My mother was the first one to start practising Falun Gong in our family. When mother was 36 years old, she contracted a serious disease of the digestive system. In August of 1995, mother caught acute rheumatic fever, which later developed into rheumatic heart disease. During hospitalisation she was also diagnosed with kidney disease. She suffered from daily indisposition. The expenses for those three months of hospitalisation were almost ten thousand Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]. My mother's diseases took a toll on my father by burdening him with worry, and his physical condition deteriorated as well.
Fortunately, in April 1996, my mother started to practise Falun Dafa. After a few months of practise, all of her diseases were healed, and she became a healthy person again. At this time, our entire family began practising Falun Dafa.
But from July 20, 1999 forward, our tranquil and happy life was destroyed. My parents were under constant demand to give up Falun Gong practise. Both my parents solemnly refused to give up their belief. During the end of July and the beginning of August of 1999, because father persisted in practising Falun Gong, officers from Section One of the Police Department interrogated him. Afterwards, for four months, father and several Falun Gong practitioners were brainwashed.
In December 1999, my mother was preparing to go to Beijing to appeal for Dafa, but her work unit monitored her. In January 2000, because he persisted in practising Falun Gong, father was forcibly transferred from his work unit. The authorities unfairly stipulated that those who persisted in practising Falun Gong were not allowed to have government jobs.
In March 2000, mother and I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. Police officers escorted us back and put us under "home arrest." Later we were discovered practising the Falun Dafa exercises and detained at the police department. At the end of March, I started a hunger strike to protest the illegal imprisonment. After five days, my blood pressure and pulse could not be detected. They still tried to coerce my mother to give up our belief by writing a "Guarantee Statement" and "Repentance Statement" [In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong]. Mother sternly refused their request. The police had to give in. Then mother and I were released. We were forced to pay 2,000 Yuan in fines. After going home, our daily life was under surveillance by the police.
In May 2000, because father and some other practitioners publicly practised the exercises, they were put under house arrest or detained at the detention centre. After hearing this, mother and I went to the Political and Public Security Section of the Police Department to ask for my father's release. Instead, we were illegally arrested and held at the detention centre for 15 days. We were forced to pay 800 Yuan for boarding expenses. While father was being detained, he went on a hunger strike for seven days to protest, and then he was released. His work unit, however, cancelled his bonus pay for a month.
In July, father was once again escorted to a detention centre, but we were not informed. In August, after father had been illegally detained for 35 days, he was transferred to a labour camp and was unbelievably sentenced to two years of forced labour.
Father was forced to do hard labour, including excessive loads of physical labour, he was brainwashed, and made to write the written statements. He did not deserve such a penalty, he had done nothing wrong! Falun Gong practitioners were prohibited from talking with each other and to have any kind of contact. On family visiting days we were not allowed to go see father. Their reason was that both mother and I practised Falun Gong.
In December of 2000, the enforcers from her work unit attempted to compel my mother to attend a brainwashing session run by the city's "610 Office" ["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]. She sternly refused. Later, mother and I once again went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa, and were arrested and imprisoned in the Tiananmen Square Police Station. Many Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned there at that time. The police beat everyone brutally, including those who were already over 60 years old. I also saw that within other cells were steel cages, with Falun Gong practitioners locked inside. Some of the practitioners' hands were suspended from the cages by handcuffs. Their clothes were torn, and they had blood everywhere. A 20-year-old male practitioner's fingers were broken from police beatings. All of our practitioners shouted loudly, "Stop beating!" The wicked police then used police clubs to fiercely hit the practitioners.
Afterwards, mother and I were transferred to the Chaoyang District Detention Centre. The detention centre took off all of our clothes to search our bodies. Some practitioners' clothes were removed in sub-zero temperatures, and they were tied onto wooden boards, with their legs spread out. The wardens encouraged the inmates to wilfully beat and torture practitioners. Other atrocities also occurred, for example: Police used lit cigarette butts to burn practitioners genitals, and used pens to painfully stab at their ribs. Practitioners were not allowed to use the toilet and police used the soles of their shoes to beat practitioners' faces. Practitioners were forced to hold the posture known as "riding an airplane" [In this torture, the head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep this position unchanged for a long time. The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane, which is how this torture is named after]; practitioners were forced to squat by the corner of a wall for a long period of time; and practitioners were being dragged outside at midnight, to be kicked and beaten in the snow, among other abuses. When being interrogated, the practitioners were not allowed to put on their coats. Some wicked police even forced practitioners to stand in the snow for a long time, clad only in their underwear. Police also used the criminals, who had no medical training, to force-feed practitioners through their noses. The police used all sorts of methods to torture Dafa practitioners, and to destroy their will.
The local police authorities escorted me back home. At that time father had already been sentenced to forced labour, and mother was detained in Beijing. There was no one left at home. The local police station monitored my residence 24 hours a day. Eventually I managed to escape. From then on, I lived a destitute and homeless life that lasted more than two years, even though I had a home.
On January 27, 2001, police brought my mother back from Beijing and sent her to a brainwashing session where my mother's determination in cultivation was not shaken. Sadly, one month later she was sent to a forced labour camp for persecution.
The vicious thugs in the labour camp kicked Dafa practitioners after tying them up with ropes. One practitioner had his arms tightly tied up by the guards. Furthermore, the guards pulled up the rope from the above. Another practitioner was tied up and lifted by rods, and then the guards burned his body with cigarettes. When they finished the rope torture, the team leader still assigned heavy labour to the Dafa practitioners.
A lot of Dafa practitioners' limbs felt numb after the rope torture, therefore they could not finish their work assignments. However, the evil guards said they were exercising "passive sabotage" and threatened them with the rope torture. In March 2002, a Falun Gong practitioner was tied up for three days and nights because he persisted in practising the Dafa exercises.
On May 24, 2002, the evil guards from Division No. 3 rounded up 15 Dafa practitioners and grouped them into an intensive training class. These fifteen Dafa practitioners were forced to perform military drills in 100 degree (F) heat and bright sunlight, and also forced to view videos that slandered Dafa. The guards ordered the practitioners to stand or squat in the hot sun. They even threatened them with the rope torture. During the second half of May 2002, four loudspeakers were installed in the labour camp. They broadcasted slanderous anti-Dafa audio broadcasts almost everyday. Some Dafa practitioners resisted the evil persecution and protested with a hunger strike. The vicious police officers dragged them away and tied them up. My mother was one of them. The officers and guards also broke one of her legs. She could not take care of herself and was kept in a confinement chamber without being allowed visitors. During force-feeding, two of her teeth were knocked out and the rest of her teeth became loose. Additionally, her sentence term was extended for another three months. On visiting day, the labour camp forced practitioners' family members to sign a paper slandering Dafa; otherwise, they would not be allowed to visit. In order to see their family members, some people had to sign their names.
In 2001, during the time that I was destitute and homeless, while I visited my grandmother, the police caught me. To avoid the persecution, I jumped out a window and broke my legs. My uncle also had broken bones from jumping down. He was also destitute and homeless because he was continually persecuted for cultivating Falun Gong.
Due to the persecution protest of Falun Gong in the labour camp, my father was dragged to the office of the third team. Under the direction of the political commissar in the labour camp, and with the participation of several guards, my father was handcuffed from the back. They shocked him simultaneously with four or five electric batons on the head, ear and neck. When he had fallen to the floor, they stepped on his body and continued the shocking. It lasted about forty minutes and caused his face and neck to swell from the burns. His term was also extended for another three months.
The labour camp personnel forced Falun Gong practitioners to write down their feelings after viewing the video programmes that slandered Dafa. Because my father exposed the lies from CCTV, he was ordered to go to the team office. They cuffed his hands, his body was kicked by guards wearing leather boots, and shocked with electric batons. Two evil guards simultaneously shocked his head, ear and neck. They even undressed him to shock his back, waist and abdomen area. It lasted for about half an hour.
After my father was released from the labour camp, he was forcibly sent to a brainwashing session, at a so-called law-education school. My father strongly protested right away by holding a hunger strike. Those who violated the law totally ignored his protests and detained my father for more than four additional months. He was not released until the end of 2002. During the illegal detention period he was not allowed to leave the room, get his meals or talk to other Falun Gong practitioners. During that period, my father held hunger strikes as a way to protest.
Before China's Sixteenth People Congress, to find and arrest me, the police forced my relatives to let them into my home. They took away my photos and some phone numbers. I am still destitute and homeless at this time, and cannot see my parents.
In 2003, to reach the quota set by a higher authority, the head of the police station allowed a group of police officers to break into my home and abducted my father and took him to detention centre. He was released after he refused to eat and drink. He was charged 500 Yuan as "boarding fee."
When my parents were in the labour camp, all of their salaries were suspended; even my mother's pension was stopped, resulting in my family not having any income for two years. I could hardly make a living in a destitute and homeless state. This is the result of Jiang's directive to "cut them off financially."
During three years' persecution, my non-practising relatives also suffered from the pain of separation, and from continued fear and worry. My grandmother, who is in her 80's developed senile dementia her daughter and son-in-law were sent to a forced labour camp, and her son's three-member family and granddaughter forced to leave their home.
During three years of persecution I have never been able to reunite with my family. Under Jiang's fierce, inhuman, and bloody crackdown, hundreds of thousands of happy families were torn apart or destroyed. My experience is merely one of them.
Hereby, I sincerely testify to the North District Federal Court of Illinois that defendant Jiang has committed genocide in China. He has trampled human rights, the Chinese Constitution, and the International Human Rights Treaty. I hope the federal court can promote justice, protect kindness, and put Jiang Zemin, who has committed monstrous crimes against the Chinese people, in the court, to face justice at the earliest date.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/30/47408.html
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