Elderly Practitioner from Jilin Province Tells of Persecution Experience

After the exposure of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) secret concentration camps, I gained a deeper understanding of the CCP’s evil nature. I’d like to give an account of how police officers, under the guidance of the CCP, are doing their "jobs."

I am Dafa practitioner in my sixties. I started practising Falun Gong in 1996. From a person with many illnesses, I became a physically and mentally healthy individual. I personally feel the supernatural power of Dafa, as it is true cultivation. When the persecution started in April of 1999, I went to appeal for justice for Dafa. I was stopped and brought back by the local police. Officer Ma from the Peiying Police Station went to my home and forced me to write a guarantee statement¹ to renounce Falun Gong, and to stop practising. On September 27th that same year, officer Zhao Wenfeng from the Peiying Police Station saw me visiting a fellow practitioner’s home. He insisted that it was a "gathering" and charged me with disturbing social order. I was detained for 62 days.

I was practising in a park on February 25th, 2000, when I was arrested and taken to a detention centre. At that time, many Dafa practitioners were kept there. They were punished by being forced to stand outside in the yard in the bone-chilling wind. They stood there for more than four hours. Their coats were taken away from them. Some practitioners wore only cotton shirts, some wore long under pants and some were forced to lie down on the concrete with their legs raised up in the air. The police even poured cold water on some practitioners’ trousers, soaking them and making it even colder. Some practitioners’ skin turned purple from being whipped by policemen using plastic tubing.

Police officers tried several times to make me sign a guarantee letter stating that I would not practise Falun Gong. They did not get what they wanted. They then lied to my family, saying that I had already signed the guarantee letter, and asked them to bring 1000 yuan² for my release. I was detained for 62 days. Whenever there was a holiday, officer Li Mingchao from the Peiying Police Station would come to my home to harass me. He wanted to know whether I was home or whether I had gone to Beijing to appeal.

On December 26th, 2000, I went to Beijing. On my way there, some conductors questioned me: "Where did you come from and where are you going?" They repeatedly asked me questions until I got to my stop. I walked to Tiananmen and was stopped by a plainclothes police officer. He tried to force me to say disrespectful things about Falun Dafa. I was forced into a police car because I refused to say them. I held up a banner in the car and shouted: "Falun Dafa is good!" Three policemen took away that banner, as well as the two other banners I had in my sleeves. I was taken to the Tiananmen Square Police Station. Later, I was sent to the Shunyi Police Station in one of the many police cars packed with Dafa practitioners at that time. I was then sent to the Ligezhuang Police Station.

A police officer with the last name of Zhang repeatedly asked me for my name and address. I refused to answer and had to stand in the middle of the room; I was very sleepy and could not stand still. Police officers made me take off my winter clothes and my socks, until I was dressed only in underclothes. I was then sent to a dark and cold courtyard. I was handcuffed with my back tight against a big metal pole, sitting on the freezing cold concrete ground. I also had to keep my legs straight. A person who called himself a "bellman" hypocritically acted nicely toward me. He asked me about my name and address, and said he would invite me to his home for dinner once I was released. He also said that his mother practised Falun Gong.

On the second day, I was handcuffed to the arm of a sofa. I was very tired at night, but whenever I closed my eyes, the bellman would shake my head. I said seriously, "Don’t do that, you need to respect the boundary between men and women." The young policemen used different approaches to try to find out my address, but I did not answer. I was then sent to the Shunyi Detention Centre, where I continued my hunger strike to protest the persecution. Fellow practitioners were also shouting one after another: "Falun Dafa is good; Falun Dafa is the righteous way; restore Teacher’s innocence." I was unconditionally released seven days later.

On March 5th, 2002, when the facts of the persecution were broadcast on a Changchun TV station by Falun Dafa practitioners, the police conducted a huge overnight search, and more than seventy Dafa practitioners were arrested. I lived in a bungalow. Police officer Li Mingchao jumped into my family’s fenced yard and rapped on the windows and doors, but we did not open the door. A few days later, he and officer Wang came to my home. They tried to force my fingers into black ink to take my fingerprint. I clinched my fist tightly and refused. I said I was doing them a favour by not letting them get my fingerprints. I was preventing them from doing a bad deed. Li Mingchao was angry. He grabbed me without a word, intending to take me to the police station. I struggled to free myself and told them to come inside so I could speak to them about the facts of Falun Dafa. They quietly left after that. When they came to harass me later, their smooth-talking deceived one of my family members into giving out my fingerprints on a form that was already filled out.

On December 29th, 2004, I went to Chengfa village to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution. A local resident who did not know the truth reported me. A police car came after me as I was walking, and I was taken to the police station. My home was then ransacked. They took my Dafa books to the police department and asked me whom I had been in contact with. They mentioned a fellow practitioner’s name and asked me if I knew them. I said I did not. They did not know what to do with an elderly woman like me. Police officer Chai Wenge then trampled on Teacher Li’s portrait. As policemen, they not only do not positively educate prisoners, they teach the criminals to commit more crimes. Li Qiang, a guard at the detention centre, stepped on Teacher’s portrait right after he came in. As he was stepping on it he said he hated Falun Gong. I compassionately told them what they were doing was committing crimes against Dafa and told them to stop.

On December 31st, Shi Hailin took pictures of me, and then dipped all of my fingers in black ink and pressed them onto an empty form so that they could write whatever they wanted, in order to send me to a forced labour camp.

On January 18th, 2005, Chai Wenge opened the door before daybreak and rushed me to gather my things together. He did not tell me where we were going. I fell at the door, and they dragged me into a car.

After we arrived at the Changchun Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, I was rejected because I failed the physical exam. Shi Hailin and Chai Wenge said: "Let her stay a while. Call me if there is a problem, and we will come and pick her up. Nobody is completely healthy." People at the forced labour camp said: "Someone that was sent over from Shuanyang was like this too. The person died five days later, and the matter is still not settled." The two stopped insisting after hearing that. They then dragged me back with such force that my coat buttons were torn off, and there were bruises on my arms. Chai Wenge was cursing: "To hell with you old woman. This is a good day for you. I can dig a hole and bury you, and no one would know." We went back to the police station. Since they could not send me to the forced labour camp, they extorted 3000 yuan from my family without any legal procedures, and then released me. Those so-call people’s policemen rely on the people for their salary, yet they are harming the people every day.

Note

1. "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.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/27/131339.html