experiences that this
is a reality in China.
I hope that my experience will make the international
community aware of this kind of malevolence that is taking place in China and
the extent to which the Chinese government is willing to go in their persecution
of Falun Gong.
Thank you.
Posting date: 3/Jun/2005
Original article date:
3/Jun/2005
Category: Media Report
