A Family Tragedy in Henan Province: Mother Dies Unjustly, Father Pushed to Mental Breakdown, Daughter Disabled

By Li Xiaorui in Huangchuan County, Henan Province

Our family of three had the fortune to come to know Falun Dafa in May of 1997. My mother, in her 60's, was a retiree from the Justice Department. When she was young she had two operations, one for a Caesarean section and another for the removal of uterine fibroids. She suffered complications due to the two operations, and was in a frail condition. She also suffered from insufficient blood flow to her heart, kidney stones, arthritis and other illnesses. She had been tormented by illness, but after practising Falun Gong, her body went through a dramatic change: her illnesses and pain disappeared, and her face had a pink glow. Her short temper also changed and, unlike before, she had a smile on her face.

Upon seeing the changes in her, many of our friends and relatives also started practising Falun Gong. My father is a retiree from the Statistics Department. After starting practising Falun Gong, he kicked his smoking habit of many years, and became so energetic that in his 70's he looked like he was in his 50's. I'm 24 and had just joined the work force at a government office. My parents had me after they were in their 50's, and therefore they spoiled and pampered me very much. I used to be gluttonous and lazy. I also had a hot temper and I bickered and fought with my parents all the time. I would throw a tantrum when things didn't go my way. After I began practising Falun Gong, I understood that I should hold myself to the standard of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance": I consider other people first when I do things, I'm kind to others, I gradually got rid of my hot temper, I learned to be considerate of my parents and took the initiative to help out at home. As such, our whole family had a nice relationship and the atmosphere was peaceful at home; our lives became happy and fulfilling.

However, the Jiang group's suppression of Falun Gong shattered our peaceful lives. I will never forget the horrible day of July 20, 1999 when this extreme persecution began. Practitioners all over the country have been constantly arrested, sent to forced labour camps or illegally sentenced. Practitioners were deprived of the rights to appeal via normal channels. Media propaganda launched a large-scale and widespread campaign to attack Teacher and Falun Gong. People looked at us with hatred and discrimination because they listened to and believed the twisted reports about Falun Gong. Policemen used the excuse of "questioning" us to barge into our home and asked us to insult Teacher and Falun Dafa. They forced us to submit Falun Dafa books to them and write statements to denounce Falun Gong. Our whole family was constantly in fear. Under such forceful media influence and pressure, my parents no longer dared to practise. All of a sudden my father turned into an older man and started smoking one cigarette after another. My mother's body quickly showed serious symptoms of illness and she was sent to a hospital. Her condition kept worsening and in the end she was diagnosed with cancer.

Yet, Jiang's group did not stop brutally persecuting my family. One night around 10 p.m., just after my mother had undergone an operation, the deputy chief of the Political Security Office in the county police department, Zhao, led a group of people to invade my home. They illegally searched it and took away our Falun Dafa books. They took me away by force and I was illegally detained for "disrupting social order." My ill mother begged them to let me go, so the policemen took the chance to extort 3000 Yuan from us and asked my parents to write so-called "Guarantee Statements." They illegally detained me for a month, after which I was "out on bail pending arraignment."

After I was released, my mother's health condition deteriorated even more because of the frightening situation. Consequently, she was hospitalized for treatment. I kept her company and took care of her day and night. Yet, the authorities escalated their efforts against us. They couldn't wait to send me to a brainwashing class conducted by the county's "610 Office", even before my mother was discharged from the hospital. They also extorted 1000 Yuan from my work unit as a class fee. They forced me to watch video programmes that defamed Teacher and Falun Gong. They also forced me to act against my conscience and write the so-called "profound understanding" and "repentance understanding" to slander Teacher and Falun Gong. As a result I was drowned in deep suffering and regret for a long time and I could not break out of it. Jiang's group did not ease their persecution against my family because of my compromise. On New Year's Eve 2002, policemen from the county's Beicheng Police Station again sent for a group of policemen to knock on our door and harass us in the middle of the night, claiming that they would climb over the wall if we were to refuse to open the door. My father could not take one blow after another like that and he was in total shock. It resulted in a mental breakdown and was sent to the Madian Mental Hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was hospitalized for three months, which cost us 4000 Yuan. He still needs to take medicine to treat his condition.

My mother's health was already failing, and with one distress after another, her health condition worsened. My mother's deteriorating health and my father's mental breakdown awoke me: Our submitting to humiliation and, against our conscience, compromising with the perpetrators can only make the evil persecute the good and innocent even more. Only by steadfastly holding to truth and justice, and awakening more people to unite together to oppose this trampling and persecution of human beings' benevolent nature and moral conscience, and exposing these vicious acts, can we prevent the persecution from happening again. I'm grateful to Teacher for giving me the opportunity to start practising Falun Dafa all over again, so that I can regain my conscience and have renewed hope for a new life.

On the 2002 National Day, I rejected all the acts that were not in line with Falun Dafa that I had committed in the past under high pressure, and I submitted a solemn declaration statement to the county's "610 Office" and police department. I also went to Beijing to expose the atrocities against us. I appealed and called for justice for Falun Dafa. I unfolded a banner with a message that read, "Teacher Li Hongzhi is Good and Falun Dafa is Good" at the gate tower in the Tiananmen Square and I cried Falun Dafa practitioners' heartfelt message out loud: "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is good!"

Afterwards, the Tiananmen Square policemen brutally beat me up, dragged me into a police car and took me to the Tiananmen Police Station. They photographed, searched and interrogated me against my will. They held me in a detention centre in the Beijing Shijingshan Precinct. I was assigned a number, searched, beaten up and thrown in jail. After a month I was extradited back to my county detention centre for further imprisonment and mistreatment. I was put in forced labour and woken up in the middle of the night to deprive me of sleep. They put me in handcuffs and shackles because I refused to give up practicing Falun Gong. During my illegal detention I was twice sent to a brainwashing class and underwent mental persecution. My wages were withheld. My supervisor was implicated and criticized; my "civilized-minded unit" award was rescinded.

After learning that I was detained, my mother was worried sick, which caused her health condition to decline so drastically that she was barely breathing. After finding out that I was to be sent to a forced labour camp, she felt so totally hopeless that she refused to eat or drink, and she also refused any treatment. On November 9, 2002, my mother left the world with regret and pain.

Jiang's group has lost its humanity. Not only did they forbid me to attend my mother's funeral procession, they also escalated their efforts against me. They sentenced me to a two-year forced labour term without going through any legal procedure. Faced with such a cruel persecution and having no place to turn to appeal for justice (after July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin ordered the legal community not to defend Falun Gong practitioners in court), in order to not cooperate with the illegal forced labour persecution, I jumped from a window on the second floor of a brainwashing centre, which caused fractures in my lumbar vertebra and left ankle and damaged the nerves in my right foot. I was bedridden for four or five months. After two operations and hobbling on a crutch for three months, I'm still unable to walk normally. This has created difficulties in my life and cost my family and my work unit tens of thousands of Yuan. In an attempt to cover up the fact that they had persecuted me and to hide their criminal acts, the county's "610 Office" framed Falun Gong through this incident and spread rumours all over, claiming that I tried to commit suicide and went insane from practising Falun Gong. Their actions and means are really cruel and shameless.

Jiang's group has been implementing the policy of "defaming their reputation, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically" on Falun Gong practitioners, and as a result countless good families have been broken apart and ruined.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/25/80239.html