Germany: Please Help to Rescue my Good Friend Hong-Bo Liu

My name is Juan Du. I came to study in Germany in August 2001 and am a Falun Gong practitioner.

Mr. Hong-Bo Liu, born in 1971, is a close friend of mine and we used to attend the same Falun Gong practise site in China. Before Jiang began persecuting Falun Gong, Mr. Liu worked in the Dalian branch of Bank of China. He started practising Falun Gong in 1994. In accordance with the teachings of Falun Dafa, he attempted to live by the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" and he was widely regarded as a fine person. In 1999, he was forced out of his job by the bank authorities simply because he insisted on practising Falun Gong. In December 1999, he went to Beijing to exercise his legal right to appeal to the authorities but was arrested and sent to Yaojia Detention Centre in Dalian. To appeal against immoral treatment from the Detention Centre, he staged a hunger strike. The officials brutally force-fed him. He was later released.

On July 20 2001, Mr. Hong-Bo Liu was forcibly abducted from his home by the agents of the National Security Bureau's Dalian office. Mr. Liu was injured in several places on his body when he was dragged from upstairs to the ground floor. He passed out and only regained consciousness with first aid. Afterwards, policemen searched his home illegally, and took away 4 computers, 4 CD writers, several stacks of Cd's and a printer. His mother was also intimidated and frightened by the police. Mr. Liu was interrogated by Lushun Security Bureau the following day and was then detained in Yaojia Detention Centre. He was banned from meeting his family for more than one year and no one really knows what kind of persecution he is suffering now. In September 2002, he was illegally sentenced to ten years in prison by the Court in Dalian City without his family's knowledge or any legal proceedings. He defied the verdict, and appealed to the people's middle court in Dalian but the court illegally maintained the same verdict again. He was then detained in Dalian's Yaojia Detention Centre again. Though I currently do not know how much torture he has suffered in the past year or his situation now, based on my personal experience, I am very worried about his situation at present.

In the wake of the oppression of Falun Gong, on July 20 1999, the university I attended in China forbade the practitioners from practising exercises on campus and confiscated our Falun Gong books. In addition, some other students were dispatched to keep track of us and monitored our activities. In April and October 2000, under immense pressure from the university and the society, I tried to peacefully appeal to Beijing twice against the government's wrong decision on Falun Gong. I was detained in a drug rehabilitation centre in Dalian (which was later transformed into the 610 Office, which is organisation set up specifically to deal with Falun Gong) and the Yaojia Detention Centre respectively.

In the process of my visits to Beijing and the illegal incarceration I suffered, I personally witnessed the ongoing cruel persecution of Falun Gong in Mainland China. On my way to Beijing, I noticed that there were a lot of policemen and posters slandering Teacher Li [the founder of Falun Gong] and Falun Gong, no matter whether I traveled by road, train or bus. People might be asked whether they are Falun Gong practitioners anytime and anywhere. If their answer was yes, they would be arrested and put into jail right away. At Tiananmen Square, I witnessed policemen brutally beat practitioners until they were bleeding and then immediately clear the evidence using a cleaning car stationed nearby. I don't know how many similar tragedies have taken place in front of Tiananmen, which symbolises five thousand years of Chinese civilisation. Tiananmen was also the place where one of my relatives, my mother's uncle, was beaten to death.

In a brainwashing class in Dalian Drug Rehabilitation Centre, I witnessed that anyone who dared to question the officials who were loudly swearing at Falun Gong was subject to brutal torture. In a police precinct, I was deprived of the right to sleep, and was watched by policemen around-the-clock. I was not even allowed to close my eyes. Their purpose was to make me become dizzy and lose my will. In addition, I was also interrogated repeatedly. In a detention centre, not only did policemen beat us in person, but they also instigated other inmates to beat Falun Gong practitioners. Every criminal detention centre was equipped with a monitoring system to watch us. We were never allowed to talk to one another. The strategy for handling practitioners was, "When beating practitioners, regard it as what they deserve; when practitioners are beaten to death, announce it as committing suicide."

My various personal experiences showed that not only is the physical freedom of Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China restricted, but their basic human rights are also deprived. Furthermore, they are persecuted both physically and spiritually, and their lives are at stake at any moment.

Therefore, I urgently call for all the kind-hearted German citizens, judicial organisations, media, parliamentarians and other German government representatives at all levels to do whatever is in their power to help rescue my friend Mr. Hung-Po Liu and tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners whose lives are in danger.

There have been many successful precedents in different countries in terms of the rescue of Falun Gong practitioners, such as Mr. Zhao Ming from Ireland, Ms Zhang Cuiying from Australia, and Mr. Shenli Lin from Canada. It proves that goodness and justice will overcome evil. As a result, we are confident that with help from all kind-hearted people in the world, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners can be ended soon.

http://clearharmony.net/articles/200212/8655.html