Relatives in U.S Appeal for Release of Dafa Practitioner Ms. Yang Shulan in Inner Mongolia

The following article was written by Ms. Yang Shulan in April 2003. In February 2004, Ms. Yang was again arrested by the police. Her relatives in the U.S. are trying to rescue her. They have brought her case to the attention of local media and members of the U.S. Congress.

My name is Yang Shulan. I am a 55 year old retiree from the Datong City Public Transportation Company in Shanxi Province. I live at South Datong City.

After I started practising Falun Gong in 1996, I became a healthy person, and in the meantime learned many principles for being a good person. After June 1999, just prior to the persecution of Falun Dafa, I noticed many plain clothes policemen and undercover agents near our practice site. In July, our practice site coordinator was placed under house-arrest. On July 22, 1999, the massive persecution against Falun Gong started. On that day, five police vans arrived at our practice site to harass the practitioners. Later, the police searched my home and confiscated all my Falun Gong books and other materials. They said that based on orders from superiors, they could search Falun Gong practitioners' homes anytime, without a search warrant. The residential administration asked me to complete a questionnaire. One question asked was whether I believed in Falun Gong. Of course I checked "Yes" because I am a Falun Gong practitioner and have received benefits from my practice. Consequently, the police intensified their persecution against me. Both the city and neighbourhood police, as well as residential administrators, frequently harassed my family and myself. Our normal family life was cruelly disrupted. On October 29, 1999 I prepared to write a letter to the National Appeals Office, and was on my way to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Before the train even left Datong, the railway police arrested me on the train. They handed me over to the local police. The next day, I was sent to a temporary detention centre where I was held for 97 days. I lost my freedom and was treated like an animal. The place was so overcrowded that a sleeping area for 8 people now held 24. The police assigned criminal inmates to monitor practitioners around the clock. No one was allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises. We were not even allowed to talk to each other without permission. We were forced to recite the jail rules. When the police talked to us, we were forced to squat on the floor. When police talked with my family, they threatened to give me a three-year sentence. After my family paid them 3,000 Yuan (1) and wrote a "Guarantee Statement" (2) promising not going to Beijing on my behalf, they released me. My son and little brother went to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing, and they were also detained by the police. Police and residential officials frequently harassed our family at home. We no longer had a normal life.

In October 2000, I went to Beijing again. This time I witnessed how the undercover agents, the plainclothes police, and the armed police violently beat Falun Gong practitioners. I was arrested by the police while I was just talking to a friend. They arrested too many people to keep, so I managed to escape. After I got home, the local police planned to arrest me soon after learning that I had just returned from Beijing. I managed to avoid them. Later in December, I went to Beijing again. After I displayed a banner that read "Falun Dafa is Great" in Tiananmen, the police brutally beat me in public. They forced me into a police van by pulling my hair, and once in the van, a policeman repeatedly hit me on the head with a club. At 2:00 p.m. they sent me to a forced labour camp. They asked me to write a statement promising I would stop practicing Falun Gong, but I declined. To punish me, the police forced me to stand still until midnight. Then, they threw me into a cell with five other practitioners and six criminal inmates. We were locked in the cell for 46 days without even a toilet break outside the cell; everything was done in the cell itself.

Later the authorities illegally sentenced me to two years of forced labour. I was transferred to the drug rehabilitation team. Over there, the police assigned two drug addicts to monitor each practitioner. Practitioners were not allowed to talk to each other. The criminal inmates were told to use physical and verbal abuse to stop the practitioners from talking. The drug addicts also forced us to recite the jail rules. Since we refused to give up our belief, they intensified the persecution around the clock. To protest the brutal persecution, we held a hunger strike. Under police supervision, the drug addicts pinned us to the floor, sat on our bodies, and forcibly fed rice congee into our mouths. At night, they put two single beds together and forced the practitioners to sleep between two drug addicts.

The police often used profane language to slander our Teacher and Falun Gong in front of us. Police officer Ms. Li often hinted to the drug addicts that they should physically attack us. Nevertheless, we refused to give in. The police later transferred us to the newly formed Direct Team. This team was created specifically to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Here we were not allowed sleep before midnight each day. They used sleep deprivation to torture practitioners who refused to give in. They also individually brainwashed practitioners using long-term sleep deprivation. Some practitioners were not allowed to sleep for 5 consecutive days. The minute they closed their eyes, they were immediately attacked. More and more practitioners were severely injured.

I was released after serving a full term. But at present, I still have no freedom. I am monitored at all times. The police and residential officials frequently visit my home and ask me to write all kinds of "Guarantee Statements." I am not allowed to travel to Beijing, or even out of town. Fellow practitioners and I cannot visit each other. They said that it's OK to gamble but not OK to practice Falun Gong.

The above story details my own experiences. I want to press charges against Jiang Zemin for this most brutal persecution.

Updated Information

In February 2004, officers from Saihan Branch, Huhehaote City Police in Inner Mongolia arrested Dafa practitioner Yang Shulan. Family members are not allowed to visit her. Her relatives called the police many times to ask about her situation, but they refused to answer any questions. When the relative telephoned and asked, "Why did you arrest an innocent person?" the policeman did not say a word. Her relatives in the U.S. have no choice but to seek help from sympathetic media, supportive government officials, and people with kind hearts. They need help to condemn the illegal behaviour of the police in Saihan Division. When many Americans hear that people who believe in the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" are being persecuted in such brutal ways in China, they find it hard to believe, as everyone feels that "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is most wonderful!"

A U.S. senator's assistant in the state where Yang Shulan's relatives live is very sympathetic to Yang's case. He asked Yang's relative to prepare a document. He would like to contact the State Department, asking the officials to have a dialogue with the Chinese Foreign Ministry on this issue. He also wrote a letter to Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi, urging him to open a dialogue between the U.S. and China. This congressional staff member said, "The senator has always paid attention to the persecution of Falun Gong, and has appealed to China to improve its human rights situation." Another U.S. congressman's staff member has contacted the State Department, urging the Chinese Desk to communicate with the Chinese Foreign Ministry to find where Yang Shulan is detained.

Falun Gong practitioners in the congressman's district held a press conference to expose the crimes of Jiang's regime during the four years of mental and physical persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Contact Phone Numbers of the police:
Huhehaote Number One Detention Centre: 86-471-5901256
Huhehaote Number Two Detention Centre: 86-471-5972718
Huhehaote Number Three Detention Centre: 86-471-5902552
Inner Mongolia Detention Centre: 86-471-6550427
Inner Mongolia Army Detention Centre: 86-471-6519974

(1) Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

(2) "Guarantee Statement" - A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/5/4/73810.html