EFGIC: The “Transformation” of Mr. Han

LONDON (EFGIC) – Sources in China recently related to us the story of Mr. Han, a Falun Gong practitioner whose journey took him from being tortured to becoming the torturer, and finally back again, until he was ultimately killed by the very same system.

Beijing resident Mr. Han Junqing had been a petty criminal and troublemaker in the days before he started practising Falun Gong. After taking up the practice of Falun Gong, according to a source that knew his story well, Mr. Han turned over a new leaf. He strove to follow Falun Gong’s teaching of being kind to others and became a genuinely good person.

After Jiang Zemin ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Han, like many others, used various peaceful ways to appeal for an end to the persecution of his fellow practitioners. He, himself, was eventually arrested and sent to a forced labour camp for “re-education,” a process in which a person is forced from their faith.

“[Collaborators] spend their days applying physical and psychological torture techniques to those who were once their fellow practitioners, inmates, and close friends.”

In the labour camp, in spite of suffering severe torture, Mr. Han remained determined not to give in to the coercion and not to give up the spiritual path that had positively changed his life. He told the guards who tortured him, “You can break my neck and shatter my bones, but I will still practise Falun Gong!”

But the pressure was just too great. Not only do prisoners in these labour camps endure physical torture, they are deprived of proper nourishment and sleep. Sanitary conditions are extremely poor, and they are forced to toil almost around the clock making various products for export. The mental strain is tremendous.

What broke Mr. Han, however, were the collaborators.

“Collaborators” are former Falun Gong practitioners who, unable to endure the torture, not only give up their practice, but are even pressured into collaborating with the guards. They spend their days applying physical and psychological torture techniques to those who were once their fellow practitioners, inmates, and close friends.

After eight months, Mr. Han could not endure anymore and he joined the collaborators. Now he was torturing those who had previously looked up to his great ability to endure.

“He reverted back to his old self,” says the source. “I witnessed how he tortured determined Falun Gong practitioners. He verbally abused and beat them, tied them up and poured boiling water on them. He also beat me and left many scars on my body.”

Demonstrating his cooperation with the guards, and deemed sufficiently “transformed,” Mr. Han was released from the camp.

For the past several years, Chinese authorities have carried out organized brainwashing or “transformation” classes in labour camps, detention centres, state-run businesses, and universities throughout China. The sessions are designed to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs, often utilizing a combination of physical torture, sleep deprivation and severe psychological assaults.

Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, both young and old, have been forced to undergo these sessions, for as long as it takes to either break their wills or end their lives.

Once Mr. Han returned home, however, with the encouragement of his peers and after encountering Falun Gong’s teachings anew, he realized what he had done. He set his mind to make amends for it.

Mr. Han then bought a photocopying machine and put it in his home. He used it to make flyers that counter the state-run propaganda by telling the truth about Falun Gong and what kind of persecution millions of practitioners face. He also helped other former practitioners-turned-collaborators by giving them articles to read that spoke to the crimes of conscience they were participating in.

Last April, however, Mr. Han was seized once more by police while delivering such articles to former collaborators in Hebei Province.

His home was ransacked and he was again sent to detention and tortured.

Last month, after going from being tortured to being the torturer to being tortured once more, 47-year-old Mr. Han was killed.

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PRESS STATEMENT – July 8, 2004

European Falun Gong Information Centre, www.clearharmony.net

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Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practise of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practised in over 50 countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practising Falun Gong, China's Communist leader Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practise in July 1999 (report). Since that time, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practise while imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practise it. The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 1000 deaths (reports / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. In October 2001, however, Government officials inside China reported that the actual death toll was well over 1,600. Expert sources now estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE
Peter Jauhal + 44 (0) 7719 508 268 Nicolas Schols +32 47 98 75 734
More contacts. http://www.falungonginfo.net/europe.htm
Email: [email protected]