(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a female Falun Gong practitioner, and I am 52 years old this year. I started the practice in 1996. From July 20, 1999, when the persecution first began, to 2001, I was arrested seven times, and I lost two family members in those two years.
Before the nationwide manhunt began on July 19, 1999, my home telephone had already been monitored. I remember on July 15th, one of my fellow practitioners called me and we agreed to go to Quyang the next morning. Early the next day, at 4:00 a.m., right after I stepped out the door, a police car came into view. The assistant deputy in charge of the Dongfenglu Police Station, Cao Liang, accompanied by policeman Hao Wei, detained me. I insisted on leaving. Cao Liang reported to the police bureau head but finally let me go. When we got to the bus station, there was a policeman trying to stop us, but he didn't succeed. A police vehicle had followed us to Quyang, and plainclothes policemen even followed us to a fellow practitioner's home. On July 19 Cao Liang led others to ransack our home. They confiscated all the Falun Dafa books. The police arrested me in another province and detained me at the Baoding Detention Center. At the detention center, the person in charge of the Baoding Police Bureau threatened me: "If you don't leave Falun Gong, then you will be sent to a provincial jail."
The second time, after I was released from the detention center, I went to the police station to explain the facts about Falun Gong. Cao Liang asked me to write something. After it was done, he said: "Since you said Falun Gong is good, then you came here to practice." Then, without hesitation he sent me away to the detention center. After my husband took him out for dinner and sent him some gifts (as well as asked an influential person to help), I was finally released.
The third time I was arrested, I was writing letters to both national appealing bureaus in Beijing. At around 2:00 p.m. our iron entrance gate was knocked so hard that it created a frightening noise. After the door was opened, Cao rushed in and asked me what I was writing and to whom. Then he ordered me to give him the letters. After two days, the police informed me that I should go to the police station to pick up my son, who had gone to Beijing to appeal and was arrested and sent back. He was detained at the police station. My son was handcuffed in a spread-eagle position to the heating pipes for an entire night. During lunchtime, the police finally released him from the handcuffs after I asked over and over again. That night, both my son and I were sent to the detention center. Because my son and I were arrested at the same time, my mother fell ill due to excessive worry. After we were arrested, my husband suffered from cerebral hemorrhage, so no one was left to take care of my mother. The hospital issued a notification of my mother's critical situation. Three days after we were released, my mother passed away. After we buried my mother, the policeman who takes care of household registration came to our home and forced us to immediately change my son's residence from this city. The policeman said he couldn't stand the pressure from his supervisors.
The fourth time, I went to Beijing to appeal to the government. I was arrested at Tiananmen Square and sent to a detention center. My company was ordered to dismiss me. Because the management in my company considered that order to be not in compliance with the law, they refused. After three months, they handed over 5,000 Yuan (1) as a fine, plus a guarantee, and then I was released. After that, whenever a "sensitive day" comes, the local residence committee, residence office, and management of my company come to my home.
The fifth time I was arrested was during the time of China's National Congress Meeting of 2000. Police from the local station came to my home and took me to the detention enter.
The sixth time, I was sent to Yaoshan Brainwashing Center at Shunping City. The leader was a Political and Judicial Committee Secretary with the surname of Lu. They printed a "Guarantee Statement" (2) and requested family members who work at the same workplace as Falun Gong practitioners to sign. Whoever violates any one item on the guarantee statement receives a fine between 20,000 to 30,000 Yuan. At the brainwashing center, there was not enough food provided. However, everyone had to pay 35 Yuan for living expenses.
The seventh time, because I hung a Dafa banner along Dongfeng Road, I was sentenced to one-year in a forced-labor camp. During that period, I was forced to work over 10 hours every day. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. In order to force me to give up cultivation, the jail policemen used criminals to force-feed me. While one person pulled my arms all the way back, another one pried open my mouth using a screwdriver to push up my upper jaw. They beat and kicked me. Later, even the criminal inmates couldn't stand seeing the way I was being treated. I was also forced to watch brainwashing videotapes. I was hit on the head by heavy books, punished by having to stand for a long time, and deprived of sleep for 6 days. After I had been standing for 10 days, my feet were so swollen that they couldn't fit into any shoes. In addition, I was slapped on the face, and my arms were twisted and kicked.
During my detention in the forced-labor camp, my father was alone. He talked to anyone that he encountered. As soon as he saw a policeman, he would ask that person to say good words for us at the forced-labor camp, and expressed his wishes to see me. After I was thrown into the forced-labor camp, he was hospitalized and was dying. My husband went to the forced-labor camp to try to get me to come back and visit my father, but the forced-labor camp wouldn't grant me any leave. Thus, my father passed away while I was imprisoned. After I was released from the forced-labor camp, my family was broken up--there were only my husband and me. My son couldn't go back home, and my daughter got married and went to another province far away during my detention.
My husband became very sensitive and fearful during the ever present persecution and torture of the past few years. If my neighbor knocked loudly at the door, he would awaken from a dream, and jump right off the bed, and say, "Quick, hide yourself! Quick, hide yourself!" This kind of mental anguish is beyond imagination. I hope that everyone around the world will come to know this persecution and stop it as soon as possible.
(1) Yuan: Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan.
(2) "Guarantee Statement": A statement declaring 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 to associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.