Wu Keli and Yuan Wenxin, husband and wife and both Falun Gong practitioners, have been imprisoned and tortured. Ms. Yuan has been imprisoned twice in a forced labour camp, and Mr. Wu was given a jail term in 2003 after being tortured. Mr. Wu was formerly the deputy director of the county's Product Quality Inspection Bureau. The following is Ms. Yuan's personal account.
My name is Yuan Wenxin and I am now 57 years old. I retired from the Social Insurance Company of Yitong County in Jilin Province. My husband Wu Keli is 61 years old, and was the deputy director of the Product Quality Inspection Bureau of Yitong County before he was arrested. Our eldest daughter, Wu Zhuo, works at the Quality Inspection Section of Yitong County, and our youngest daughter has just graduated from college. She works out of town.
Physical and mental benefits after practising Falun Gong
I had numerous illnesses before and tried different doctors and medicines but nothing worked. In May 1994, my husband, two sisters, and I attended Teacher Li Hongzhi's, the founder of Falun Gong lectures at the University of Jilin Province in Changchun City. After ten classes, I changed into a totally different person. The illnesses that I had before--heart condition, rheumatism, and low blood pressure--all disappeared, and I also changed from being competitive and aggressive to humble and mild-mannered. I stopped pursuing fame and material gain, and I became more relaxed. My husband also felt the magnificence of Falun Gong; his back pain and the fatigue he felt all over his body were healed. He felt so light after that. He also rid himself of the social vices of the corrupt Chinese Communist Party: no more dining out with his workplace's funds, no more accepting bribes, no more drinking or smoking, and no more gambling. He worked hard and was well-respected.
Going to appeal, suffering from detention and forced labour
On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] communist regime began the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.
In order to tell the authorities about my personal experience and the beauty of the practice so that more people would benefit from it, I went to the provincial capital to appeal. However, I was detained in the Changchun City Stadium. After I was released, on July 24th, my two sisters (also practitioners) and I went to Beijing to appeal. When we were in Tianjin on our way to Beijing, we were arrested and escorted to Siping City. On July 26th, officers from our local police station escorted me back. After returning to work, I was told that my work unit supervisors had gone to Tianjin. After they returned, they fined me 2000 yuan and deducted the amount from my salary.
On September 9th, 1999, I went again to Beijing with several other practitioners. We were detained in Changping Detention Centre. The guards there punched and kicked us. They also subjected us to torture, such as "flying an airplane," long-term squatting and standing outdoors for extended periods day and night. We were deprived of sleep and were not allowed to use the toilet. We were subjected to many kinds of tortures as well as verbal abuse. Later, when we were recognised by the people who came to find us (we never told the guards our names), we were transferred back to the county prison, where we were detained for 25 days. The head of the Politics and Security Office of the county police department, Huang Naiquan, forced us to pay 2000 yuan.
At the end of January 2001, my sister and I went to Beijing to appeal. We opened up a banner on Tienanmen Square and shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" A pack of policemen ran at us, shoved us down, and attacked us. Our mouths were bleeding after they beat us. Then they shoved us into the police vehicle and locked us up in an iron cage in a police station near Tienanmen Square. After we were transferred back to the local police department, we were held in the detention centre and given a one-year jail term on March 22nd. We were then taken to Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City. My husband was taken to the detention centre. At the end of 2001, I was released. However, Li Bo, manager of the county Social Insurance Company, did not allow me to return to work, saying that I had not written a statement to renounce Falun Gong. My salary was therefore withheld.
My husband was given five years of imprisonment after he was forced to confess.
In early 2003, some practitioners tapped into the regime's TV network in Changchun City and played videos appealing for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. Afterwards the police all over the province began to arrest practitioners. In the afternoon on March 14th, the deputy head of the county police department, Zhang Qi, ordered several officers to break into our residence. They ransacked my home without a warrant. Failing to find anything they were looking for, they arrested my husband and me. Because of the trauma of everything that had happened, I suddenly had a heart attack, and our 84-year-old mother collapsed in bed. Hence, they only arrested my husband and put him in a detention centre.
They also arrested over a dozen practitioners elsewhere in the province. They used numerous methods of brutal torture on practitioners, attempting to get them to "confess." They wanted the practitioners to provide information proving that my husband, Wu Keli, was the co-ordinator of our area so that they could persecute him further. All of the arrested practitioners were later given either jail terms or forced labour terms.
Liu Wei, deputy Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head of the county, who was in charge of the Law and Politics Committee, and the deputy head of the county, Wang Gang, spread rumours and lies, claiming that they had uncovered "the base" in Yitong County. They even had their lies published in Jilin Daily and Siping City Daily. They gave orders for my husband to be severely tortured. They sent police officer Zhang Qingtang to Changchun City to manipulate some arrested practitioners to fabricate "evidence" against my husband. They also gathered over a dozen police officers to torture him for a confession. In Dongjie Police Station, Wang Lin divided the police into three teams, with four in each team. They took turns torturing my husband day and night. My husband was forced to sit in an iron chair. They used a loudspeaker and shouted constantly, "Wu Keli, confess now." They would not allow him to sleep, hoping that he would collapse mentally and physically.
Police officer Tan said to my husband, "Let me tell you now. It doesn't matter if you confess or not. We'll keep torturing you until you're totally finished mentally and physically." They fabricated their "evidence." On October 21st, 2002, during my husband's trial, the police even prohibited his witnesses and defence attorney to be present. They also prohibited me and our relatives and friends from being present in the courtroom. Anyone that wanted to attend the trial had to get a pass from the county 610 Office. The judge would not listen to my husband's self-defence. In the end, Siping City 610 Office and Siping City Intermediate Court gave him five years. We were told before the trial took place that they had already made their decision.
Imprisoned at a forced labour camp once again
After my husband was arrested, policeman Zhang Qi continued to watch our family, attempting to arrest my eldest daughter. On April 27th, 2002, several officers and an official of my work unit, Li Bo, came to my residence and shouted, "Hand in your statement to renounce Falun Gong right now, or else we'll break into your residence and arrest you." I called our relative to go to school to pick up our youngest daughter who was attending evening classes. Then, our eldest daughter and I climbed out of a window and began our homeless and destitute life. Without any income to support her education, our youngest daughter had to drop out of school and joined us. She was unable to take part in the entrance exams for high school.
The police were afraid that I would expose to the public their illegal deeds such as using torture to force a confession, collecting "evidence" using violence, holding trials, etc. To prevent me from attending my husband's trial, they began to look for me to arrest me. In the evening on November 4th, 2002, my youngest daughter and I went home to get some necessities. We were immediately seen by someone who was monitoring our residence. A group of police headed by Zhang Qi broke into our residence, forced me into the police vehicle, and took me to the county detention centre. My husband watched from his cell as four officers carried me in and threw me into the female cell. A month later on December 12th, I was sentenced to two years of forced labour and transferred to Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun. About three weeks later, on January 4th, 2003, my husband was transferred to Jilin Prison. From then on, the four of us were separated.
I was transferred to the labour camp. Because my physical condition was poor, the labour camp refused to admit me, but Liu Tiejun and two other policemen lied to the labour camp and said that I was "extremely dangerous" in the county and that I should be detained at the labour camp. After collaborating, they reached an agreement that I would be detained there for three months to see what would happen to me. Since I was very weak, every morning, the first thing the guards would do was to check on me to see if I had died. One day before the Chinese New Year on January 29th, 2003, fearing that I would die during the Chinese New Year holiday, the labour camp told the county police station to come and take me away.
The head of the Law Department of the County Police Department, Zhang Fu, escorted me and put me back in the detention centre. I told the guards and the head of the centre, "I won't eat the food or drink the water here because I have not committed any crimes, and I should not be locked up in here. You should not have admitted me, either." The head replied, "We have no choice but to detain you. We are not allowed to release you during the time of the party conferences." I was detained for over two months and released on April 2nd.
Losing my job after being released
By the time I was released, I had become so thin that I could not walk by myself. I couldn't even take care of my daily needs by myself since I was too fragile. But there was nobody at home to take care of me. My husband was imprisoned, our eldest daughter was destitute and going from place to place, and our youngest daughter was going to a boarding school with the help of our relatives. The police even went to her school to harass her. Each of the four of us in our family suffered greatly. The situation was dire, so I asked for my relative's help--to go to my work unit to apply for retirement. (I had reached the age to retire according to the requirements.) However, the person in charge of the matter in my work unit, Li Bo, refused to process my application. He said, "You were fired while you were in the labour camp." However, it was a fact that ever since I was imprisoned in the forced labour camp in 2001, Li Bo had been getting my salary and pocketing it. He even told my relative, "For Yuan Wenxin to retire, you will have to find a job for my son who just graduated from college."
I had to support my youngest daughter who was going to a boarding school, visit my husband, pay our eldest daughter's living expenses, help our mother who was over 80 years old, and at the same time support myself. In 2006, our youngest daughter passed the college entrance exams. I had to sell our house to pay her school expenses and to support my family.
The persecution that has made my entire family suffer
My mother has three daughters. She has seen all of us endure forced labour. Her son-in-law and youngest grandson were given 5 and 4-year jail terms. Her eldest grandson was held in the Fushun City Brainwashing Centre in Liaoning Province, and her granddaughter was forced to leave home and become destitute. The cruel persecution and heavy mental blows caused her death even though she had always been strong and healthy. She was unable to see her son-in-law before she died on December 31st, 2006.
The above is only a brief account of the persecution that my family has suffered. No words can describe our misery. However, our family is among the countless other Falun Gong practitioners who have also been suffering from the persecution. I hope that the persecution will stop soon.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/10/25/211072.html
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