Name: Yang Yongli(杨永利)
Gender: Male
Age: 54
Address: Maozhangzi Village, Goumenzi Town, Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: The second half of March, 2004
Most recent place of detention: Panjin Prison(盘锦监狱)
City: Panjin
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion, torture, interrogation, beatings, denial of restroom use, forced labor, illegal sentencing, solitary confinement
(Clearwisdom.net) When the persecution started in 1999, Mr. Yang Yongli went to Beijing hoping to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the authorities. Instead of listening, the authorities arrested him and sent him to a forced labor camp. When he tried to persuade the leader of the 610 Office to stop the persecution, he was detained again. He was later sentenced for practicing Falun Gong at home. While serving his sentence he was pressured to "confess" many times and was beaten by both guards and prisoners.
The following is Mr. Yang's own account of the persecution he has endured.
Recognizing Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. A practitioner gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun. I thought Master Li Hongzhi seemed so kind, and I was impressed by the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion- Forbearance, so I said to the practitioner, "This is a good cultivation." A few days after I received both Zhuan Falun and Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, I attained the Fa.
My house was ransacked soon after the persecution started
On July 20, 1999, Jiang started the persecution of Falun Gong. He used both police and spies to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. We local people had to go along with this, otherwise we would be taken away. One day the police ransacked my house, arrested me, and took me to the police station, saying that I was practicing. They also took 50 yuan from me. Later on, people from the police station and a leader of the county ransacked my house, took away many Dafa books, one audio system, and one TV. From then on, the police always harassed me and spied on me.
I went to Beijing to clarify the truth and was arrested and sent to forced labor
I went to Beijing with my wife, who is also a practitioner, in December 2000 to clarify the truth. When we arrived there, even before we showed a banner, we were caught by plainclothes police. They asked us if we were practitioners. I wanted to show the banner so I didn't answer directly. Instead, I said I was visiting my family there. Meanwhile the officer waved at a police car, which came over to me and stopped. At this time I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" and "Falun Dafa is righteous!" I was immediately beaten and kicked into the police car. Soon after that my wife was pushed into the car and arrested. She also shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!"
There were hundreds of practitioners arrested that day. We were all detained in the basement of the Tiananmen Square Police Station. We shouted together, "Restore our freedom to practice Falun Dafa! Restore Master's good reputation!" and so on. We also recited Hong Yin together. We were sent to different police stations in Beijing separately at about 3 p.m.
Two practitioners and I were detained in Xingcheng Police Station in Liaohua, Beijing. When the director talked to me, I told him how great Dafa was and why we had come to Beijing to clarify the truth. We stayed in the office that night. A policeman asked me my name and home address, but I didn't tell him. He handcuffed me. The cuffs cut into my wrists and they bled. That same night, police officers searched me and took my ID. Then they took me to the Chaoyang Office in Beijing. Right after I arrived there, officer Li Guoqiang kicked me. They sent us, 12 people in total, back to our hometowns the same night. I was detained at Lingyuan No.1 Detention Center on December 15, 2000.
While I was detained, Li Guoqiang, Yang Guimin, Xu Shuang, and others from the Goumenzi Police Station questioned us while beating and kicking us. Guards hit my backside with a photo of Master. The photo was torn from the beating, and my backside was red everywhere. They said bad things about Dafa and Master, and they wouldn't let me use the restroom. My legs were beaten badly, and I could barely walk. During that one month in the detention center, if I had not had the power of the Fa, I would have become mentally disturbed. Sometimes I woke up suddenly at night and felt uncomfortable in my chest. Every time like that, I recited Hong Yin, and all the discomfort would disappear after a while. That wasn't over until I went home.
Chaoyang Forced Labor Camp
Then I was sent to Chaoyang Forced Labor Camp. I was supposed to serve a three-year term.
I wrote the so-called three statements, saying that I would give up cultivation, because I had the attachment of comfort. I was hoping I could get home earlier and start over again. Later on I learned that was not a correct way of thinking.
I tasted a lot of bitterness during the forced labor. I was sent to a team to work hard for 15 days, and was beaten and abused by prisoners. I didn't get enough food. Also, I had to feed the pigs. I was released after one year and 50 days.
Arrested and beaten again for telling the leader of the 610 Office to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners
In June 2002, I called the leader of the 610 Office, Pang Yujun, trying to persuade him to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. I was arrested by the Goumenzi police again. I was cuffed to a heating pipe. Pang Yujun said many bad things about Dafa. When he was tired of talking, he took off his shoes and used them to hit my head and face. My face was bleeding and unrecognizable. My eyes were full of blood. My eyes were only two slits. I could barely walk. They detained me for another 45 days and took more than 400 yuan from me before they let me go.
Sentenced because I did the exercises at home
On an evening in March 2004, three practitioners and I were doing the exercises in my house. Someone reported us. Fu Yanling, Chen Zhi, and Wang Guilin from Lingyuan National Security Guard Team and Guo Wenhua from Goumenzi Police Station came to my house and arrested me at about 10 p.m. They took Master's photo, pictures of Falun, and the exercise tape. They took away the Minghui Weekly, flyers, one audio system, and 300 yuan the next day. The police took me to the Lingyuan National Security Guard Team the next day. Fu Yanling, Chen Zhi, and Wang Guilin pushed me down and kicked me. Another officer stood on my legs. They also made me stand with my legs and arms split wide apart, torturing me using every possible tactic till 2 a.m. On the 25th I was detained in Dahenan Detention Center.
On April 6th, guards from the National Security Team brought me to their office to question me. I didn't listen to them. Chen Zhi therefore pushed me down and kicked me. He burned Master's photo in front of me. I told them, they would pay for that. Chen Zhi said, "If you have the power to give me a headache right now I will believe you." They took off my pants and beat me using my leather belt. After they beat me a few times, I shouted, "Master, please help me!" At that time Chen Zhi stopped at once. Wang Guilin also let go of me. It was my righteous thoughts which had the power to let Master help me. My backside was beaten to purple, and my left leg had a bump from the beating. I was detained in Lingyuan No.1 Detention Center that day.
After five months, Lingyuan Court brought me to trail under the protection of the National Security Guard Team without informing my family. The judge was Zhang Lijun (female). I cannot recall everything that went on. I refused to sign any of the materials and told them several times that my cultivation and effort to be a good person was righteous.
I was sentenced to three and a half years and sent to Jinzhou Prison on September 16, 2004.
I was sent to Panjin Prison No. 3 team on September 24.
I rejected the persecution in prison.
When I was first sent to prison, I was forced to study the rules with other prisoners. Li, the director, asked me, "Will you practice or not?" I answered "I will!" He then said, "Do you want to go out alive or dead!" I answered, "I have not committed any wrongdoings, why should I go out dead! I will surely get out of here alive!"
I was tortured by both police and prisoners. Liang Youhui, the leader of the team, beat me because he thought that I walked too slowly. I wrote to the director of the prison, so he stopped beating me. The other leader of the team, Xia Chunlei, was always bad to me. He beat me all the time.
On April 1, 2005, I decided to protest the persecution so I didn't work. Liu Rongfu, the team leader, saw that I wasn't working, so he abused me and grabbed my collar to push me to the floor. He kicked my head several times. My face was bleeding. After he was done, he just left. I then sat up and said loudly, "I didn't do anything wrong, so I won't work for you. You beat me, I will sue you!" I then started a hunger strike.
The next day I was put into a small room and cuffed onto a bench for a day. Then they took me to a handcraft workshop to work. I didn't cooperate with them, so Wang Zhonghai, another leader, kicked my chest hard. I could not breathe for a while. They put me in the small room again and cuffed me onto the bench for another hour. Tan Hongju also beat me and put me in the small room.
Several days later they wanted me to work in a field. I refused to. They made two prisoners drag me out of the prison. I then shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is righteous!" There were many guards outside the prison door. The team leader, Liu Rongfu, beat me with a flagpole that he took from one prisoner's hand. The flagpole was made of wood, and my arms, legs and back were beaten until they bled. I didn't work afterwards. One day I was dragged by two prisoners while I shouted "Falun Dafa is good!" Team leader Zhang Lei beat me from behind. When I arrived at the field, I sat down and started to meditate. I meditated even as Liu Rongfu walked in front of me.
They didn't make me work after that. I studied the Fa and exercised in prison, and I also washed prisoners' clothes, and told them the facts about Falun Gong. I wrote letters to clarify the truth to both guards and prisoners. I let prisoners read the materials that I wrote. I helped them to understand the truth.
This is a summary of the time that I was persecuted by the CCP. I left out many details. The total time that I was persecuted was four years, nine months, and 20 days.