(Clearwisdom.net) Since the persecution of Falun Gong in China started on July 20, 1999, countless practitioners have been illegally sent to forced labor camps, sentenced, and have even died as a result of torture. In the Jilin Prison, there are more than 100 practitioners who have been severely sentenced. They have suffered brutal tortures, and four practitioners, including Mr. Liu Chengjun, Mr. Wei Xiushan, Mr. Zhang Jianhua and Mr. Cui Weidong have died from torture. Many other practitioners have been injured or disabled as a result of torture in this prison.
As Dafa practitioners in Jilin City, where Jilin Prison is located, we have never stopped exposing the torture of Dafa practitioners in the prison. However, most local practitioners have not enlightened in their hearts to the following: Practitioners in the prison and we are of one body.
In many cases, our understandings and actions to expose the evil and rescue fellow practitioners from prison were only at superficial levels. Sometimes we even reasoned that practitioners in the prison had been detained due to their righteous thoughts not being strong. Further, as the cruel police tried their best to block the information, sometimes we practitioners outside the prison felt that there had not been much we could do to rescue our fellow practitioners, while they were being persecuted, one after another, and have died as a result of torture.
Falun Gong practitioner Liu Chengjun from the city of Changchun is one of the practitioners who participated in tapping into the local television network to broadcast the truth about the persecution against Falun Gong on March 5, 2002, an event that shocked the world. On December 26, 2003, upon hearing the news that Mr. Liu had died from torture at the Jilin Prison, some of us practitioners in Jilin City were shocked, some were regretful, and some did not know at all.
In contrast, practitioners outside China have exerted all their efforts in supporting and rescuing practitioners in China, though being far away. From overseas practitioners' full effort to rescue Mr. Liu, we saw our insufficiencies and found the gap between them and us. We knew that we need to treat practitioners' matters as our own matters, but when encountering incidents, sometimes we only looked at things from our own perspective. Any detained practitioner is a particle and a member of Dafa in one body with us, and is also our family member. It is our obligation to rescue imprisoned practitioners and to resist the persecution.
1. Having a correct starting point and increasing group sharing
Through Fa study, we further realized that the mission of Fa-rectification practitioners is to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. Accordingly, everything we do should be centered on this theme. To resist the persecution and rescue practitioners from prison clarifies the truth to sentient beings, and also upholds Dafa.
Later, in many small scale experience sharing meetings among local practitioners, we made the exposure of evil and the rescue of imprisoned fellow practitioners one of the main subjects, and we did away with the wrong understanding that what we had been doing before was "helping" practitioners in the prison.
We also began sending forth righteous thoughts at a closer distance to specifically target the prison. Through sharing, we became more and more clear that Dafa practitioners are one body. Facing the reality that practitioners in the prison are being brutally tortured, we should no longer wait in despair, nor should we wait for changes in external elements; instead, we should take the initiative to expose the evil, eliminate the evil and to reduce the pressure on the detained practitioners.
2. Improve the understanding on Fa principles along with the family members of detained practitioners, and reach common understandings
In the past few years we were always collecting evidence of police crimes in the persecution, but because of the lack of our understanding as one body, as well as our insufficient effort and the authorities' strict blockage of information, we knew very little about the persecution that actually took place in the prison, so it remained rampant.
In May 2004, practitioner Mr. Li Zhiyong from Changchun City was on the brink of death due to the torture at the Jilin Prison. His family members, also practitioners, attempted to visit him, but were rejected by the police until someone extended help.
After a period of time, hearing that his health had deteriorated, his family members went to the prison again to request a visit. The prison used all means to deny them and Mr. Li's family members failed to see him, so they sought out local practitioners to discuss it.
After practitioners in Jilin City learned about the situation, they shared understandings with the family members several times. First, they made clear that Dafa practitioners are the most righteous, and should rectify all that is not righteous. Mr. Li, who was illegally detained, is absolutely innocent. His being brutally persecuted is due to the crimes of the policemen. We should expose these crimes on the Internet and should take all normal, legal means to get our innocent family member back.
At the beginning, Mr. Li's family members were concerned and hesitated about exposing the crimes of the policemen. They worried that it might affect him and make it more difficult to see him. Practitioners of Jilin City patiently shared with them on Fa principles, and studied Master's article "Rationality" together with them:
"The actions they are now adopting in the persecution of Dafa and its students are extremely evil and shameful, and they fear these will be exposed. You must let the world's people know about their evilness--this is saving people, as well. While eliminating the evil, you consummate yourselves and strengthen the Fa's manifestation in the world."
("Rationality," Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Mr. Li's family realized that in whatever we do, there is an issue of belief in Master and the Fa, as well as whether we can let go of self and completely follow Master's words.
Jilin practitioners first exposed the policemen's crimes persecuting Mr. Li. His family, at the same time, also wrote a letter to the chief of the prison, advising them of a charge against the policemen and their violation of regulations in preventing Mr. Li's family from seeing him. Two days later, a policeman in Mr. Li's ward of the prison called his home, threatening his family and violently abusing them, "You dare to accuse our ward. In the future you will no longer be able to see Li Zhiyong." Mr. Li's family reasoned with them, and said, "Isn't all of this caused by you? How can you blame us, the family members?"
Several days later, someone from the Jilin Prison called again, advising Mr. Li's family to go to see Mr. Li. The family consulted several other people. A hospital doctor said if Mr. Li had not had a history of the illness he was now suffering, that it was impossible for a 26-year-old man such as he to develop "comprehensive kidney illness" within a dozen days unless he had experienced a car accident or serious attack causing suffocation or shock. His family members realized that his health complications were created by torture at the prison.
The family then started to visit each relevant prison department, requesting the prison allow Mr. Li to receive medical treatment outside the prison. Each unit at the prison tried to shirk responsibility, and required Mr. Li give up his practice as a condition of release, but he rejected the requirement. Under this situation, his family went to the prison many times to request his release. Though the prison did not release him immediately, their attitude in dealing with his family clearly changed. The steadfast practitioners in the Jilin Prison were absolutely not allowed to be visited by their families, but Mr. Li could be visited at any time.
3. Collect the evidence of the crimes of the policemen and criminals and expose them
The local practitioners exposed the known crimes of the policemen and criminals in the prison on Minghui [Clearwisdom.net in Chinese], and spread the news among local practitioners that the family would go to request release, so that the actions could be supported by other practitioners' righteous thoughts. Some practitioners also specifically collected the criminal evidence of the Jilin Prison, and made many copies of the material and widely distributed and posted the information in the city.
It was learned from later feedback that after exposing their crimes several times, the persecution became restrained and the police stopped intimidating family members. Some policemen begged pitifully with Dafa practitioners' family members, "Do not expose us on the Minghui website anymore."
Now each time Dafa practitioners' family members go to see the chiefs of the prison, they are all so afraid that they try to avoid seeing them. The prison also assigned staff to specifically deal with the family members and lie to them, "The chiefs are not available. We can take the message to pass it on for you."
4. Facing an emergency incident, practitioners in and outside of China act quickly as one body
In early October 2004, we learned that a determined practitioner, Cui Weidong, died in a hospital as a result of torture at Jilin Prison. We also heard that other practitioners in the prison were in critical condition and under "emergency care" in Jilin Railway Central Hospital. We immediately organized several discussions and reached a common understanding.
First we sent the news to Minghui, telling the world what was happening. We also made a poster called "Urgent Attention to Jilin People: Falun Gong Practitioners are dying from persecution" and printed it on self-adhesive paper. For three days, local practitioners put up over 1,000 posters at many places, including in-patient rooms, hallways, bathrooms and the emergency room at the hospital where the practitioners were held, and other locations in the city. Many practitioners also went to the Railway Hospital and nearby locations to send forth righteous thoughts. Practitioners from Japan, Hong Kong and other regions made phone calls. All of this greatly shocked the evildoers. Throughout the entire process, practitioners both inside and outside of China acted as one body: making phone calls, clarifying the truth in person, sending forth righteous thoughts at short distance and putting up posters. Many practitioners participated. We all felt the power of coordination as one body.
5. Lessons learned: constantly purifying oneself during the rescue effort
On Nov. 15, 2003, Minghui published "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People (With Master's Comments)." Inspired by the article, practitioners in Jilin City collected evidence of crimes to send to Minghui. In Jiangnan District of Jilin City, a director of street administration, Mr. Wang, was very active in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. As a result, more than a dozen practitioners were sent to forced labor camps. Local practitioners published his crimes on Minghui, and they included his home address and phone numbers, and the phone numbers of his son and daughter-in-law.
When practitioners from overseas and China first called Mr. Wang and his family, he was very angry and answered the callers with profanity. When the local practitioners learned about this, they made special fliers targeting Mr. Wang's crimes and posted them all over his neighborhood in one night. After reading the fliers, many people were outraged at Mr. Wang. The mother of his daughter-in-law confronted him and said, "I had no idea about these many bad things you have done." His family members were very embarrassed. Finally, Mr. Wang himself was so ashamed that he couldn't even make eye contact with people when walking. He went to see some practitioners and begged, "I won't do bad things again. I don't want to embarrass my family and relatives." Soon after, he quit his job.
Local practitioners were quite happy about this. Their effort to expose the evil is working; the evil director quit his job, practitioners were telling each other. But before long, a new director arrived. This one was even more evil than his predecessor. Practitioners were now cooled down and started to look at themselves. They realized that when exposing the evil, they had not set the right basic objectives. Exposing the evil persecution had become their first priority. They ignored saving sentient beings. As a result, they unknowingly treated the persecution as activities among human beings. In fact, when Mr. Wang told practitioners that he wanted to stop doing bad things, we could have told him kindly: "You can continue working on the job, but you should know right from wrong. Also, you should treat Falun Gong and practitioners fairly. This way you can pay back for your crimes." Doing so we could have provided Mr. Wang a chance to renew and re-position himself.
During this effort to rescue fellow practitioners from Jilin Prison, we took the lessons learned from the past and set the right objectives from the beginning. Our base point is to expose the evil and clarify the truth; our ultimate purpose is to save people. We want more people to know that the so-called civilized prison management in Jilin Prison is hiding a dark secret. Jilin Prison is actually a hell that kills people without using weapons. We also want people to see the true nature of the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.
The evildoers in Jilin Prison were frightened. In order to hide their crimes, they immediately transferred the practitioners who suffered the most to secret locations. But many people who were fooled by the lies now have come to realize the facts about the brutal persecution in their own city and neighborhood; they were shocked and very concerned. For many days, the fliers that exposed the crimes in Jilin Prison remained in public view; no one came to tear them down. Many doctors, nurses and hospital staff angrily accused Jilin Prison for their crimes of torturing and killing people.
6. Persistently treating the rescue effort as part of cultivation in the Fa-rectification period
Practitioner Li Yongzhi from Changchun was detained and persecuted in Jilin Prison. He suffered severe torture and was fighting for his life. His family members have been very active in trying to rescue him. They visited many offices, including top leaders of Jilin Prison. When their plea was refused, they went to Jilin Province Prison Administration, Jilin Province Department of Justice, and Jilin Province 610 Office to demand the government agencies to release their son.
For a while, their rescue effort had no result due to the bureaucracy of different agencies. Mr. Li's family members were losing confidence. But Falun Gong practitioners were not discouraged. They never stopped clarifying the truth to people. Through discussion, we came to the following realization: All detained fellow practitioners are our own family members; we will never accept any kind of persecution toward Falun Gong practitioners; detaining practitioners in prison was arranged by the evil old forces; exposing the persecution and saving sentient beings are the responsibility of Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification period; rescuing fellow practitioners is part of our own cultivation during this special time. No matter how dangerous and difficult it seems, we must continue our rescue effort. As long as we follow the right path, Master will always take care of us.
Later, under the severe persecution, Mr. Li suffered kidney failure. His situation became worse and worse. Police from Jilin Prison's Criminal Law Section went to Yitong County Police Department's national security team twice to arrange a medical parole. But both times, their request was denied.
On September 27, 2004, Mr. Li was in critical condition and all necessary documents were ready except the approval from the local authority. Yet, when the young man was dying, and even the Jilin Prison Criminal Law Section personnel requested again and again, the National Security Division Head Li Xiaodong refused to sign the admission, on the grounds that Mr. Li was not a local resident.
Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Liu Chengjun from Nongan County in Changchun had been brutally persecuted and tortured in the Jilin Prison as well. When his life had been put in imminent danger, the prison authority approved his parole on medical treatment. However, the local authority of Mr. Liu's residency - Nongan County 610 Office and Police Department refused to take him, and Mr. Liu died under torture.
In the face of difficulties, local practitioners in Jilin City and Li Zhiyong's family members kept studying the Fa, sharing experiences and strengthening righteous thoughts. They didn't give up the thought of rescuing their family member, nor did they avoid the problems, and instead clarified the truth directly face to face.
In October, before Mr. Li was released, Jilin Prison demanded his family members sign on the parole document and pay a certain amount of cash, but they firmly refused.
On October 12, 2004, Mr. Li's parents wrote again to the Head of the Jilin Provincial Department of Justice, who is also the director of Jilin Province Prison Management Department. They delivered the letter by express mail, requesting immediate release of their dying son.
Through continuous effort, the illegally detained Changchun practitioner Li Zhiyong was set free unconditionally at about 3 p.m. on October 13. He walked out of the prison openly and with dignity, and arrived home safely.
7. Unmoved by illusions and having faith in Master and the Fa at all times
From the torture death of practitioner Liu Chengjun to the successful rescue of practitioner Li Zhiyong, we have learned the power of acting as one body. More importantly, we have realized that we as Dafa disciples should have faith in our Master and the Fa at every moment. Teacher told us a long time ago that he could do anything for us as long as we practitioners walked a righteous path.
The Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp in Changchun is a so-called "Reform" center in Jilin Province, where over 1,000 practitioners have been detained, about 20 practitioners have been tortured to death and many more have been injured and disabled due to the persecution.
In 2004, practitioner Wang Jinbo from Yitong County, Jilin Province, was severely tortured there. Because he was steadfast in cultivation, he was subjected to violent beatings many times. After his family members, also Falun Gong practitioners learned about his situation, they went to see the labor camp director as well as related department personnel, demanding both heavy punishment of the perpetrators and immediate release of the seriously ill Mr. Wang. However, the labor camp merely symbolically criticized the responsible police and prisoners, apologized to Mr. Wang's family and promised verbally that such things would not happen in the future.
The fact is, after the incident, the labor camp continued its brutal persecution of steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Wang was tortured to the point that he could no longer walk. His family went to see Wang Jiangang, deputy director of the labor camp in charge of reform, many times, requesting the release of Wang Jinbo. In the meantime, overseas practitioners actively called in, and sent faxes and mail to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Under the great pressure from public opinion abroad, Wang Jiangang dared not to meet Mr. Wang's family whenever they came to ask for his release.
Mr. Wang's family also went to the Changchun City Department of Justice, which is in charge of the forced labor camps, to tell them about the persecution of Mr. Wang. In November 2004, the labor camp notified Mr. Wang's family that he would be freed only if they could get a critical condition report on their own for him from a hospital.
After discussion, Mr. Wang's family and fellow practitioners came to an understanding that under no circumstances should a practitioner follow the evil's arrangement. It's absolutely reasonable to take back our innocent and serious ill relative without any additional conditions. So Mr. Wang's family went to the labor camp again to ask for the unconditional release of Mr. Wang. Related persons in the labor camp became very irritated and shouted madly, "In the labor camp, only your family brought us many troubles, we will release anyone but Wang Jinbo."
However, on December 14, 2004, Wang Jinbo was set free unconditionally. His family members are preparing for a lawsuit against the police in the labor camp who had broken the law by savagely beating Mr. Wang and torturing him to the point of disability.
8. Rescue our family members (fellow practitioners) from prisons
With the rapid progress of Fa-rectification, a large amount of evil factors in other dimensions have been purged. Master told us in the article "My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up'":
"Did you know that when the persecution of your family members who have been imprisoned is lessened or stopped, it's the result of Dafa disciples exposing and shocking the evil beings while braving evil and danger to take action against the persecution? When they get out, how will you bear to face them? What have you done for them?"
We understand that all Dafa disciples are part of a big family and they are all our family members. My understanding is: Master's words are the Fa and indicate the change of cosmic climate. When there are big cosmic climate changes, practitioners should move accordingly. During the process, each of us should regard others' things as our own, take on our responsibilities and put in our best efforts. When all our practitioners really see clearly the evil nature of this persecution, in the process of anti-persecution, always regard the Fa as master, constantly correct ourselves, and as a whole, realize that firmly upholding the Fa is the sacred responsibility of a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, the mighty power of Dafa will manifest and the imprisoned practitioners will come back home safely under the protection of our Master and the rescue efforts by our fellow practitioners.
Above is my limited personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
December 22, 2004
