(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a Chinese physician and graduate of Jinlin Province Medical College. After seeing so many of my patients recover from their illnesses unexpectedly after practicing Falun Gong, I also started practicing Falun Gong. After starting the practice, I actually felt that my whole body had undergone some amazing positive changes, and by following the strict requirements of Dafa (Great Law) in my Xinxing (mind nature, moral quality) cultivation, I have improved not only physically, but mentally as well.
When Jiang Zemin and his gang started their campaign of terror against Falun Gong in July 1999, two other Dafa practitioners and myself drafted a petition letter, with the intention of clarifying the truth about Falun Gong. Fifteen other practitioners signed this letter as well. We sincerely wanted the government to have a better understanding of Falun Gong. Then on March 1, 2000, four of us set out for Beijing to file this appeal. We were exercising our rights and fulfilling our responsibility as citizens. However, the heads of our work units, the local community leaders, the village commune, and the local police station all came to stop us. Then they kept a close surveillance on us and made us report to the local authorities when leaving home for any extended period of time. We learned then that a decree had been passed down that all head government officials from a village or town could have their posts terminated if they failed to stop their residents from appealing in Beijing. For example, if three or more people were caught going to Beijing, the sheriff of the county would then be dismissed from his job. In addition, different quotas for arresting Falun Gong practitioners were given to the town mayor and the provincial officer as well. Under this new policy, undoubtedly all officials would try hard to protect their jobs. Jiang could then tighten his control on Falun Gong practitioners.
To keep me under surveillance around the clock, the local police station in the village where I had my medical practice assigned two people and the village council also assigned four people to watch me. They confiscated my ID and I was required to report to the police station whenever I left home for any extended period of time. Without an ID, I could not buy train tickets. But on March 1, I managed to bypass this surveillance and boarded a train for Beijing. However, when I arrived at Tianjin Station, I was arrested when the guards checked our IDs. The other three Dafa practitioners were also arrested at the bus stop just outside the train station. Shortly after our arrest, police from Fuyu County, Jilin Province came to take us away, and we were detained at Fuyu County Police Department for fifteen days. On March 17, I was transferred and locked up in the Detention Center of Fuyu County for over a month.
The moment we entered the detention center, we heard one guard howling at us, "Take your clothes off. Face the wall and put your hands on your head!" That was the first time in my life I stood before so many people completely naked. Perhaps I was not meeting their requirements by the way I stood. "Stand properly!" Whack! A whiplash landed on my back. Immediately a red mark appeared. An inmate then made me crawl into a cell and sit next to a toilet and I was told to read aloud the "Jail Regulations." Not only had I lost my freedom, but also my basic human dignity.
At about 5 p.m. on March 17, 2000, a guard by the name Wang flew into a rage for some personal reason. In the middle of this tantrum, he took a wooden rod and vented his anger on me, beating the back of my hands over fifty times. The pain was excruciating and beyond what I could endure; I nearly passed out. When he finally stopped, my hands were completely deformed and swollen, and all sensations in my hands seemed to have been lost. The feeling was beyond words. When he finished with me, he started working on other Dafa practitioners. The same evening, an inmate came in and was about to pour cold water over me. I was surprised to find a supervisor named Zhang stopped him. (I found out afterwards that my wife, concerned about my ability to bear the cruelty, had paid Zhang 200 Yuan to take care of me.) However, the other five Dafa practitioners each received 10 buckets of cold water everyday. March is still very cold in Northeastern China, but the supervisor just turned a blind eye to the whole thing.
Everyday, we were given two meals. The ration consisted of a hard, dry, black maize flour bun and two ladles of undrinkable vegetable soup, which was like a mixture of sand, straw and grubs in water. Goods could be purchased from the detention center store, but they were awfully expensive. Visitors were not allowed, nor was any food allowed to be sent in. Some people were so hungry that they tried to get leftovers from other cellmates. But if the supervisor found out, they would be punished.
On April 24, 2000, I was sent to Yinmahe Labor Camp in Juitai. I thought that my nightmare at Fuyu Detention Center was all over, but this was, in fact, the start of another terrifying experience. Everyday, we had to go through what they called "board sitting" for 8 -- 10 hours, as part of our "political re-education." Originally, this "in-house education" process was intended to last a whole month. They cut it short by half a month because they required extra labourers. I was assigned to the construction team. Every morning we started at 6:00. We got a break at 11.30am and started work again at 1:00 in the afternoon, even before we could regain our energy. We stopped working at 6:00 in the evening. My body was aching all over after the day's labour and I was so tired that I didn't even want to wash up afterwards. All I wanted was a good rest. At that time, I didn't realise that I should never cooperate with their evil demands. I always put in the greatest effort to complete my share of work, hoping that one day the government would wake up and restore the honour of Falun Dafa and our freedom to practice.
On May 27, I was transferred to the paddy field team to help out with planting. As Zhao, the supervisor wanted to demonstrate his competence, he forced us to work even during the mid-day break. At the end of the day, every one was so worn out that we did not want to eat. My whole body was aching so much that I could hardly climb into bed.
On June 19, Zheng Hai, the re-education program instructor, ordered me to write a statement renouncing Dafa, but I refused. When they searched my body and found copies of Teacher's Jingwen (articles), they summoned me after work into the re-education room where they applied an electric baton to my head and neck for over thirty minutes. I was so stunned by the high voltage that I became quite dazed and my mind went all numb. When they finally let me go back to the dormitory, they stationed two guards to watch me. Later, they locked me up in the high security interrogation room and forced me to sit on a hardboard bed the whole afternoon. I was not allowed to eat anything except a little ration they provided. After three days of going without food, I could hardly see or walk and my weight went down rapidly.
Under such severe mental and physical torture, I never knew if I would live to see the next day. By putting in those extra hours of labour, all other detainees received a 5-6 day reduction in sentence. However, our Dafa practitioner's terms were lengthened by an extra 8-10 days instead.
From the Fa principles, I have realised that one must be determined in one's belief and uphold one's righteous thoughts even under pressure of persecution. We must not compromise with the evil. Hence, I told the labour camp that I would not accept nor comply with any of their requests but would stand up to the end. When my sentence was finally completed, unknown to me, my wife signed a statement of denouncement on my behalf and took me home. Here, I wish to state that any statements signed on my behalf are not valid. Many of my fellow practitioners are still imprisoned at present. Their release dates are overdue six months or even longer.
On February 29, just 20 days after returning home, about 5 or 6 police officers barged into our house and demanded to know if I still practiced Falun Gong. When I said "yes," they then did as they pleased and dragged me into their van, ignoring my parents' demand to see their warrant of arrest. My wife and daughter wouldn't let me be taken away; they grabbed on to my legs tightly. These police pushed them aside and dragged me into their van. They took me to their brainwashing class again, this time for six days. At the end of six days, the administrative "610" office (a government agency established specifically for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners) tried to persuade me to sign their pre-printed statement of "Reformation," which I refused to do. I had just been released from a labour camp, and now they locked me up again in their detention centre for 15 days. Every day, the food ration was two small pieces of cake and a small bowl of soup. Yet, they demanded 120Yuan from me to cover my food expenses. We had not had any income for quite a while. I had no money to pay so they would not let visitors see me. My wife had to borrow 120Yuan from some friends to pay off the police before they would let her see me.
Since these crooked police did not follow any legal procedures when apprehending people, I could not afford to stay at home and get arrested again. I had to leave home to make some money for my family.
I have seen practitioners who went on hunger strike to protest and who were force-fed with maize noodle and concentrated brine. Their suffering was beyond imagination. Personally, I have experienced the feelings of starvation and attacks by electric baton followed by lapses of memory.
At least one Dafa practitioner died from torture while in Yinmahe Labour Camp, but the incident was never made known to the public. I know very well that our lives in the labour camp were being threatened and in danger at every moment.
We only hope that all the kind-hearted people will come to understand a bit more about Falun Gong and about the current crisis happening in China under the orders of Jiang Zemin. Please extend your support to those who are on the verge of dying and lay a good foundation for your future.