(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in New York rallied in front of the United Nations on December 10, 2014, Human Rights Day, to protest the 15-year brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. Several practitioners recounted their personal experiences of torture and told of how others they knew suffered similar or worse fates.

Falun Gong rally in front of the United Nations in New York to protest the persecution they continue to face in China.

Persecution of Falun Gong is “Serious Human Rights Disaster”

Yi Rong, chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said that the CCP has incarcerated millions of Falun Gong practitioners in prisons, forced labor camps, and brainwashing centers during the past 15 years.

Ms. Yi asks that the CCP immediately stop the persecution and release all illegally detained practitioners. She also demanded the removal of the 610 Office, an organization that is above all laws and in charge of the systematic crackdown on Falun Gong.

Ms. Yi believes that the persecution of people's beliefs is a most serious human rights disaster. She calls upon the UN and the international community to pay attention to this human rights violation and work together to stop the CCP's crimes against humanity.

Firm Belief Triumphs Over Persecution

Ms. Zhu Yuanzhu (朱媛珠) from Shanghai said that she was arrested in Zhejiang Province in January 2002. At the Jinyun Detention Center, she was deprived of sleep for five days. The chief of the 610 Office slapped her until her face swelled up. She was made to kneel down on the cold pavement for six hours. Her hands were cuffed together with her legs so that she was forced to remain in a bent position around the clock.

Ms. Zhu was forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong day and night. If she closed her eyes, the guards put menthol-based oil in her eyes, beat her, and verbally abused her. Within 35 days, she became emaciated and had a mental collapse.

Mr. Jiang Zhenhua (姜振华) was a architect before being fired from his job because he practiced Falun Gong. He was locked up for 11 years in the prime of his life. In the detention center, the guards tied him to a chair and viciously beat him. The punches to his chest almost suffocated him, and the extreme pain made him dizzy. He was interrogated continuously without being allowed to sleep, eat, drink, or use the toilet, until his mental condition deteriorated. Six men took turns watching him around the clock for 11 years.

Ms. Li Hongzhen (李红珍) from Shanghai was twice put in a forced labor camp, and imprisoned once for five years. While in Shanghai Women's Prison, she was put in a solitary confinement cell with her arms and legs cuffed to a bed. She wasn't allowed to leave the bed, and had to defecate and urinate in her pants. In the forced labor camp, she was forced to sit still on a small stool without getting up. The flesh on her buttock festered as a result.

Persecution Continues Today

The persecution has not stopped. In fact the CCP is working harder to conceal its crimes of torturing and harvesting organs from practitioners.

According to Ms. Wang Meijing (王美敬) from Dalian City, between January and October 2014, 97 practitioners in Dalian were arrested, and 37 of them were convicted for practicing Falun Gong. Three of them died as a result of being tortured in prison.

According to Ms. Li Hongzhen from Shanghai, a 79-year-old practitioner was sentenced to four years in prison for handing out Shen Yun Performing Arts DVDs in September 2014. Another practitioner, who was with her at the time of arrest, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison. Two other practitioners who Ms. Li knew were repeatedly convicted and incarcerated during the past 15 years. They had no freedom, and no time to spend with and care for their family members.