Our Family Is Being Persecuted Because We Will Not Renounce Our Belief in "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance"

Those in our family have all benefited personally from practising Falun Dafa, and thus we feel deep in our hearts that Falun Dafa is good. In October 1999, in line with the principle of benevolence espoused by Falun Dafa, my father, elder brother, younger sister and I together went to Beijing to appeal peacefully, hoping to report the factual situation of Falun Dafa to the government and say a few words of support on behalf of Falun Dafa and our Teacher. As soon as we arrived in Beijing, my entire family was arrested. My elder brother was expelled from his school and was sent home. He was illegally imprisoned a very long period of time by the local police. My father, younger sister and I were taken back to Xishui and detained in jail. While we were there, we were searched and beaten. My younger sister was sent to Shizishan Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Wuhan City and was "reeducated" for one and half years. She was devastated both physically and mentally. My father and I, after a long term of imprisonment, were released with the help of some of our relatives.

Just because we wanted to continue to practise Falun Gong, our entire family was also arrested on two other occasions. The first arrest took place on July 24, 1999, when the police found my father, my mother, my younger sister and I participating in a group practice. We were illegally detained for 10 days that time. During detention, my father was forced many times to do perform backbreaking labour. As a result, he developed sores on his legs and feet. The police also forced us to write guarantees promising not to practise Falun Gong any longer.

The second arrest took place on December 25, 1999, when my father, my mother, elder brother and I were again caught by police participating in a group practice. They arrested the four of us. My father was beaten and kicked by police on the scene upon his arrest. The police fiercely attacked my father's forehead with a flashlight and hit him so hard that he bled from his nostrils. He was taken to jail and beaten again by the police during a long interrogation. They did not give him any food to eat, which, in conjunction with the beatings he received, caused him to spit blood and to have blood in his stool. He was extremely weak. When he was sent to the forced labour camp, they did not accept him due to his poor health condition. However, the police finally managed to have the labour camp accept him. During the period of "re-education through labour," he suffered all kinds of torture. When I visited my father, his face and body was "skin and bones", and was covered with bruises. His pitch-black hair turned grey. Both of his feet and legs were swollen due to unknown constraints and appeared very large. After several months, my father was transferred to Shayang labour camp and underwent brainwashing. When he came back after a one-year term, he was still monitored by his company. He did not have the personal freedom that most normal people enjoy all because he was a practitioner. In addition to all of this, the long-term physical and mental stress he had gone through had taken a toll on his body and many knew that he would not fully recover normal health ever again. His long-term effects included internal bleeding which led to vomiting of blood several times. On February 16, 2001, he died without justice being served. My elder brother was imprisoned in jail and was forced to cook for the inmates for a year. He was often forced to endure brainwashing techniques by the police within the walls of the jail.

My mother however, has been imprisoned for a month. During her imprisonment, she was frequently beaten. One time the guards used a shoulder pole [a thick pole typically used to carry buckets or bundles] to beat her so hard that it was broken. At last after the evil police demanded 700 yuan RMB from my relatives and friends and only after it was given to them was my mother released.

I however was only released under the protest from my boyfriend. During my detention in jail, the inmates often mixed dirty water and urine in the morning gruel that we were forced to eat.

Around New Year's Day of 2002, my younger sister was discovered distributing flyers to the public that explain the facts of the persecution against Falun Dafa and was arrested. For over a year, her whereabouts were unknown. We did not know that she had been sentenced to a seven-year prison term until last September. However, the police did not allow any of my family members to visit her. In Mid-April, 2003, my elder brother passed out truth clarification materials and was also arrested. After his arrest he disappeared without a trace for over a month. Now that six months had passed, the police still do not allow us to visit him.

In the last four years, our family of five people have been detained and tortured numerous times just because we practise Falun Gong and are letting the public know about the illegal persecution against us which has harmed so many innocent people. Jiang Zemin's attack on Falun Dafa has broken my family apart. Even my friends and relatives are terrified of being implicated simply for know us and dare not contact or approach us. We hope that people around the world help bring Jiang to justice in the international court and end the persecution against innocent people!

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/16/60690.html