Mother of a Ph.D. student Abused in a Mental Hospital in China

a PhD student of Physics Department of Houston University, USA
February 17, 2000

My mother Han Ji-zhen is a Falun Gong practitioner in Nan-jing City of China. She is now being detained in a mental hospital although she is perfectly normal.

On December 23, my mother went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and was arrested by a young police officer who slapped her face madly. Later, she was escorted back to Nan-jing and was thrown into the Nan-jing mental hospital (now called Nan-jing Brain Hospital). In the beginning, the hospital refused to accept her. However, under the pressure from the government, they had to accept her. The doctor said she was sent to the mental hospital because she was a Falun Gong practitioner, even though she had no mental illness. In the hospital, she was forced to take injections and medicines, which made her lose her strength and feel terrible. My family went to request the hospital to release her, but the doctor said, "Since the police sent her here, we have to give her medicines. Otherwise, if she continues to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in the future, we will be in trouble."

In the name of saving people from illnesses, the hospital has become a political tool in the hand of the Chinese communist Party to persecute mentally normal people. The hospital has violated its working ethics.

Before the Chinese New Year's Day, under the petition of my family, my mother was able to stay at home for two days. Then, the police sent her into the mental hospital again because she refused to give up her practice of Falun Gong. She is now still being abused in the mental hospital. I feel so sad that innocent people are being treated like that.

I appeal to the world for help.