On August 4th, 2008, I went to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Liaoning Province, to visit the sister of a good friend, Ms. Liu Guijin, who is detained there because she is a Falun Gong practitioner.
On bus 329, the only line that goes to the camp, I met a nine-year-old boy on his way to visit his mum. His aunt accompanied him and explained that the mother was being detained because she is also a Falun Gong practitioner. Every month, on visiting day, the little boy comes all the way from Dalian City to visit his mother in prison. The aunt told me that the boy's father suffered a nervous breakdown and passed away after the mother had been arrested, and the boy has been living at a relative's home since his father's death. Since all of his relatives are poor, he has now been forced to move from one relative's to another for an entire year, staying only a few days at a time.
When I saw the boy's innocent face, I held his little hand and felt very sad. After a long time, we arrived at the final stop of bus 329. As we parted, I bent over, touched the little boy's head, and told him, "You should listen to the adults in your family. Study hard and wait for your mum. Everything will be fine." The boy looked at me and nodded. The aunt then took the boy to a grocery store because he had said that he wanted to buy something for his mum.
Finally, I stood at the gates of Masanjia Labour Camp. I found out that the visitation room to which I had planned to go was far away and I got in a taxi. The taxi driver told me, that all prisoners in the third ward, first branch are Falun Gong practitioners. He asked me whom I was planning to visit and I told him that I wanted to visit a friend. The driver told me that just before the Chinese New Year, practitioners had been required to write a guarantee statement, stating that they would no longer practise Falun Gong. The prison administrators had promised that anyone willing to write this statement would be released. However, the practitioners did not agree and went on a hunger strike instead. The driver thought that they had been very brave and told me that they did not eat or drink for four or five days. I asked the driver, "How do you know about all of this?" He told me that sometimes the guards took his taxi and that he had overheard them talking about this incident. He went on to say that it was a big event that was common knowledge among the local residents.
Although I do not practise Falun Gong myself, I thought that it was amazing that there were so many practitioners who were willing to risk everything for their beliefs. The most important holiday of the year in China is Chinese New Year, and everybody tries to spend it with family. However, Falun Gong practitioners are kept in prison simply because of their faith and are isolated from their families.
When I walked into a visitation room, I witnessed an old man bringing a little girl to visit her mum. After the old man had handed his visitor's pass to the guard, she asked the old man, " Do you know what kind of organization Falun Gong is? Do you know that it is a cult?" He replied, "I am too old. I do not know anything." The guard said, "I want to determine your attitude." The old man replied, "I really do not know." The guard asked the girl, " Is Falun Gong a cult?" The girl said, "Aunt, I am just a country girl. I do not know what you are talking about."
Many of the people watching the scene started to laugh and the guard got angry but when the old man and the little girl, as well as the other visitors kept imploring her, she finally allowed the girl to visit her mother.
I had to wait for a long time but finally it was my turn. The guard asked me who I wanted to visit and I gave him Ms. Liu Guijin's name. The guard checked a list and then told me that she was not allowed any visitors. When I asked for the reason, the guard simply said that people on the list were not allowed any visitors. I saw that there were many names on the list.
This makes me wonder: Where can one find human rights, freedom, justice, or fairness in China? Why are we constantly told about "basic human rights" when there are none to be seen in reality?
Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/9/7/100451.html
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/8/30/184994.html
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...