The Persecution of My Family Since 1999

My name is Zhang Anning, and I live in Henyang City, Hunan Province. There are 9 people, spanning 3 generations, in my family. Most of us obtained Falun Dafa in 1995. During the next few years of cultivation practice, we gradually felt the profoundness and the abundance of Falun Dafa. We realized that the true purpose of being a human being is to return to our true selves. It is Falun Dafa that gave us a new and more meaningful life. But since July 1999 when Jiang's regime started its ban of Falun Gong, my family, like numerous practitioners as well as their families in China, has suffered unprecedented persecution and torture.

Starting on July 22, 1999, our regular group practising and Fa [Law and principals of Falun Gong] study have been severely interfered with. The previous practice site provided by our employer was rescinded. Every practitioner is now "specially taken care of" and is under surveillance. On October 21, 1999, my eldest brother Zhang Biao and I began walking to Beijing to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. We strongly hoped we could speak to our government about how we had benefited from Falun Gong. The police found us when we got to Zhengzhou, Henan Province. We were sent back to our hometown and detained for 33 days under the guise of disturbing social security. Eighteen days later after we were released, on an evening in early December 1999 around 9:40 PM, local policemen from Huangcaning Police Station came to my home and woke me up. They detained me again citing "disturbing the social security" and sent me to a drug detox centre where I was locked up for 47 days. They did not release me until the day before the Chinese Spring Festival. I learned that the reason I was detained this time was because the local police considered me to be a practitioner with a firm belief in Falun Gong and they feared that I would go to Beijing again; thus they detained me so that they would not have to worry about my whereabouts. After I was set free, I decided to leave home and make a living outside of my hometown to avoid further persecution.

However, after I left home, the local police harassed my parents again and again, interrogating them about my whereabouts. The police also went to my new work place to keep an eye on me. They wanted to make sure that I did not leave for Beijing. I was so badly harassed that I was unable to keep my mind on my work. During this time, many rumours were spread to the public saying that Falun Gong practitioners gave up their families and their jobs.

In October 2000, I was sent to the Henyang City Women Forced Labour Camp without any legal procedures. I was imprisoned there for over 2 months. Realizing that the prison is not the place that we practitioners should stay, I walked out of the forced labour camp on January 5, 2001.

On January 7, 2001, I went to my hometown in Anhua County to spend the Chinese New Year holidays with my relatives. I kept talking about the persecution imposed on Falun Gong practitioners as well as on my family members. The local police found me and put me in detention. I was then sent back to Henyang City Women's Forced Labour Camp and locked up for 7 months. I was released on August 9, 2001. At the end of August, I went back to Anhua County in an attempt to get back my identification certificate and some other belongings. The local police violently kidnapped my sister-in-law (my elder brother's wife) and me. Because we refused to cooperate, 7 men brutally dragged my sister-in-law and me to a police car. During this process, they tore off my trouser from the bottom of the left trouser leg to the crotch and refused to allow me to change out of the torn trousers. Such barbarous actions scared the people who watched. As I was writing this article, I was still detained in the Second Detention Centre of Henyang City and had been there for over 4 months.

One evening near the end of December 2000, my 68 year-old father was ordered to go to a local police station with a false excuse and detained there until July 10, 2001. He was locked in a cell with young drug addicts. During this time, my 63 year-old mother lived with my older brother and his wife Luo Youmei, who was due to deliver a baby. Youmei began to practice Falun Dafa in 1998. As she went to Beijing to peacefully appeal for a stop to the persecution of Falun Gong at the end of 1999, she suffered 15 days of detention at the First Detention centre of Henyang City. The police searched her parent's home many times. They rummaged through chests and cupboards, tried to force her parents to write a "warranty statement," and ordered her parents to pay warranty money to them. They even detained her younger brother. The next day they sent a notice to her parents asking them to pay 5000 Yuan [Note: The average monthly urban income is 500 Yuan] in exchange for her younger brother's release. Youmei gave birth to a baby on November 29, 2001. The police attempted to arrest her on December 1. They did not take her away after we strongly protested such an inhuman act. In January 2001, the police repeatedly came to my home, they threatening to detain my sister-in-law Youmei. At the end of August 2001, when she and I visited relatives in Anhua County, the local police kidnapped us. At that moment, my sister-in-law was wearing a skirt. A few men dragged her along the ground causing abrasions to her skin and her underwear to be exposed. It was too horrible to look at such a brutal scene! Her baby, who was only a few weeks old, was left at home and suffered the painful tribulation together with the mother. After strong protests from many people, Youmei was released on December 13, 2001.

My eldest brother Zhang Biao suffered 33 days of detention because of walking to Beijing with me to appeal for Dafa at the end of 1999. At the beginning of 2001, he went to Beijing again. He was then sentenced to 1 year in a labour camp in Xinkaipu, Changsha City, Hunan Province. During this time, his workplace stopped his salary and dismissed him. He was also forced to be divorced from his wife. They had been married for 9 years and have a 2 year-old daughter. A previously happy family was thus torn apart due to the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

My mother, elder brother, and other relatives have suffered unimaginable mental tortures during the past two years. A peaceful, happy family, including 9 good people, has been kept apart--some suffering detention, forced labour camp "re-education;" some were forced to divorce; two young children were orphaned and put into a difficult situation. Even under such painful circumstances, we are still alive with our firm beliefs and our hearts full of compassion[..]

My family is only a particle of numerous families that have joined in cultivating Falun Dafa. All those forcible actions and tortures are unable to change millions of practitioners' minds. We never get involved in politics and have no organization. What we have are firm minds to safeguard the universal principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance."

We sincerely hope that all beings can wake up soon and distinguish between right and wrong.

December 21, 2001

Practitioners in China

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/3/30/20417.html