An Elderly Woman: My Whole Family is Steadfast in Cultivation Despite Cruel Persecution

(Clearwisdom.net)

I am a Falun Gong practitioner in China. I am 72 years old and live in a city in Jilin Province. In 1996, I started practicing Falun Gong. Before I became a Falun Gong practitioner, I had many sicknesses and my body always felt very weak. Not only did I suffer greatly from illness, but it also brought many troubles to my children. The high cost of treating my illnesses was a financial burden on my poor family. But after only 6 months of practicing Falun Gong, all my illnesses disappeared. Now I feel as light as a feather, and I can help my children with housework, rather than bringing them trouble. Sometimes I even help my neighbors take care of their child. My xinxing has improved as well.

One morning on my way to buy groceries, a car hit me. Thrown some 30-40 feet off the road, my head hit the curb, and I lost consciousness right away. When I woke up, the people around me were shocked. The driver of the car kept saying, "Thank God you are awake, let me take you to a hospital, we were all scared to death." Seeing their nervous faces, I told them, "I am a practitioner of Falun Gong, don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Hurry up and get to work, don't be late." Saying that, I slowly got up from the ground and walked home. No matter how the people tried to persuade me into asking for money, I would not take a single penny from the driver. In two weeks, all of my injuries were completely recovered. My neighbors all praised Falun Dafa, saying that, "Falun Dafa is so wonderful, it is a miracle." Of my 5 children, two daughters and one son also began to practice Falun Gong after seeing my changes. Now our entire family knows how wonderful Falun Dafa is.

My sons and daughters, wanting to stop the persecution of Falun Gong and restore the reputation of Dafa, went to Beijing to appeal and clarify the truth to the government. They were arrested and detained in forced labor camps. The local police station wouldn't even leave an illiterate elderly lady like me alone. They sent people to my house to force me to write a "guarantee letter" [A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.]. When I firmly refused, they threatened my son, forcing him to write the "guarantee letter", and to write a guarantee to make sure I would not go to Beijing again. After this, the police left my house. I am a Dafa practitioner, and nobody can write a guarantee for me, so I hereby solemnly declare the guarantee my son wrote for me to be null and void. I steadfastly cultivate Dafa and will never cooperate with the evil.

Right now Dafa practitioners here have no human rights. When they go out, they are often followed by undercover police. If practitioners see each other and talk, the police will arrest them for having an "illegal meeting." Especially on sensitive days like July 20^th, April 25^th, or when the government is holding an important conference, they interfere with Dafa practitioners' normal lives, even arresting practitioners for no reason. My eldest daughter was cooking breakfast for her family one day when the police forcibly took her away. Claiming that she was interfering with the order of society, they sent her to a detention center. My second eldest daughter was also sent to a forced labor camp. She was fired from her job because she went to Beijing to appeal. Nobody would pay attention to our appeals in China, and the government doesn't offer any opportunity for practitioners to speak the truth. In order to validate Dafa, my son went to Tiananmen Square, displayed a banner, and courageously told the people, "Falun Dafa is Good". Consequently, he was brutally beaten black and blue by police there, and to this day he is still detained in a forced labor camp.

The forced labor camps in China are like hell on earth. Every day the police forced my son to write a guarantee letter to give up Dafa, beating him if he refused to do it. They don't allow Falun Gong practitioners to move, but deprive them of sleep and make them sit on a small wooden stool. They don't even allow family members to visit. Practitioners are often beaten with whips and shocked with electric batons. Criminals in the same cell are encouraged to beat Falun Gong practitioners, causing great suffering, both physically and mentally.

Police extort money from family members of practitioners, so I have to pay to see my son. When I did visit my son, I could barely recognize him. His strong and sturdy body had turned frail and skeletal, with sunken eyes. His body was covered with festering wounds. I can't imagine what those police did to torture him. The two policemen that monitored our visit did not allow us to speak freely, but when they weren't paying attention, my son whispered, "In order to force me to write the guarantee letter, they put me into a damp underground cell every day. The damper it is, the more painful my wounds become. But this is useless against a Dafa practitioner!" Seeing my son in such a state, how can I not feel pain?

It's not hard to imagine how much practitioners have suffered in the forced labor camps. Isn't this proof of inhumane people devastating mankind and breaching basic human rights? I hereby charge Jiang's regime with committing crimes against humanity, and genocide. I hereby appeal to the International Court to uphold justice and punish them according to the law.