(Clearwisdom.net) My mother Xu Shuqin is a Falun Gong practitioner. In October of 2001, my mother went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. Since then she has been illegally detained by the Zunhua City Public Security Department of Hebei Province three times, and three times she has been forced into brainwashing centers. I have personally witnessed some of the cruel treatment my mother was subjected to while being detained and brainwashed.
On October 14, 2001, my mother was illegally detained at the Zunhua City Detention Center. Due to injuries she sustained while being tortured in the center, my mother was unable to walk without assistance. The center charged my family five thousand yuan before they would let us take my mother home. Later I learned that she had been severely beaten while being held in the detention center.
In January of 2002, my mother planned to visit her mother, who was in her 90s and ill at the time, but certain town officials abducted my mother while she was on her way. They forcibly took my mother back to the Zunhua City Detention Center. A month or so later, my mother was taken to a brainwashing school, where she was unlawfully detained for several months before she was finally released. While she was detained, my grandmother died, and my mother wasn't able to attend the funeral. I went to visit my mother several times during her detention. When I saw her the first time, I found my mother had a new scar below her lower lip, and a patch of hair was missing from her scalp. When she saw me, she burst into tears and cried out loud.
Another time when I went to see my mother, I found that she was in the middle of a barbaric brainwashing session. A staff member was screaming at my mother and shaking his fist in her face. In my presence they handcuffed my mother in a room that was so drafty, it was as though the wind was blowing right through it. One of my mother's hands was secured high above her, and she had to stand to keep from hanging by her wrist. The room was very cold. Several staff members worked in shifts, forcing my mother to stand for several days and nights without sleep in order to make her change her mind and renounce Falun Gong. Eventually, my mother's legs became swollen, and she again lost the ability walk by herself. Later she was sent to a hospital for treatment.
My mother grew weaker and weaker, and the persecutors decided to extort some money from my family again, finally setting her free.
In September of 2002, several government officials came to my house to harass my mother. They demanded that my mother write the so-called guarantee statement, but she refused. For this they forced her into a car and again illegally took her to the detention center.
In November of 2004, my mother was once again arrested while she was passing out truth clarification materials. They took her to a brainwashing school. While she was there, my mother went on a hunger strike in protest of the persecution, which lasted for 21 days. Later my family was required to pay 600 yuan for my mother's living expenses while she was being held in the school, and only then was my mother released.
