Australian Practitioner’s Letter to the Belgian Prime Minister

Dear Mr. Guy Verhofstadt,

I write to you as an Australian resident and victim of detention and torture in a labour camp in China, to express my support for the lawsuit against the former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin, which has been filed by Falun Gong practitioners in Belgium.

I fled China about two year ago to escape further persecution after being tortured severely in a female labour camp in Beijing for practising Falun Gong. Falun gong is a traditional Chinese self-cultivation system that intends to improve mind and body based on principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.”

In the labour camp, I was forced to squat continuously under the scorching sun when the ground temperature was more than fifty degrees Celsius. The longest period lasted more than fifteen hours. When I insisted on having my labour camp sentence reviewed, I was beaten, dragged along the floor and shocked with two electric batons until I lost consciousness.

As a Falun Gong practitioner, I was placed under endless pressure to sign a statement to denounce Falun Gong as soon as I arrived. I was watched twenty-four hours a day by criminal inmates, who were given the power to do anything they liked to me in order to make me sign.

I was also forced to watch and listen to slanderous attacks and lies about Falun Gong almost every day.

I was forced to do a variety of hard work when not watching or listening to the labour camp’s brainwashing materials. Usually, I was forced to work from 5:00 a.m. to as late as 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. the next morning. Sometimes I had to work throughout the day and night to deliver products on time. Most of the products I made in the camp were exported to foreign countries. I had to work Sundays and holidays. During the busiest days, I even dared not wash my hands after I went to the toilet because I could not afford to waste a few minutes.

One of the cruellest methods used by the labour camp to “reform” Falun Gong practitioners is sleep deprivation. I had an experience where I had no sleep for three nights. After long periods of hard work and no rest, this kind of torture almost made me insane.

After withstanding six months of suffering, I succumbed and signed a statement denouncing Falun Gong. This action totally betrayed my own belief and made me suffer greater mental, emotional, and spiritual pain and trauma, greater than the anguish murder or rape would have brought me.

But the torture did not end there. Even after I was released, I still needed to “report my thoughts” to the local police on a regular basis. If I was suspected of still believing in Falun Gong, I could have been sent back to the labour camp at any minute. I had to run away from my home five days after I was released and was lucky enough to escape to Australia and seek asylum.

Last year I filed a lawsuit with the United Nations against Jiang Zemin for his ruthless persecution of Falun Gong. Four days after the news was announced, my husband in China, who does not practise Falun Gong, was arrested. This left my little daughter of nine at home without a mother or a father.

Yet my situation is far from the worst when compared to hundreds of those who have lost their lives or families during this persecution. In the face of completely unjust treatment, torture, and murder, Falun Gong practitioners inside China have repeatedly made a choice to remain peaceful and rational rather than resorting to violence or revenge. They stand up for justice in China at the cost of their lives; and we, as people who have the ability to help, need to give them hope.

It is my firm belief that Jiang’s crimes against humanity must be stopped immediately. Such a bloody suppression has shamed, challenged and threatened the very basic principles of modern civilization. If we still cherish the rule of law, we need to show to the world, as well as to the Chinese dictator and his followers, that nobody can ever walk away from justice and the law without being held responsible for their wrongdoings.

Yours sincerely,

[name omitted]