A 60-year-old Female Falun Dafa Practitioner is Subjected to Brutal Forced Labour for One Year and a Half

At 3 p.m. on February 4, 2002, I went to a fellow Falun Dafa practitioner's home and was arrested, since I didn't know that the residence had been monitored by police.

On February 6, I was illegally sent to a detention centre and was asked whether I would still practise Falun Gong. I replied, "Yes." The policemen then told me that I would be detained for 30 days and then they put me in a cell. On February 11, they sent me to a dispatch centre and I was only allowed to squat down. If I moved a little, I was beaten. Some practitioners were forced to squat for a whole day and some for several days. Their legs were swollen. After one day of squatting down, I struggled for quite a while to stand up and could not walk because my legs were swollen. I can't imagine what it was like for those practitioners who had been forced to squat for several days. A policewoman named Yang ordered me to write the so-called "Guarantee Statement" (1) and I refused. She then called in a collaborator (2) and ordered her to brainwash me. I refused to talk to her. The policewoman then put her hand on my face, meaning she would beat me up if I did not write it. They did not allow me to sleep and I had to stand up continually. Under this pressure, I could hardly hold up my body or my character. So I gave in and just simply wrote according to what the police said. Later, I felt dizzy and blinded as if the sky was falling. I regretted it so much, and darkness enveloped me. I realized that I had done wrong. I was thinking, "How could I betray Dafa?" I wept. I then asked them to give me some paper to write a statement to void the so-called "Guarantee Statement."

The dispatch centre treated Dafa practitioners as slaves and ordered them to do extremely heavy work overtime. One person had to wrap 8,000 to 10,000 pairs of chopsticks per day. If the quota was not completed, one would not be allowed to sleep or to wash oneself. During the 40 days in the dispatch center, I wrapped a total of about 350,000 -- 400,000 pairs of chopsticks. We also had to carry big bags full of the unfinished chopsticks from the first floor to the third floor and then carry them back to the first floor after wrapping them, regardless of our age or health condition. We had to pick ourselves up if we fell, with only the help from other practitioners.

On May 21, I was sent to Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp without any legal procedures. The police forcibly sentenced an innocent person like me to a year and a half of forced labour, only because I adhered to the universal law of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance."

In the forced labour camp, we slept very little. They didn't even give us time to have a bowel movement, which caused many people to suffer constipation. At all times we were put to work non-stop, doing tasks such as knitting sweaters, scarves, gloves, pets' clothing, etc. All of these products were exported to make money for the labour camp, so the requirements for quality were very strict. As a result of constant work, my whole body was painful, and I developed open sores on my face. The guards didn't allow us to get up and move. The guards and inmate leaders beat and cursed us at will. They also made use of drug-addicted inmates to monitor Falun Dafa practitioners.

Nine months out of the year, we were knitting sweaters in a production line. I knitted the back piece and had to finish a piece in about two and a half days. During the remaining three months, we had to pull weeds or go to the fields to harvest vegetables, always without any tools. Our hands were bleeding and blistered. We were not allowed to have food if we didn't meet the work quota. All the tasks were extremely heavy and physically stressful, with extra long hours. It was unbearable for any human being.

I'm a senior citizen in my 60s, a female working person, which is the most common type of person in Chinese society. I believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance," and follow our Teacher to cultivate my character to be a good person, always striving to be an even a better person. This is all beneficial to society, causing no harm. Any natural leader should acknowledge our Teacher and these Dafa practitioners. However, Jiang's group slanders and persecutes us without any humanity.

The inhumane one year and a half of labour camp life let me feel the joy of practising Falun Dafa and "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" even more vividly.

Notes

(1) "Guarantee statement": A statement to declare that he or she 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.

(2) "Collaborator": A person whose minds had gone astray due to brainwashing and torture by Jiang Zemin's regime.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/7/78832.html