I Survived a Living Hell But Sadly My Dear Father Did Not

My name is Wang Shengyun. I am a 39-year-old farmer living in Weifang City, Shandong Province. There were five members in my family: Father Wang Xinyi (died of torture), mother Wang Zhihe, my wife Tang Xiumei, my son Wang Xinwei and myself. After the five of us became Falun Gong practitioners in 1997, we not only became very healthy, but also improved our moral standard. Before that, my father suffered from a number of health problems such as lumbar vertebra growth, osteo-proliferation and a bone proliferation on his hand. Falun Gong practice cured all those problems. Falun Gong also changed my wife from a person with a bad temper into a warmer and gentler person. Our family life became harmonious and more loving.

Things suddenly changed on July 20, 1999, when Jiang's regime started persecuting Falun Gong with such evil orders as "ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially and eliminate them physically" and "count death from torture as suicide." Our family has been torn apart by severe persecution and murder.

On July 20, 1999, Song Changchun, deputy township party secretary, ordered the township police to arrest my father and they detained him in the township government because my father had been the Falun Gong practice site coordinator at our township. In the afternoon, police arrested my wife. The next morning, I was also arrested. Only my 10-year-old son and my 65-year-old mother were left at home. The township government put them under around-the-clock watch. They did not release us until a week later.

In March 2000, my wife went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested and sent back to our local police station. Song Changchun asked the police to arrest me too. That night, the police from the "610 Office" [The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.] interrogated my wife and I. At one point, I told them, "There is nothing wrong with practising Falun Gong." Upon hearing this, the police officers pounced on me and knocked me down. One policeman stepped on my head, and another stamped on my neck while the others attacked me with punches and kicks. After that, they handcuffed me to a bench. Policeman Jiang Henggui slapped my face repeatedly and said, "Do you still dare to practise?" My wife and I were tortured this way twice. Afterwards, they detained us for 50 days.

In June 2000, my mother and I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and were arrested and sent back to the local police station. During their violent interrogation, a policeman struck me with a new broom until it was broken into pieces. The police also drenched me with cold water and chained me to an iron chair for a whole morning. This time, I was detained for 30 days. My mother was detained for 15 days. After my release, Song Changchun ordered the police to arrest me again and locked me in his private prison for another month. During the detention there, I was handcuffed all the time. We were released only after we started a hunger strike.

Every time they arrested me, the evil police would extort 300 Yuan from me as so-called living expenses. [The average monthly income in a rural area is about 200 Yuan]

My father did not go to Beijing to appeal. But that did not stop Song Changchun from detaining him in his private temporary prison to be tortured. Song Changchun asked the prison guards to pour water on the concrete floor, and then forced my father to sleep on it. They wrapped my wife and several other practitioners with linen bags and repeatedly beat them with punches, kicks and wooden sticks. My non-practitioner sister visited my father in the prison. When she saw my father's bad physical condition, she was devastated, and returned home and fetched a plastic sheet for my father to sleep on. Even that was thrown out by Song Changchun. A kind-hearted prison guard begged Song Changchun to release my father, fearing that he might die. Song Changchun refused. Several days later, when he saw my father's extremely weak condition, he released my father, for fear of bearing the responsibility. Due to the severe physical and mental torture, my 70-year-old father died a month later at home.

Seven days after my father's death, my wife and I were arrested again and sent to a brainwashing class. With our firm determination and strong beliefs in Dafa, we escaped on the third day and hid from the police. Every sensitive date, or holiday, evil police would break into our house at midnight, trying to capture us. They have severely disrupted the life of our family members.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/9/46101.html