(Clearwisdom.net) I began practicing Falun Dafa when I was on the verge of mental and physical collapse. However, after practicing Falun Dafa, I said farewell to the former me whose face was awash in tears every day. Persistent gastro-intestinal problems, liver and cystic problems, and intrauterine sarcoma that had tortured me for many years were all gone. My body was purified and my moral standard was raised. I had an entirely new understanding of life, and realized that my goal should be to become a good person following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang and his followers started the persecution of Falun Dafa. They also launched major propaganda campaigns to defame Teacher and Dafa. Because Jiang had ordered the government to block all avenues of appeal, we went out to tell people the facts about Falun Gong and to reveal the lies being perpetrated.

One day in November 2000, I was reported when I was distributing truth-clarifying information. I was dragged to the police station. A group of police officers rushed at me to search me. They took all my handouts and personal belongings away. The chief asked me where I got those materials, but I refused to tell him. They then handcuffed me to a heating radiator. At 2:00 p.m. they put me into a police car and took me to my home to search it. They took away Teacher's portrait. They interrogated and threatened me for a whole day, but I still refused to give in.

At 11:00 p.m. the authorities sent me to the Benxi Detention Center in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, where the guards searched me and tore apart my clothes in the process. The food quality at the detention center was really poor. We ate plain buns and a porridge of corn. They also gave us some watery soup that had almost nothing in it. Even with this low quality of food, we still had to do labor for long hours. Sometimes we needed to redo some of the work, making the working hours even longer.

Since I had to sit on a cold bed that was made of Bakelite (hard plastic) for a long time, my hands and legs started becoming painful and swollen. I also developed the problem of frequent urination. After several interrogations, I still remained steadfast in my belief. As a result, at the beginning of 2001, they sent me to the Ajialing Detention Center. Before long, the detention center head, Liu, announced an illegal sentence for me. In face of this unjustified sentence, I wrote an appeal. On the surface they agreed with what I wrote in the appeal. But in reality they intensified the persecution against me. For example, Liu knew I could not squat down because of my swollen legs, but during the drill routine he forced me to sit on the snow. After he had given a long rebuke, it took several people to pull me up. The team head Wang knew I had leg problems, but he ordered me to shoulder manure and carry it up a hill, even ordering the criminals to put together a full load for me. When I staged a hunger strike in the protest, the police force-fed me.

During my time in the Ajialing Detention Center, the police often found excuses to torment me and the other practitioners. One day, it was 5:00 p.m. and snowing. Team head Xie told us the time was up and we could quit working. When team head Wang came out of his office and saw that we were going back, he immediately yelled at us, "Who told you to go back?" We told him that the time was up. He replied, "Time is up only when I say time is up. You go back to work!" We had to go back to the hill and work. We then realized that this was blatant abuse, and gathered at the top of the hill and stayed there. It was about 6:00 p.m. The police didn't know how to resolve this, so they apologized to us and asked us to come back down.

On the night of January 15 of the lunar calendar, we practitioners were still persisting in studying the Fa (1) and doing the exercises. Team head Wu came in to inspect us. When he saw that we were doing the exercises, he yelled at us and ordered us to go to bed. He saw we didn't move and then rushed into our room, jumped on our beds and punched and kicked us for about two hours. We continued to sit in the full lotus position and didn't budge. Right then, people in an adjacent cell yelled, "Don't beat people! Falun Dafa is good!" At last, the police retreated. We won the right to study Fa and do the exercises.

We fully understood that the detention center is not where we should stay. We thus wrote appeal letters again, asking for our unconditional release. In response to our requests, however, they transferred several former practitioners who had turned against Dafa under extreme pressure, to our area from Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, with the aim of shaking our righteous thoughts. The outcome was the opposite of what the police had expected.

Eventually, the police sent some of us to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. That was at noontime on March 23. The police suddenly called our names and ordered us to pack our things. They used a bus to transport us to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.

When we were in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, the police utilized those persons who had turned against Dafa to brainwash us. Every morning we got up to do handcrafts. If one didn't comply, they would use someone to barrage you with lies all day long. These lies eventually caused severe distraction and confusion. In the beginning, I could use Teacher's Fa to counter their arguments. Later, because of the long exposure to the brainwashing and physical pain, I told them I had to go to bed. Then, the head of our cell would order the criminal inmates above and below me in the bunk bed to continue the brainwashing. I was in such a mentally and physically exhausted state, and my mind was not clear. In that condition I wrote the "Three Statements" (2) and did something a Dafa practitioner should have never done. After that, my health got worse. I could not get out of bed, could not put on my clothes by myself, and I needed to have others take care of all these things for me. Considering me as a burden, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp sent me to receive medical treatment under surveillance. Therefore, toward the end of April, under my daughter's monitoring, I left the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and returned home.

In the two years since I have returned home, the joints in my body have become swollen and painful. I cannot take care of myself. Even so, the police officer who is in charge of our local area and the people from the Xibozi Residential Committee often come to harass me. The head of the residential committee, Yang, came to my place several times and took away Teacher's portrait and Falun Dafa books. Particularly whenever a politically sensitive date approaches, they come to my home more often. Even when I moved out of the Xibozi residential area, they still asked my neighbors about my whereabouts.

Photos showing the effects of the persecution against Yao Zuohua

June 27, 2004

(1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.

(2) The "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the "610 Office," the Three Statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practice Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.