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(Clearwisdom.net) The thirty-eighth session of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rendered the following opinion regarding the cases of illegal arrest of Falun Gong practitioner Li Ling (former director of Guta District Labor Bureau) and Pei Jilin (resident of Jilin City, Jilin Province): The free practice of Falun Gong should be protected by Article 18 on freedom of belief and Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The working group requests the (Chinese) Government to take the necessary steps to remedy the situation of these two persons, and bring it in conformity with the standards and principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to a report on March 15, 2004 from Falun Dafa Information Center, The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group submitted the case of illegal arrest of Li Ling and Pei Jilin for practicing Falun Gong to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. After over 5 months of investigation, the Working Group rendered the above opinion, which will be reproduced in the Working Group's report to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first session.

In the process of its investigation, the Working Group transmitted the reply provided by the Chinese Government to the source the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group and received its comments. Based on the facts and circumstances of the cases, in the context of the allegations made and the response of the Government thereto, as well as observations by the source, the Working Group rendered the above opinion.

Below is the primary content of the investigation:

1. Information provided by the Source:

The source informs that Li Ling, former director of Guta District Labor Bureau, was arrested on 28 May 2002 at her home by members of the police. She was sent to the First Detention Center of Jinzhou City. Later, she was sentenced to four years imprisonment. On 15 November 2002, she was sent to Dabei Prison, Liaoning Province, where despite her critical health condition, she was forced to do heavy labor. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

It was further reported that Li Ling was previously arrested in late 1999, when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The Beijing Dongcheng District Court then sentenced her to one and half years in jail.

Pei Jilin, aged 50, resident of Jilin City, Jilin Province, employee of the No. 101 Factory of the Jilin Chemical Company, was arrested on the night of 16 June 2002 at his provisional home in Jilin City by members of the Police and taken to the Wenmiao Police Station in Jilin City. It was reported that he managed to escape from the police station, but he was arrested again and sent to a labor camp.

It was further reported that Pei Jilin was previously arrested in three occasions under charges of being a Falun Gong practitioner: In October 1999, he was detained for 15 days in the Baoziyan Detention Center on his way to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. In December 1999, he was arrested again. After his release, on 1 October 2000, Pei Jilin went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong and was re-arrested. Then he was sent to the Jilin City Liaison Office in Beijing, where Pei went on a hunger strike to protest his detention. Three days later, he was escorted back to No. 3 Detention Center of Jilin City. One month later, Pei Jilin was sentenced to three years of forced labor. Later, he was transferred to Jiutai City Labor Camp in Jiutai City. In September 2001, given that his health was in a critical condition, he was released until being detained in 2002.

2. Replies from the Government:

The government in its reply informed that on 27 October 1999, Li Ling and others demonstrated illegally in a public place without making a previous applications required by the law. On 17 January 2000, the District People's Procuratorate brought a prosecution before the Eastern District People's Court, charging Li with breaking the law against illegal demonstrations. The court tried the case, found that Li's conduct amounted to illegal demonstration and sentenced her, under article 296 of the Chinese Penal Code, to 18 month's imprisonment. Li appealed and Intermediate People's Court upheld the original Judgment. After her release on completion of her sentence, Li again disrupted public order, making use of a heretical group to undermine law enforcement. The Guta District People's Procuratorate in Jinzhou City brought a prosecution, charging Li with the crime of using a heretical group to undermine law enforcement and sentenced her to four years' imprisonment. Li appealed. On 4 November 2002, the Jinzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court ruled that the facts established in the original judgment were clear, the evidence was true and ample, the offence had been correctly identified, the sentence was proportionate and the trial procedure ha been in accordance with the law; it rejected the appeal and upheld the original Judgment.

These cases were in open hearings; the prosecutorial organs presented a large volume of evidence and testimony which the courts accepted once the witnesses' had been confirmed for the record and challenged by the defendant and her counsel. In both cases, since the defendant did not appoint counsel, the courts designated defense counsel for them and amply safeguarded their procedural rights and interests.

On 5 October 2000, Pei Jilin was assigned by the Jilin Province Re-education Through Labor Committee to three years' re-education through labor for disrupting the social order. Because, during his term of re-education, he contracted high blood pressure and became physically weak the re0education facility allowed him out to seek medical treatment in October 2001. While outside receiving treatment, Pei continued to disrupt the social order. On 18 June 2002, Jilin Municipal Re-education Through Labor Management committee assigned him to a further two years' re-education on account of his unlawful activities.

3. Response from the Source:

In its response the source states that to avoid international criticism, the Government has carried on a campaign of misinformation about Falun Gong. Contrary to the Government's claim of Li Ling's right to a fair trial being safeguarded, she was given show trials instead of fair trials. The legal counsel contacted by the Government coerced her instead of defending her. The source adds that after Li Ling's first imprisonment, she wrote a letter of appeal, clearly stating that her appeal for Falun Gong was the real reason of her arrest and detention. The second sentencing of Li Ling was a secret one, took place sometime between May and November 2002 and her family was not informed of her trial.

As for Pei Jilin, also a Falun Gong practitioner, the source contends that reeducation through labor punishments in China are based on instructions of the Chinese State Counsel, and are therefore, administrative measures, with no safeguards provided for the right to fair trial.

4. The Working Group observes that the Government has not denied that Li Ling and Pei Jilin were detained in connection with the practice of Falun Gong.

5. As there is no evidence that they practiced Falun Gong as a violent, non-pacific belief, as far as the cases under consideration are concerned, its free practice should be protected by article 18 on freedom of belief and article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

6. When it is a matter of the peaceful exercise of these liberties, its restriction can imply a violation of norms of international law. In these cases, both in the accusation of participating in an illegal demonstration regarding Li Ping, as in the accusation of social disturbing regarding Pei Jilin, it has not been stated that acts of a violent nature would have been committed. Consequently, the Working Group esteems that Li Ping and Pei Jilin were detained by the mere fact of their practice and defense of Falun Gong in a peaceful manner and in exercise of the rights to freedom of belief, to freedom of opinion and expression and to assemble and to demonstrate, which are guaranteed by international human rights law.

7. In the light of the foregoing, the Working Group renders the following opinion:

The deprivation of Li Ping and Pei Jilin is arbitrary, as being in contravention of articles 10, 11, 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and falls within category II of the applicable categories to the consideration of the cases submitted to the working group.

8. Consequent upon the opinion rendered, the Working Group requests the Government to take the necessary steps to remedy the situation of these two persons, and bring it in conformity with the standards and principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Working Group encourages the Government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

(Clearwisdom.net) Washington State Falun Dafa practitioners held two day-long truth-clarifying events in the state capitol of Olympia and met with many State Senators, State Representatives, and their legislative assistants each day. They clarified the truth to the state government officials through a slide show and the FGMTV video: Persecution of Falun Gong, A Worldwide Campaign by China. They distributed hand-made lotus flowers and a one-page flyer during the event. Four practitioners went to speak with State Senator Adam Kline, who has been supportive since the very beginning. Practitioners showed Senator Kline a documentary on how Chinese government officials, and specifically former Consul Wang in San Francisco had slandered Falun Gong in Washington State, and asked him to sign a letter to Governor Locke of Washington State. Two days after the visit, on his own initiative, Senator Kline told practitioners that he had received an invitation from the Consul General in San Francisco to an event in Seattle, Washington that he would decline. Then he sponsored a letter and solicited signatures from his colleagues in the Senate. Eight Washington State Senators co-signed the letter. These elected officials in Washington State are showing the courage to adhere to their conscience and we applaud their righteousness. Below is the letter.

Washington State Senate

March 4, 2004

Consul General of the People's Republic of China

1450 Laguna St.

San Francisco, CA 94115

Dear Sir,

We, the undersigned members of the Washington State Senate, would like to acknowledge your invitation to attend a reception on March 10^th in Seattle. We regret to inform you that, although we support our country's increasing contract and trade with China, and acknowledge China as a friend, we will decline your invitation due to the ongoing persecution of thousands of innocent Falun Gong practitioners by your government.

The persecution against Falun Gong practitioners has claimed at least 890 lives to date. According to a July 2003 radio interview, former US Ambassador to [Hungary] Mark Palmer estimates that number to be in the range of 10,000. Over 100,000 people have illegally been sent to forced labor camps without trials. More than 500 people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years. Hundreds of thousands have been illegally arrested, detained, and tortured since the persecution began in 1999. And more than 1,000 perfectly healthy people have been forced into mental hospitals, an act condemned by the World Psychiatric Association. All this has been part of a comprehensive campaign to make practitioners renounce their beliefs.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Commission on Human Rights and numerous others have thoroughly documented the persecution. Our federal government has also expressed support for Falun Gong and condemned the persecution in China. In July 2003, House Concurrent Resolution 188 was passed unanimously and now House Concurrent Resolution 304---condemning the persecution overseas and attempts to interfere with American government officials---is before Congress. Several state elected officials have also previously expressed concern in letters to Ambassador Yang Jiechi. Again, we must unequivocally say that the harming of innocent people for their beliefs is morally wrong and cannot be tolerated by a civilized society.

Among US residents, four Washington State Falun Gong Practitioners were illegally detained while they were in Beijing in February 2002. American citizen Dr. Charles Li from Menlo Park, California was arrested upon landing in China at Guangzhou Airport in January 2003 and has been in detention for over one year, after a mock trial under the false charge of "sabotaging of radio and television equipment."

Many Falun Gong practitioners are good, hardworking citizens of Washington State. As elected officials it is our duty to listen to their voices and to uphold their rights, including the right to freedom of belief. We sincerely hope that one day soon, these Falun Gong practitioners and all those who may wish to, will be free to practice the exercises of Falun Gong in China and to be free citizens following the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance."

Although China is our friend, we must decline your invitation, and call for an unequivocal end to the persecution of innocent people on the basis of their belief.

Sincerely,

Senator Adam Kline, 37^th Legislative District

Senator Ken Jacobsen, 46^th Legislative District

Senator Karen Keiser, 33^rd Legislative District

Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, 36^th Legislative District

Senator Brian Murray, 6^th Legislative District

Senator Erik Poulsen, 34^th Legislative District

Senator Dan Swecker, 20^th Legislative District

Senator Shirley Winsley, 28^th Legislative District

(Clearwisdom.net)

The Longshan and Zhangshi Forced Labor Camps in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province have each placed a large portrait of Falun Gong's founder on the ground at the entrance to their reception offices. Everyone, including Falun Gong practitioners' family members, is required to tread on it in order to enter the office. This is a serious violation of China's Civil Law Statutes.

Regarding the individual rights of citizenship, the Civil Law Statutes clearly state the following:

Article No.100 clearly stipulates, "The citizen owns the Right of Portrait. It is prohibited to use a citizen's portrait for profit without the consent of the citizen."

Article. No.101 stipulates, "The citizen enjoys the legal right of reputation. The law protects the personal dignity of the citizen. It is forbidden to harm the citizen's reputation through insult or slander."

Article No.120 stipulates, "Whenever the citizen's right of name, right of portrait, right of reputation or right of fame are violated, he/she is legally authorized to demand cessation of the violation, restoration of their reputation, elimination of the influence, receipt of an apology, and may demand restitution for damages."

The behavior of officials at Longshan Forced Labor Camp and at Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City is truly disgraceful and immoral. The hypocrisy is further exposed, as according to China's state-run television, no such behavior goes on at the forced labor camps and everything is done in a civilized manner.

It is said that the Falun Gong practitioners' activity of distributing flyers was illegal, but what the flyers document are the criminal deeds of Jiang and his followers, including the Longshan and Zhangshi Forced Labor Camps in Shenyang. If anyone doubts the truth of this, they may go to the Longshan and Zhangzhi Forced Labor Camps on the designated reception dates, and observe it for themselves.

As a nation with five thousand years of rich cultural history, China has passed down a code of etiquette spanning several millennia. Generation after generation has produced so many famous classical works, guiding successive generations on morality, it is difficult to fathom that our solemn national government departments have degenerated to the point of actually committing such shameful deeds. Their behavior not only mocks the office of the law, but also tarnishes the Chinese civilization and its emphasis on etiquette and morality.

March 13, 2004

(Clearwisdom.net)

[Note: The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.]

Dafa practitioner Chen Si is only 13 years old. She is a student in Junior Middle School and lives in the residential area of Dongfeng Chemistry Factory, Shuangbei, Shapingba District, Chongqing City. Both her parents are Dafa practitioners, and her mother was illegally sent to a forced labor camp for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

During her summer vacation in 2001, Chen Si went to hand out materials with Ms. Xuan Xuan (pseudonym) in order to clarify the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. They were detained and beaten by the policemen. Chen Si was then sent to Gele Mountain Brainwashing Class in Shapingba District.

In the brainwashing class, the policemen from Section 1 of Shapingba District Police Department attempted to force both practitioners to reveal the source of the materials. Although they are young, they courageously resisted the persecution and remained firm in their belief in Falun Dafa and Teacher Li. They refused to tell the police their names and addresses, and protested by going on hunger strike. The police then sent them to Gele Mountain Mental Hospital and kept force-feeding them for as long as half a month.

Even so, the police failed to achieve their objective. In the end, they published Chen Si's photo in the newspaper in order to identify her. They tricked her father into going to the brainwashing class, but did not allow him to see Chen Si. When the semester began, the "610 Office" did not allow her to return to school because she did not give up her belief in Falun Dafa.

(Clearwisdom.net) Wang Hongbin and his wife were classmates in college. They graduated from the Telecommunication Engineering Department of Changchun Post and Telecommunication Institute in 1987 and both were assigned to work at the Hebei Telephone Equipment Factory. Since July 20, 1999 when Jiang's regime began to brutally persecute Falun Gong, Wang Hongbin's family of three suffered continuous persecution. Their house was ransacked and property confiscated five times, and the couple was arrested six times. First, Wang's family life was shattered, then they were forced to become homeless, traveling from place to place to avoid persecution, and finally the family was totally ruined. Wang Hongbin was arrested, beaten up, tortured and sentenced to forced labor. On October 9^th, 2003 he died at the age of 39 because of the torture he suffered. He left a wife and a 13-year-old son behind, who are in dire financial straits.

It was originally a happy family of three. The couple loved each other and their son was an adorable child. Wang Hongbin was honest and kind, and had no problems with anyone. He was an electrical engineer and specialized in program-controlled exchange technology. He always patiently helped those who needed help. He was often assigned to provide maintenance services and the customers were very happy with him. Therefore, his workplace and the Provincial Post and Telecommunication Bureau selected him many times as an "outstanding employee." His successes were recorded in "The annals of the Hebei Telephone Equipment Factory." Wang Hongbin's wife was also highly qualified and had been promoted to a deputy chief engineer. She got along well with her colleagues and was recognized for her work. All three of them enjoyed excellent health.

In the early hours of July 20, 1999, more than 20 plain-clothes policemen broke into their house, arrested both Mr. and Mrs. Wang and searched the house. Their ten-year- old son was terribly frightened by what had happened and burst out crying. He was unattended for more than 50 days and had to care for himself. He suffered from a skin ulcer on his leg. Without the care of his parents his skin ulcer was covered by dirt and became infected. It was heart-wrenching to see.

After Wang Hongbin and Feng Xiaomei were released, they still could not resume their peaceful life. During holidays and festivals, police, neighbors and at times even the special police crime unit would phone them or come to their house to harass or arrest them. They were not allowed to leave Shijiazhuang City on weekends, visit their hometown or go on an outing in the suburbs with their son.

At the end of June 2000, before so-called sensitive dates, leaders from their work unit began to harass and try to force them to write the "guarantee statement" [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] and stopped paying their salaries. Finally, both were forced to resign from their work, becoming destitute.

During the night of July 19^th, 2000 the political instructor from the Dongdajie Police Station and a group of people searched Mr. Wang's house and arrested his wife Feng Xiaomei. She was charged with "disturbing social stability." She pointed out, "I have been staying at home, who could I have disturbed?" The police answered, "As long as you practice Falun Gong, you will be charged with such a crime." Wang Hongbin and his son went daily to the police station to bring her meals. His wife was released after repeated protests. However, there was no end to the persecution. The neighborhood committee maintained surveillance to arrest practitioners on trumped up charges. For example, meetings between three Falun Gong practitioners were considered illegal and reason for an arrest.

In September 2000, Wang Hongbin was arrested by the railway police for reading a Falun Gong book on the train. He was transferred from one police station to another and detained for four or five days. His wife Feng Xiaomei suffered great anxiety while waiting for his return. Instead of her husband, a group of policemen arrived, searched their house and confiscated their valuables.

During the National Day period of the year 2000, Dongdajie Police Station police, the police crime unit and the neighborhood committee came to their door in an attempt to arrest them and search their house. Since the couple strongly resisted, they were unable to arrest them. However, they could no longer stay at home, became homeless and traveled with their son from place to place to avoid further persecution until after the holidays.

On December 5, 2000 Wang Hongbin was taken away by a dozen plain clothes policemen, and his house was searched and ransacked. Mr. Wang's mother-in-law became paralyzed from fear and hid in her bed. Later, whenever she heard someone knock on the door, her heartbeat would accelerate and she would be greatly frightened. That day Feng Xiaomei managed to escape arrest and went to Beijing to appeal this injustice. The police in Beijing arrested her and beat her black and blue. She spat blood and then had blood in her stool for more than 20 days. She suffered from dropsy [swelling from excessive accumulation of serous fluid in tissue. This condition is accompanied by swelling, scanty urine, poor appetite, sluggishness, and debility. The swelling usually begins in the feet and ankles and proceeds up the legs towards the abdomen.], her face became deformed, her eyes could hardly open and she was unable to wear shoes. She could not walk. During her detention at a police station in Beijing the police did not allow her to use a toilet for 48 hours. Feng Xiaomei had also been drugged at the Congwen District Police Station in Beijing and suffered a great deal. Although seriously ill, she was escorted back to Shijiazhuang and detained at Ruancheng City Detention Center for a day. Due to the appeals of her friends and the police's fear that she might die in detention, she was released.

After she recovered, Feng Xiaomei told everyone about the injustice her husband was suffering. The persecutors tried to stop her from telling everyone about the persecution of her husband. They framed her, attempted to arrest her under false charges, threatened her over the phone and even threatened to kidnap her son. Feng Xiaomei and her son had no choice but to abandon their home. They went from place to place and dared not return home. During that period of time she had to work to support her child. Her husband had been detained for two years, but the forced labor camp did not allow visits with her husband. The couple had not seen each other for two years. Even after Wang Hongbin became ill, the labor camp refused to allow Feng Xiaomei to see him. The camp went as far as withholding the truth of Mr. Wang's illness and refused to release him on bail for medical treatment. Later on, the labor camp did not even allow Ms. Feng to send clothes to Wang Hongbin. On a few occasions, the labor camp police guards behaved outrageously and even attempted to arrest Feng Xiaomei.

The instigators behind the abduction of Mr. Wang Hongbin were the City Public Security Bureau and Ma Wensheng from the "610 Office" [a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.]. They followed Jiang's malicious policies "Deaths of Falun Gong practitioners from beating are nothing and shall be counted as suicide," and "Defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically." Therefore, they arrested a group of so-called "key members" of Falun Dafa practitioners and sentenced them to long prison terms. The City Public Security Bureau and the "610 Office" arrested Wang Hongbin after they ordered the Chang'an Public Security Sub-bureau to tap his telephone and mobile phone, as well as tailing him for more than one month. After Wang Hongbin was taken to Shuanghuan Guest House in Shijiazhuang City, the Deputy Head of the Political and Security Division of Chang'an Public Security Sub-bureau, Hu Guanghui and some people tried to force Wang Hongbin to sign a pre-prepared confession, stating that he gave school teacher Lu Xinshu three copies of truth-clarification VCDs in Lu's office in September, 2000. This was directed by Wang Xiaofeng, a member of the City Public Security Bureau and the "610 Office." Wang Hongbin refused to sign his name on the false confession. He instead requested to confront Lu Xinshu about the false charge. Naturally, this request was turned down. Instead, the police forced him to stand on the floor barefooted and cuffed him in the "Carrying a Sword on the Back" position [The practitioner's hands are cuffed behind his/her back with one hand over the shoulder and the other hand against the lower back. The police then apply a great deal of force to pull the two hands toward one another and handcuff the two hands together.]. From time to time some people would punch and kick him while cursing at him. They did not give him anything to eat and then accused him of going on a hunger strike. This was so they could torture him through forced feeding. All those Falun Dafa practitioners that had been arrested at the time were violently beaten. Lu Xinshu lost consciousness and his hearing as a result of the severe beating. He was released only when he became increasingly weaker and trembled constantly because of the torture. Wang Hongbin heard Lu Xinshu screaming next door. Yang Jianmei, who was arrested together with Wang Hongbin, had black and blue bruises on his face. Lu Xinshu was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and Yang Jianmei to twelve years. They were all held at the Baoding Jail. Wang Hongbin was sentenced to three years of forced labor and was held at the No. Two Division of the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp. Internal sources indicate that as soon as Wang Hongbin was sentenced to three years of forced labor, the police received a fifty thousand Yuan bonus [The monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan].

During the detention in the forced labor camp, Wang Hongbin suffered all kinds of physical and mental torture. He was deprived of his right to rest and sleep. Once Wang Hongbin could no longer stay awake, so the police guard ordered inmates to burn his fingernails with a lighter, until the nail and the base of the nail were completely burned away. At another time, one of his hands was cuffed to iron bars, and he was hung there with both feet off the ground. He was left like this for three days and three nights. The police guards gave batons to the inmates and ordered them to keep an eye on him. Whenever Wang Hongbin's feet touched the wall, these inmates would hit his ankles with the baton. They knew that if they were cruel and ruthless in dealing with Falun Gong practitioners, they would have their terms reduced, so they did not hesitate to abuse the practitioners. They watched the practitioners very closely and even followed them to the toilets. Because Wang Hongxin did not know when he would be sent to the so-called "forced education" or what would happen next, he became tense and depressed, which affected his mental well-being. Wang Hongbin's health deteriorated.

After so much suffering, he finally went back home. On the very day when he returned home, he looked into the mirror and found that his hair had turned white. He turned his head away from the mirror. He felt that this was impossible and he was unwilling to face the cruel reality. During the days that followed he sat there staring blankly and was unwilling to meet other people. His health continued to deteriorate. He was getting thinner and thinner, and his cough got worse. He became severely depressed. When he saw a police officer, he would make a detour even if it was only a traffic officer and felt nervous when someone knocked at the door. He lost confidence in everything and was close to a mental collapse. His health deteriorated further and further. He did not come out of his depression and passed away.

At the beginning of the year when the forced labor camp released him, he was taken to the hospital by the labor camp for a check-up. It was said that he suffered from stomach trouble. Actually, it was suspected that he suffered from lung cancer. The forced labor camp hid the truth and repeatedly delayed his release on medical bail. Only when Wang Hongbin's life was in imminent danger did the forced labor camp find a reason to grant him an early release. They did not wish to held responsible for his death.

The pain Wang Hongbin's wife suffered was beyond description and hard to watch. Feng Xiaomei said that what she felt most grieved over was that she risked the danger of being arrested or her son being abducted to appeal for her husband's release. And although he returned home, she was unable to help him because of the terrible physical and mental scars that tormented him. She was so helpless as she watched him die. This is another senseless tragedy that happened during the persecution.

(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Zhang Qingchun, also known as Zhang Li. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Gangtun Town, Lianshan Area, Huludao City, Liaoning Province. I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. After seeing the propaganda on TV slandering Dafa and Teacher on July 22, 1999, I biked to Beijing to appeal. I was stopped by a police officer as I walked on the street in Beijing, and was sent back to the Lianshan Police Department in Huludao City, where I was unlawfully detained for seven days in the city detention center. On October 19, 1999, the Gangtun City officials issued an order to send Falun Gong practitioners to a brainwashing class set up in the conference room on the third floor of the town hall building. They wanted us to give up our belief in Dafa by slandering Dafa and Teacher. In addition, they wanted us to write a Guarantee Letter promising never to practice Falun Gong and never to go to Beijing to appeal. They were willing to let us go if we could pay 1,000 yuan [500 yuan is equal to the average monthly salary of an urban worker in China].

On October 30, under orders from Shen Xuejun, the Party Committee Secretary, Lin Ke, the Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary, and Ma Enyou, the Director of the police department, and a few temporary police officers including Wang Zhenjie, Cao Baigang, Zhao Lianchang, Chen Shilong, and Cao Lei took me to a small room on the first floor and started to beat me. I was in so much pain that I could not get up off the floor and nearly lost consciousness.

When they got tired, two of them held my arms behind my back and pulled my hair, forcing me to lean forward, and they started shocking me with electric batons on my face, neck, chin, and anus. They pulled up my shirt to shock me directly. The place was filled with the smell of the sparks and burnt flesh.

I jumped each time the electricity hit me. I felt like I was on fire and there were needles violently poking me. The electricity leaked out from the switch of a baton during the process, but the policeman did not stop, he put on a pair of gloves and kept on shocking me. After an hour, they dragged me to another room and forced me to do pushups with my legs on a chair. I could not get up after a few times. They found two spiked clubs and brutally beat me on the back, legs and buttocks. When they got tired, they would make me hold a painful position known as "riding an airplane." ⁽¹⁾

After about an hour, they took me back to where I was before, and I saw that two other practitioners were being tortured there. They were Zhao Xueben and Zhang Deben. Police officer Meng Qingjun took Mr. Zhao's pants off and shocked his private parts with an electric baton. Police officer Zhou Qingsong hit Mr. Zhang on his back with a spiked club and tried to force Mr. Zhang and me to slap each other. When we refused, they grabbed our hands and forced us to slap each other. Later, officer Zhao He shocked me on my private parts, causing me to collapse to the ground. Officer Chen Shilong forced me to slap myself. Chen slapped me hard to show me how hard he wanted me to do it. We were continuously tortured like this for 7-8 hours.

During this time, Wang Ying took a female practitioner, Cao Yanzhuo, to the room to see us being tortured. They threatened her with the same kind of torture. That night, we were sent to a deserted house, where we slept on a grass mat in the freezing weather.

During the daytime, we were forced to dig drainage ditches. Many police officers and guards watched us and made sure we did not stop working from morning until night. Sometimes we were ordered to do "riding an airplane" in the middle of the work.

One night officer Chen Shilong tried to force me to read out loud from a newspaper article that slandered Dafa and beat me when I refused. Later he forced me to take off my clothes until I was only wearing shorts, and took me to a corner behind the door. He started to punch me in the chest. After he got tired, he found an electric baton and shocked me on my face, chin and other places. Then he got tired again and found someone else to torture me for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon of November 5, I was taken to the director's temporary duty office. Liu Yu'an (Head of Gangtun Town), Ma Enyou (Director of the Police Department), Wang Ying (educator from the police department), and Zang Guoguang (Chief Police Officer) were there. They tried to force me to write the Guarantee Letter to denounce Falun Dafa. When I refused, Liu first punched me few times and kicked me. Then Wang tried to force me to do 500 pushups. I could not continue after a few times. Wang and Zang then started to kick me and stepped hard on my head. Then they used the electric baton to shock me on my back, abdomen, face and chin. This torture lasted for over an hour

The next morning, Zhou Tao from the security team came in to trade places with them. Zhou slapped me and forced me to do "riding an airplane." They forced me to bite on a chopstick and put another one on my head. If the chopstick fell, they would hit me. I was punched in the chest and could not breathe, and fell to the ground. After I caught my breath, they forced me to do "riding a motorcycle" ⁽²⁾. While I was doing "riding a motorcycle," they would kick me so that I fell. Then they would make me resume the position and kick me again. This went on and on for a long time.

That afternoon, three other female Dafa practitioners and I were taken to a detention center for 15 days, then we were taken back to the police station for one day, and then we were again taken back to the detention center for another 15 days. After that, they still wouldn't let us go home. They took us to Laoyemiao Village to receive so-called "military training," which was really continuous physical abuse: running, marching, squatting, jumping in a squatting position, pushups, beatings, as well as verbal abuse.

When I could not run anymore, they would drag me forward, trying to exhaust me and break my will. At times, they would make us run right after eating, which made us dizzy and we would start throwing up. When the weather became cold, they would force us to crawl around in the snow, and our arms would often become frozen. They also made all of us, both male and female, stand in the snow wearing only underwear for up to two hours at a time.

Officer Meng Qingjun was my high school classmate. In the police station, he slapped me so hard that my mouth started bleeding. During the "military training," he punched me in the face so hard that I immediately lost consciousness. They often made us sleep on the concrete floor wearing only underwear. I was a small guy, and they sometimes lifted me up and struck me on my buttocks with a broomstick. They broke the broomstick due to the force they used.

Every month we had to pay 300 yuan for food, which was nothing but steamed cornstarch buns and cabbage soup. They took the rest of the money for themselves. During the Chinese New Year of 1999 [around February 2000], my family asked the town government to let me go home. The government forced my family to sign a Guarantee Letter and to pay a 1,500 yuan fine before they let me go home.

On June 28, 2000, the town government ordered the villages to send all Falun Dafa practitioners to the brainwashing classes. Captain Zhao Jiucai and his security team were in charge of monitoring us. Zhao physically abused us and punished us. He often made us watch videos and read books that slandered Dafa, and forced us to carry heavy objects in the fields until our shoulders were all scratched and bleeding. Every day we were overloaded with forced labor.

We had to get up at four o'clock in the morning every day and run for over 15 kilometers (~9 miles). After we came back, we were forced to run in the yard, and practice military marching maneuvers. We had to stand for a long time, kneel down (sometimes on one leg, sometimes with our head down), do pushups, jump up and down repeatedly, walk backwards, and stand facing the sun. It was often 37-38 degree Celsius (98-100 Fahrenheit) in the summer and we had to do this punishing physical exercise under the sun every day. Our sweat evaporated and white salt was all over our faces, and our sunburned skin was peeling off. Many people suffered heat exhaustion and passed out.

We had to do this in the rain and at night. We had little time to sleep. Sometime we did not sleep for 3 days straight and fell asleep while we were in the brainwash classes. We had to sleep on the concrete floor for many days in a row and had to scrounge newspapers to sleep on. If we did not do well in the physical training sessions, the police would scold us or beat us, sometimes with the spiked clubs. Zhao said they had the word from the higher authorities: "Death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide." We were not allowed to eat on a regular schedule, and only had 10 minutes for each meal. We had to eat in a squatting or kneeling position. At one point they fed us for many days in a row with small potatoes that were bitter and tart, causing us to throw up right after we ate.

To protest against the persecution, seven of us went on a hunger strike for three days. They separated each of us and locked every one of us in a small, dark and damp room filled with foul-smelling garbage. After three days, I could barely stand up. Several officials and police officers came that day to force-feed us. One practitioner went to a resident's house to ask for water and was punished by being forced to kneel down for half a day. The extremely hot weather and physical abuse resulted in many people becoming dehydrated, having heat stroke and passing out.

Because I practiced the Falun Gong exercises, Zhao and his people often forced me to kneel down on the concrete floor and forced me to slap myself. One morning, I was forced to kneel in the sand and face the sun. Before long my knees hurt so much that I could not stand it and I fell on the ground. Zhao sent two people to pull me up and threatened to force me to continue kneeling for another 2 hours.

One night when I practiced the exercises, Zhao Jiucai appointed Zhang Lidong and another person to drag me into the duty office. Zhao covered my head with my shirt and started to beat and kick me. After he got tired, he wanted me to kneel on the floor, and I refused. Zhao and Zhang grabbed my arms and shoulders, trying to force me to kneel. One of them punched me in the nose and it started bleeding. The blood was all over my shirt and the floor. They tried to hurt me by pushing their fingers into my shoulder joints while they held me down.

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Lianyuan could not stand seeing them torturing me anymore. He banged his head on the wall for half an hour to support me and they finally stopped. When I sat down to do the fifth exercise, someone was sent in to pour freezing water on me. I was soaking wet and my whole body ached, but I finished the exercise before I changed into dry clothes.

At the end of July, the leader of the town officials organized a new group of security officers. They were ordered to make us all write the Guarantee Letter in three days. These new security officers were even more cruel and malicious than the last ones and started horrible inhumane tortures against the Dafa practitioners.

On July 28, a person with the last name of Fang ordered people to beat me that afternoon. On the 29^th, Jiang Qiusheng led a group of people to beat Zhang Enxing's entire family and other practitioners. On the 30^th, Zhou Tao, Yang Guang, a person nicknamed "Niebao" and Liu Zhigang called me to the door during noontime training. Two of them pushed me to the ground and one started to hit me hard with a spiked club. I could not stand it and started to scream, which drew a lot of attention towards me.

The guards had spiked clubs in both of their hands and beat me until they got tired. They asked a few practitioners to carry me into the building. I lay face down on a grass mat and did not move, as my back would hurt with the slightest movement. I even needed people to help me urinate. Zhao Jiucai got a willow branch and ordered Zhou Tao and others to hit me. It felt like someone was rubbing salt into my wounds when the branches hit me. They only stopped when the branch broke. They then found a thick plastic cable-wrap to hit me. I was rolling on the ground because of the pain. As they were hitting me, they asked whether I would keep on practice Falun Gong or not. The beating continued because I would not reply. They got tired and left, and then came back with a metal cable. They covered my head and hit me with the cable and a spiked club. When I turned around, they would hit my private parts. I protected that area with my hands and my hands were beaten until they were swollen. I was severely beaten and in extreme pain.

They brought in a few Dafa practitioners, both male and female, to see how much pain I was in. The police even took off my pants and let the practitioners see the wounds. They threatened the practitioners by using me as an example of the consequence they would face if they did not write the Guarantee Letter. The police threatened me by saying, "Wait and see what we will do to you tonight." Around 6 o'clock at night, they forced me out of the building. Because I could not get up, they slandered Teacher and then Zhou Tao kicked me. It hurt so much I had to walk out of the building dragging my feet. They forced me to walk around the yard until I could not walk anymore, then they hit me with spiked clubs.

I was illegally detained for 45 days, during which time I was brutally tortured psychologically and physically.

Names and contact information of relevant personnel:

Area code (0429)

Shen Xuejun, former Gangtun Town Party Commission Secretary

Lin Ke, former Gangtun Town Party Committee Assistant Secretary and Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary

Liu Yuan, former Head of Gangtun Town: 86-429-4131343 (office), 86-429-4131203 (home), 86-429-2159618 (home)

Ma Enyou, former Director of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-2804471 (office), 86-429-2129562 (home), 86-13804299698 (mobile)

Wang Ying, former educator of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4016007 (office), 86-429-2121930 (home), 86-13019990005 (mobile)

Zang Guoguang, former Chief Police of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4290004 (office), 86-429-4292136 (home), 86-13998978900 (mobile)

Zhao Jiucai, police: 86-429-4103168 (home)

Wang Zhenjie, police: 86-429-4138108 (home)

Meng Qingjun, police: 86-429-4139029 (home)

Meng Qingju, Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary: 86-429-4131214 (office), 86-429-4131666 (home), 86-13904298627 (mobile)

Guo Shumin, Head of Gangtun Town: 86-429-4131569 (office), 86-429-4131999 (home), 86-13909891939 (mobile)

Li Gang: 86-429-4132017 (office), 86-429-2128789 (home), 86-13700195599 (mobile)

Shi Hongxi, Discipline Inspection Committee member: 86-429-4132179 (office), 86-429-4130555 (home), 86-13804296000 (mobile)

Zhang Liang: 86-429-4131365 (office), 86-429-2600920 (home), 86-13709890018 (mobile)

Zhang Shubin: 86-429-4131589 (office), 86-429-4139229 (home), 86-13942952298 (mobile)

Wang Aimin, Director of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4131376 (office),

86-13942920001 (mobile)

Yue Mingjun, Director of the Shanshenmiao County Police Department: 86-429-4130006 (office), 86-429-2950931 (home)

Wang (first name unknown), Secretary of Shanshenmiao County: 86-429-4130001 (office)

Lin Ke, Party Commission Secretary of Taijitun Town: 86-429-4270008 (office), 86-13052691879 (mobile)

Shen Xuejun, Yangjia Zhangzi Economic Development Area: 86-429-4403122 (office), 86-429-4403062 (office)

(1) "Riding an airplane": In this torture, the head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep this position unchanged for a long time. The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane, which is how this torture came to be named.

(2) "Riding a motorcycle": a torture method where the victim is forced to stay in a posture similar to riding a motorcycle for a long time without moving.

(Clearwisdom.net)

Hidden inside the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp (formerly known as the Xinan Forced Labor Camp) is a secretive section known internally as the "Disciplinary Zone." This section is situated on the far east end of the labor camp behind a two-story building, and is impossible to view from the outside. This place was built to isolate and punish prisoners who were deemed to be difficult but it is now being used exclusively for persecuting Dafa practitioners. This area has never been opened to public inspection, and unauthorized personnel are not permitted to gain entry or even be near the building.

In this place, there are ten cells in total that have been built adjacent to each other in a semi-circle around the disciplinary arena. Each cell is tiny, measuring about 2 x 1.2 meters (approximately 4 x 6 feet), and is fitted with a waste basin, and a 50-60 cm wide bed (approximately 20-24 inches wide), some 40 cm (15 inches) off the ground. When a person lies on it, the narrowness of the bed makes it practically impossible to turn over. The cell entrances face north, so they catch the freezing northerly wind in the winter and the scorching heat from the sun in summer. The semi-oval arena outside the cells is where the Dafa practitioners are tortured.

The Disciplinary Zone is under the command of three officers, Chai Guohong, Liu Liping and Li Xiuying. Chai is responsible for the overall disciplinary program. Liu is responsible for the brainwashing sessions, and Li is responsible for the constant bombardment of propaganda materials defaming Falun Dafa. In addition, the officers were encouraged to use any techniques, however ruthless, to achieve their end of brainwashing the practitioners. In fact, they subjected the female Dafa practitioners to some of the cruelest torture imaginable.

Normally, before any Dafa practitioners were admitted to the Disciplinary Zone, the officers would be informed beforehand which practitioners would be put under their supervision. As part of their tactics, the officer-in-charge would immediately strip the incoming practitioners of all their basic rights in order to demoralize them.

Female practitioners are first subjected to a humiliating body search, and all personal belongings would be thoroughly inspected before the practitioner was locked up in the tiny cell. As a measure to prevent information about the abuse of Dafa practitioners from leaking to the outside, the officer-in-charge chose two assistants to constantly monitor and guard each practitioner. These monitors were usually prisoners who were serving time in the labor camp for crimes such as prostitution or drug addiction, instead of regular police. No one else was permitted to have a conversation or inspect these practitioners, not even "collaborators" [former practitioners who renounced their belief under severe pressure and torture and now have been enlisted by the authorities to persecute their fellow practitioners] who now work for the labor camp authorities. During each practitioner's detention, the basic right to having three meals a day was taken away. When the officer was in a good mood, a practitioner would receive a small and nutritionally poor meal consisting of a bun and a few pieces of salted vegetables to go with it. However, if the officers were in a bad mood, the practitioner would have her already tiny food rations reduced by half. Any Falun Dafa practitioner protesting this mistreatment by going on a hunger strike was targeted for even more brutal treatment. The authorities would force-feed them with highly concentrated salt-water, which caused extreme agony and potential poisoning.

The Disciplinary Zone authorities took additional measures to restrict practitioners from using the toilet or drinking water to promote extreme discomfort. Brushing one's teeth and washing one's face or clothes were strictly forbidden, including the use of a shower for personal bathing.

Female Dafa practitioners were not permitted to sleep for extended periods, and they were forced to stand with their eyes open around the clock. If any practitioner dozed off, the two criminal assistants, under orders from the officer-in-charge, were standing by to beat her.

To further erode the Dafa practitioners' willpower, the officers constantly incited hatred against Falun Dafa among the criminals enlisted to help persecute the practitioners. This environment of hatred encouraged the criminals to use violence against the practitioners. Whenever a practitioner was beaten by these convicts, the officers simply turned a blind eye to it. At times, they would bring in a practitioner's relative, a friend or a former colleague from work - someone that did not know very much about Falun Dafa, and pressure that person to defame and slander Falun Dafa in front of the practitioner. As Falun Dafa practitioners practice the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, watching these innocent people being pressured by the authorities into repeating propaganda and lies was agonizing. Mentally these women felt helpless, isolated and pressured, on top of all the physical abuse they have to endure. In addition, they were not allowed to receive visitors under normal circumstances.

The most unbearable times for these practitioners were the continual brainwashing sessions. These practitioners were forced to listen to propaganda tapes, watch propaganda videos containing fabricated articles and lies, and forced to read magazines, newspaper and other publications that defamed their belief and Teacher. The authorities would even go so far as to strip these women naked and write defamatory words against Falun Dafa all over their bodies to further humiliate them.

The third type of torture these practitioners were subjected to was more extreme. The women were subjected to a combination of disciplinary routines, consisting of grueling military style drills. Although during these drills the practitioners were not required to wear chains on their hands or feet, the effect in breaking down their spirit was greater.

The military drills included repeated squatting, frog leaps, single and double hopping, marching drills in the knee-high stepping style, running laps, and holding excruciating positions with names such as "riding a horse" and "flying the airplane", as well as various movements imitating animals. For example, the "flying the airplane" posture required the practitioner to hold her arms at 180 degrees behind her back, until both arms, outstretched, were touching flat against the wall, while the head was forced to bend down towards the ankles and stay in between both knees. Meanwhile, the arms and the buttocks were required to form a straight line against the wall. A normal person would have difficulty holding oneself in that posture for longer than a couple of minutes. But the practitioners were forced to remain in that position from ten minutes to sometimes two or three hours on end. It is difficult to imagine the suffering these women were forced to go through.

The drills were grouped in sets, and the practitioner was required to perform a set at a time, with a five-minute break in between.. Starting from 5 am until 2 or 3 am the next day, a practitioner actually went through 20 hours of physical torture. At the end of the 20 hours, every ounce of energy was sucked out, and physically and mentally, these female Falun Dafa practitioners were pushed to the limit. Many of them fell asleep in the middle of carrying out these drills. After the training, they were further punished by being forced to stand against a wall for two to three hours in the chilling wind. At times, these practitioners were not allowed to sleep for several days at a time.

To hide these atrocities from the public, all of the torture was carried out either inside the practitioners' cells or in a sealed off location.

The temperature in Beijing during the winter generally falls below zero during the day, and towards dusk, it gets even colder. The extreme temperature is brutal for a person in poor physical condition, covered only by thin cotton clothing as was required by the authorities. To create intolerable conditions so that Falun Dafa practitioners would agree to renounce their belief, the camp officers purposely left the vent doors open to let the chilling wind into the women's cells. The accumulation of constant sleep deprivation, forced starvation diet, brutal physical torture and exposure to extreme cold made the practitioners appear unrecognizable.

During the summer, the high humidity created a breeding ground for mosquitoes, flies, moths and other insects, which were attracted to the salt accumulated on the women's bodies left over from sweat of the torturous exercise drills. There was an unbearable odor, which resulted from the women not being permitted to wash for a prolonged period.

During spring, the yellow sand and dust is everywhere. Often, the practitioners were forced to stand facing the wind. By the end of the day, they were covered with sand and dust all over their clothing, hair and bodies. They look like statues of mud from a distance. Even the rice they were given was covered with sand and dust.

For the whole year round, Dafa practitioners imprisoned at the above camp have been suffering extreme brutality and torture. The authorities do not seem to care whether they were dead or alive once they are taken to the Disciplinary Zone. Today, there are still some female Dafa practitioners imprisoned inside these cells.

March 12, 2004

Tang Yiwen

(Clearwisdom.net)

Editor's note: During Ms. Tang's detention, many people around the world called the related officials expressing their deep concern, and Ms. Tang's family members firmly insisted on her unconditional release. Due to the heavy pressure, the authorities released Ms. Tang several days ago. The following is a delayed translation. For the latest information, please refer to, "Truth-clarifying Activities and Calls to Chatou Brainwashing Center in Guangzhou City Help Secure the Release of Dafa Practitioner Ms. Tang Yiwen." (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/22/46296.html)

Tang Yiwen, the sister of Australian citizen Lisa Liang, has been on hunger strike for 17 days since she was returned to Guangzhou City's so-called "School of Legal Administration" in Chatou, Baiyun District. Her family was not allowed to visit her until March 11, when the local Public Security Bureau of Haizhu District, told her husband to see her immediately. Currently, Tang Yiwen is in critical condition.

On the night of February 23, 2004, seven Falun Gong practitioners in Guangzhou City were suddenly taken away by agents of the "610 Office" (The "610 Office" is an agency specifically established to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.). They were Falun Gong practitioners Li Qiong, Xie Miao, Tang Yiwen, Shi Bing and three others whose names are at this time unknown.

Before dawn on February 24, Tang Yiwen was sent to a brainwashing center in Chatou, Baiyun District of Guangzhou City. "The School of Legal Administration" in Guangzhou City is actually a place that exists to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Here, some police officers harass female practitioners at will, doing cruel things like burning them with cigarettes. Some Falun Gong practitioners have been detained there for two years. At present, Falun Gong practitioners Dai Yongmei, Zou Yuyun, Liu Yi, Wang Jiafang, and Lu Haiyun are still being detained there.

The following is a partial list of names and phone numbers of officials in Guangzhou City that are participating in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners:

Guangzhou City "School of Legal Administration" (a brainwashing center):

Pan Jinhua, Headmaster of the Brainwashing Center: 86-20-81730646 (Office)

Li Xuezhen, Head of the Political Committee of the brainwashing center: 86-20-83485250 (Home), 86-13922159049 (Cell)

Lai Jianfeng, Head of the Supervision Department of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730648

Wang Hong (Female), staff member of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646 (Office)

Wu Fengbo, (Female), staff member of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646 (Office)

He Yunyu, Vice Head Master of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646 (Office)

Yang Liu (Female), officer of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646(Office)

Zhou Li (Female), officer of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646(Office)

Ms. Zhai, Supervisor of the brainwashing center: 86-20-81730646 (Office), 86-20-81730767 (Office)

Liang Huiping, Head of Chatou Female "Labor Education" Center: 86-20-83118090

Guangzhou City "610 Office": 86-20-83193123, 86-20-83377877

Zhang Qingsheng, Chairman of Guangzhou City "610 Office": 86-20-61382058

Xie Zhifeng, Guangzhou City Legal and Administrative Committee: 86-20-81886196 (Home)

Rong Xiaoli, Guangzhou City Legal and Administrative Committee: 86-20-81866482 (Home)

Chen Weilin, Guangzhou City Legal and Administrative Committee: 86-20-83104601 (Office), 86-20-83350231 (Home)

(Clearwisdom.net) Liu Shuzhi, male, forty-seven years old, medium build, is a resident of Shuimo Township in Linqu County of Shandong Province. Liu is an infamous troublemaker in the township, known for swindling others and petty crimes. He used to run a small store, but it failed due to his selling counterfeit goods. Liu Shuzhi is known to do anything for money.

This kind of hoodlum is being employed by Liu Jianguo, head of "610 office" ^[1] of Linqu County to persecute Dafa practitioners in exchange for personal gain. Since 2001, Liu Shuzhi has been a special agent for the"610 office" and is allowed to use their cars. Liu Jianguo gave Liu Shuzhi a commission based on a percentage of the money he blackmailed and extorted from Dafa practitioners that Liu Shuzhi turned in.

In November 2001, Liu Shuzhi reported Dafa practitioners Ms. Wang Jianling, Mr. Yang Keduo and others from Shuimo Township to the "610 office." Ms. Wang was fined 3500 Yuan and Mr. Yang was fined an unknown amount. In December 2001, Liu Shuzhi also tricked practitioner Luu Guifang of Baijiayaozhao Township, saying that he needed a lot of Dafa materials. He secretly reported this to the "610 office." As a result, Luu Guifang's house was ransacked and his property confiscated. Luu Guifang and another Dafa practitioner Ms. Yin Shulan were sent to the "610 office" brainwashing class. Because Yin Shulan remained steadfast and would not give up her practice, she was sent to the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp. Practitioner Zhang Leiping was also reported by Liu Shuzhi. Zhang was blackmailed and fined by the "610 office" for sums up to 12,000 Yuan. Liu Shuzhi goes around everywhere on his bicycle looking for ways to persecute Dafa practitioners.

Liu Jianguo employs thugs like Liu Shuzhi to be agents in various districts in the county, including Linqu Town, Yeyuan, Qixian.

(Clearwisdom.net)

Since July 20, 1999, the principal of the Second Middle School of Hengshui City Liu Shigang and other officials have been persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners.

Because practitioners Mr. Shen Liangsheng, Ms. Liu Hongyi, and Ms. Li Xinqiao refused to give up their belief in Falun Dafa, these three teachers were sent to the police station in November 1999, where they were then detained.

In October 2001 the Second Middle School held a big conference condemning Falun Dafa. All of the teachers and students were required to participate in the conference. Everyone was forced to sign a statement against Falun Gong. Some teachers knew the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution and didn't sign it. However, the school administration checked all of the signatures and coerced those who didn't sign the first time to sign later. The school also required Mr. Shen Liang, Ms. Liu Hongyi, and Ms. Li Xinqiao to attend the conference, but they refused. As a result, the school deprived them of their right to teach. Mr. Shen Liangsheng was forced to work as the gate guard, an office clerk, and as a janitor. The school also deprived Ms. Liu Hongyi and Ms. Li Xinqiao of their right to teach for a period of time and forced them to guard the gate as well.

On October 3, 2001 the school deceived Mr. Sun Liangsheng into going to the local brainwashing center. He escaped from the brainwashing center but was forced to become homeless in order to avoid unlawful arrest. Ms. Li Xinqiao was also arrested and sent to a forced labor camp. Mr. Sun Liangsheng and Ms. Liu Hongyi were arrested in January 2004, and they are still being detained.

Ms. Liu Hongyi's daughter Kang Jiaqi was a student at the Second Middle School. While her father was detained in the brainwashing center and her mother was homeless [in order to avoid unlawful arrest], she was ordered to leave the school. In this way, the persecution of the parents was extended to their child. The key person responsible for persecuting Falun Dafa at the Second Middle School is the principal, Liu Shigang: Tel. 86-318-2069389 (office), 86-318-2038282 (home).

In September 2001, Wang Jianjun, Director of the Board of Health for Taocheng District, wrote up a list of names, which included several steadfast Falun Gong practitioners who were under his supervision. He even directly participated in the arrest of those Falun Gong practitioners and sent them to the brainwashing center to be tortured physically and mentally.

In the spring of 2001, Wang Jianjun directed Zhang Yong, the director of the Second Hospital, to send practitioner Ms. Liu Ping to the brainwashing center.

In the winter of 2001, Wang Jianjun ordered the Medication Company of Taocheng District to send its employee Ms. Wang Yunxiang to the brainwashing center. To resist the persecution Ms. Wang was forced to leave home and go from place to place. Wang Jianjun required the employees of the company look for Ms. Wang day and night . He even went to Ms. Wang's home to harass her family members. Ms. Wang was forced to become destitute and homeless for 8 months, leaving her young child and sick husband at home.

Wang Jianjun: Tel.86-318-2323908 (office)

In September 2001, Yuan Weiqiang ordered his employee, practitioner Mr. Liu Xiaozhuan, who was on duty inside the internal medicine ward, to be locked up at work. Early the next day Mr. Liu was sent to the brainwashing center. Soon after being released from the brainwashing center, Mr. Liu was arrested while he distributed flyers explaining the facts of Falun Gong and the persecution. As soon as he was released and sent back home, Yuan Weiqiang abducted Mr. Liu and took him to the hospital, where he was detained in a small room under the Security Division of the hospital. In September of 2003, Mr. Liu was again captured while distributing truth-clarification flyers. This time Yuan Weiqiang asked the police department to sentence Mr. Liu to prison.

Yuan Weiqiang: Tel. 86-318-2361786 (office), 86-318-2328763 (home).

Since the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began over 4 years ago, several officials from the Culture and Sports Department of Taocheng District have been brutally persecuting practitioner Ms. Li Jing. In December 1999 and in May 2000, Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. When she was arrested and sent back to her home, the officials sent her to the detention center with no concern for Ms. Li's young child, who needed her at home.

In April of 2001, Hu Jianjun, Liu Guanghong, and Zhang Likai tried to take Ms. Li to the brainwashing center. When Ms. Li refused to go with them, Zhang Li beat Ms. Li. Three months later when Ms. Li was tortured to the brink of death in the brainwashing center, she was finally released back to her home. The persecution inflicted on Ms. Li almost cost her life.

In July of 2002, Ms. Li was chatting with another practitioner and was reported by someone to the police. She was then detained under false charges. Five days later the Culture and Sports Department sent Ms. Li from the detention center to the brainwashing center. They also sent people to monitor her 24 hours a day.

Over the past over 4 years, the officials of the Culture and Sports Department have only allowed Ms. Li work for a few months and have completely withheld her salary. Ms. Li has now asked to return to work. But Wang Shijiang, the current director of the Department, is creating all sorts difficulties for her before she can return to work.

The persons directly involved in persecuting Ms. Li are the following:

Wang Shijiang, Director, Tel: 86-318-2022256 (office), 86-13913826988 (mobile)

Li Hongying, Deputy Director, Tel: 86-318-2153193 (home), 86-318-2122401 (office)

Zhao Yanlong, Li Hongying's husband, Tel: 86-13932866659 (mobile)

Zhan Likai, Secretary of the Disciplinary Inspection Committee, Tel. 86-318-2353633 (home), 86-318-2122401 (office)

Liu Guanghong, Deputy Director, Tel. 86-318-2196075, 86-13013276072 (mobile)

National Post

Saturday, March 20, 2004

[...]

Since Falun Gong was outlawed in 1999 by Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese president, China has waged against its practitioners a determined campaign that the U.S. Congress says is "carried out by government officials and police at all levels, and has permeated every segment of [Chinese] society." Falun Gong is targeted not only in China, it is also the subject of a propaganda campaign in Canada, one that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned Ottawa about years ago. It is waged by China's diplomatic and consular officials, who rely on help from some quarters of the Canadian Chinese media, which serve roughly one million ethnically Chinese Canadians.

A week had hardly passed after Sept. 11, 2001, when Canada's Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, owned in part by TorStar, which publishes the Toronto Star, printed an inflammatory article entitled "Radical Religions Advocate Destroying the World," which parroted Beijing's equating of Falun Gong with the Branch Davidians, the American group that David Koresh indoctrinated in Waco, Tex., until his clash with police in February, 1993, led to the death of 86 people, 17 of whom were children. Les Presses Chinoises in Quebec published a series of articles between November, 2001, and February, 2002, saying Falun Gong was "an evil" cult and an "enemy to the state" and continued to print such articles after a Quebec court ordered the paper to stop.

In August, 2002, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found that a Vancouver-based, Chinese-language television station, Talentvision, had violated four articles of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Code of Ethics as well as journalistic ethics by rebroadcasting anti-Falun Gong propaganda produced by Beijing's state-controlled media.

In a more recent example of this campaign, Pan Xinchun, China's consul in Toronto, was found by an Ontario court to have libeled Joel Chipkar, a Canadian Falun Gong practitioner, in a letter to the Toronto Star. Pan's letter said Chipkar was the member of a "sinister cult" seeking to "instigate hate."

Keith Landy, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, believes if "Jew" were substituted for Falun Gong in the letter Pan wrote to the Star "you would have an uproar in the community."

That the hypersensitive, politically correct to a fault Toronto Star published Pan's letter indicates how little is understood about the Chinese government's aggressive campaign against Canadians who practice Falun Gong and our government's indifference to China's hate-mongering in Canada.

[...] (1)

Ownby (who is not a member of Falun Gong) [David Ownby is a professor of Chinese history at the University of Montreal and the author of a forthcoming book on Falun Gong] believes that while some of their beliefs are eccentric, the group does not exhibit any of the classic tendencies of what, for a lack of a better word, are often described as "cults." Li urges his followers to remain in the world, not to isolate themselves. He and his followers do not believe in any utopia. Adherents of Falun Gong are not asked to give money to Li, and he does not intervene in their personal lives. In fact, Ownby thinks the moral grounding of Li's teachings is likely to make Falun Gong practitioners "more responsible citizens."

That is not what the Chinese government wants Canadians to think about their fellow citizens who practice Falun Gong or about the thousands now in labor camps in China and others who have died in the custody of Chinese police after being arrested for practicing Falun Gong.

Mei Ping, China's ambassador to Canada, made that plain a few years ago when we met. Mei came to the National Post to extol the virtues of Communist China and the evils of Falun Gong, leaving behind a book that purported to show how Falun Gong had driven people to suicide, murder and madness, a claim without foundation and one that no other government has ever made about its own citizens who have taken up Li's teachings.

China's diplomats also spend much of their time trying to persuade Canadian politicians to discriminate against Falun Gong under the threat that failing to do so could jeopardize Canada-China trade relations.

Writing in March, 2003, to Jim Peterson, a Liberal MP and now a member of Paul Martin's Cabinet, Chu Guangyou, China's charge d'affaires in Canada, warned that China has "advised the Canadian government of the sensitivity of the issue [of Falun Gong] in the overall bilateral relations. I hope you and your government will understand our position and be vigilant against any attempt of Falun Gong to jeopardize our bilateral relations." With the letter came the now standard package of anti-Falun Gong propaganda.

Such pressure reaches beyond federal government officials. Countless similar letters have been sent to provincial politicians as well as city councilors and mayors across Canada.

Toronto city council has experienced this first-hand. Councilor Michael Walker recently introduced a motion to have a Falun Gong day and a resolution calling on China to stop persecuting Falun Gong, but other councilors have not been so strong-willed in the face of Chinese threats that if the motion is passed it "will have a very negative effect on our future beneficial exchanges and cooperation." Citing foreign trade, councilor Giorgio Mammoliti held up the motion and appears to want it buried in the process.

But in August, 2001, Andy Wells, Mayor of St. John's, Nfld., responded to a letter from Ambassador Mei attacking Falun Gong saying: "Your persecution of this innocent group exemplifies your government's moral and ethical bankruptcy."

Within Canada's Chinese community, the Falun Gong is often shunned and those who do business with the Chinese government are warned off employing Canadians who practice Falun Gong.

An Ontario Human Rights Commission case has arisen from this conflict. Andie Shih was a member of the board of the Chamber of Chinese Herbal Medicine of Canada, starting in 1988. According to Shih's statements filed with the commission, a colleague on the board asked him two years ago not to attend a dinner that was welcoming a Chinese delegation because of his association with Falun Gong. When Shih refused, he was pressured to withdraw from the board. He alleges that he was eventually removed because of his Falun Gong practice.

In another complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Cathy Liu says she has suffered similarly at the hands of her former employer, Bond International College. Liu alleges that her peaceful protests in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, which she did on her own time, were not acceptable to the school because the consulate was an important client. Liu's case went to mediation; the school offered her money and an apology on the condition that it be kept confidential. She refused.

Ottawa has shown little resolve to stop the attempt by China to spread hate in Canada. Pan, who slandered a Canadian in the Toronto Star, is now pressuring the Canadian government to overturn the libel judgment. But why is Pan still in Canada, and why are China's other diplomats and consular officials still allowed to spread propaganda against Canadians? In February, 2003, Irwin Cotler was chairman of Canada's Human Rights Commission and described the persecution of Falun Gong in China as "the criminalization of innocence that finds expression in the intimidation, harassment, arrest, detention, coercive interrogation, torture, beatings and imprisonment for doing nothing more than espousing ancient Chinese values."

Today, Cotler is the Minister of Justice and Falun Gong is being persecuted in his own backyard.

Source: http://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=c195d888-af7c-441b-b735-1c14067582a3

Notes From Clearwisdom:

We commend the author for helping to expose the worldwide persecution of practitioners and supporters of Falun Gong. This article details how pervasive persecution has reached Canada.

We chose not to reprint a section of the article that we did not feel was appropriate for this website. Here, we would like to clarify a few aspects mentioned in those passages:

Falun Gong's founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, enduring great hardships, traveled throughout China lecturing about Falun Dafa from 1992 through 1994. Through word of mouth, the practice quickly spread to tens of millions throughout China. Beginning in 1996, he traveled the world to spread the Falun Dafa. It was also in that year he first came to the United States. By the time Jiang Zemin launched the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999, Mr. Li was a permanent resident of the U.S.

Worldwide, all Falun Dafa activities and instruction are free of charge. Teacher Li's lectures, books and exercise instructions are available for free download at: www.falundafa.org

Mar 19, 2004

David Bowie drummer Sterling Campbell meditating in New York's Central Park

David Bowie's Reality tour made a stop in Vancouver, BC recently. GM Place was packed with every imaginable age and variety of alternative rocker. Between shirt vendors and poster dealers were two tables: one for Amnesty International, the other for Friends of Falun Gong. But his next stop to Hong Kong was in question.

Sterling Campbell, David Bowie's drummer has practiced Falun Gong for six years. He arranged for the human rights organization that advocates for the spiritual movement to display its materials throughout the tour.

Sterling has drummed for a lot of big names including: Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Percy Jones, Soul Asylum, Tina Turner and the B 52's. Not surprisingly, the fast paced lifestyle of a professional musician caught up with him at one point. Eventually he found himself an alcoholic and drug addict who was getting more and more depressed.

"By the mid-nineties I was like trapped in this stuff, I don't know how not do it, you know, it came like a part of my life... I was searching, how can I escape this and yet I kept falling back into it," he recalled.

Sterling did eventually escape it and his story is pretty amazing. After trying many different treatments and a variety of spiritual practices, Sterling stumbled across Falun Gong on his way through Central Park in New York City. Three weeks later, he'd quit everything and totally changed his lifestyle.

About five years later, Sterling found himself being beaten by Chinese police officers for handing out flyers about the banned meditation practice in Beijing.

Followers describe Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, as a traditional Chinese self-improvement practice that emphasizes trying to be a better person. The Chinese government began to repress Falun Dafa when a government sponsored survey found that the number of followers exceeded the number of Communist Party members. The spiritual practice was banned in 1999 by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Since then, followers say they've been brutally persecuted. According to the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center, more than 850 followers have been confirmed dead as a result.

Sterling tells the story of how he ended up in China and what happened there:

"[Falun Dafa] was deemed a threat but there was no threat, it was just the sheer numbers of people practicing.

"We used to get a lot of information [from China before the persecution]. There was always a lot of positive stuff, positive stories, you know how people were bettering their lives, having a more harmonious relationship with family and friends and how it was being praised by the government, how it was considered the top qigong school, like really just positive things.

"And then all this stuff happened and back then you were still able to get stuff in real time, about how people's homes were being broken into by the police, to police brutality to people being falsely arrested and sent to labor camps, people being beaten, people being tortured, and obviously, people being murdered. And how people were still courageously just still coming and really trying to appeal to the government and just to tell them that Falun Dafa was a very good thing and this whole defamatory thing was a lie. And they were always met with brutality, really harsh inhumane treatment and yet they still kept coming and my heart was just so moved by so many of these stories, you know.

"A situation came up where there was talk of Western people going to China and I was asked if I was interested in going, and that you take your own initiative and make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. I wanted to go. I was resolved to go. Because when you know something is the truth it has that effect on you...I know these defamatory remarks and all that stuff their saying was a lie, so I had my armor on, just with the truth (chuckles).

"We went to the Great Wall and talked to Chinese people ... we got to Tiananmen Square and it got pretty surreal from that point. We got taken in by the police, and they went through all our stuff you know, and then you start witnessing people being dragged in by their hair, kicked, I mean women and all these police officers kicking and beating them...

"It's just so hard to explain the feeling of it and articulate it because, you know I've traveled a lot in my life and it's so new. You can just look in their eyes and see things were so not right, there was such a darkness about it, you know, being in this police station and so much has happened and you're trying to talk to these police and its like trying to talk to some kind of predatory creature and trying to say like 'Hey, don't eat me,' you know...

"I could have gone to Hawaii but we came here, we spent our money and we're just trying to be straight up and honest and eventually I met up with, you know, some violence, a couple of policemen beat me down to the ground and [I was] just trying to hold to the principles of Falun Dafa, truthfulness, compassion and tolerance and just trying to... I remember reading about it, when the Chinese practitioners were met with violence, you know, they returned it with kindness and compassion, just reading those stories I was... it was like the benchmark, this is what it means to practice Falun Gong, you know. I remember having that [thought] and applying it and it was really just an amazing experience because it wasn't my concern that I was being beaten down to the ground, it was really my concern showing them what Falun Gong was about."

Falun Dafa practitioners report being imprisoned and sometimes beaten to death because they refuse to renounce their belief in the practice. There have been no reported incidents of Falun Dafa practitioners responding with violence.

Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-19/20507.html

(clearwisdom.net>

Part 1:http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/18/46167.html

Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/21/46281.html

5. Transformed by Fear and Pressure from Persecution

In September and October of 2001, groups of practitioners were sent to Masanjia Labor Camp in large prison trucks holding up to 50 people. With this number of people, one could always hear talking throughout the corridors, stairways, restrooms and cafeterias.

Practitioners know that Falun Dafa is good, and don't want to betray their hearts. But facing the relentless pressure from Masanjia's professional persecutors, some failed to let go of ordinary people's fears and attachments. During the painful struggles, they did not stand up to the evil forces, as true practitioners, and rolled on the floor, crying, "God, what should I do? How can I live?"

Many people broke down from the extreme pressure and wrote the "3 statements" to renounce their belief in tears. Their hands shook violently and they could hardly form the words.

Some practitioners were forced to read the "3 statements in front of everybody. They stood there for 20 minutes, trying to force themselves to speak but not a word came from their mouths.

Day after day, people were forced to go against their conscience and compromise their belief. They suffered the endless pain of hopelessness at their righteous thoughts being consumed by evil, and the recognition of dropping from paradise into hell.

Once they conceded, practitioners were forced to write all sorts of "disclosure" statements, Even after they were released from the labor camp, they had to guarantee that they've completely betrayed their belief. They were required to defame Buddha and Falun Dafa. They were forced to disclose and betray fellow practitioners. Since they had already betrayed themselves and their belief, they were able to betray their families and close friends, and caused many tragedies. Husbands betrayed wives, sisters betrayed sisters, neighbors betrayed good friends. Mothers that were forced to renouce their belief were even coerced into whipping their daughters who refused to renounce their belief in Falun Dafa.

The Families of Practitioners detained in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp know endless blood and sorrow.

Practitioners are often sentenced to one to three years in Masanjia. Many relatives direct their hatred toward the prisoner's wives (who also practice Falun Gong).

Most of the practitioners in Masanjia are women between 40 and 60 years old. They have parents and children, and are often the mainstay of the family. Some of them looked after their sick parents. Their children now cry for their absent mothers every day. Many heart wrenching stories can be heard from practitioners talking about their family situations.

Family members are counting the days until the practitioners are released.

Practitioners' parents are often very old. Unable to handle the shock, they pass away before their child is released from detention.

A Liaoning practitioner said in her testimony, "I can imagine how much worse it is for the families of practitioners who were forced to leave home or were tortured to death. Falun Gong is being practiced in over 60 nations. But only in China, do people have to pay with their lives to protect basic human rights."

Masanjia Labor Camp takes advantage of former practitioners desire to go home, and their lingering attachments to fame and money. They target firm practitioners, posting notices on the wall to lure those wishing to leave the labor camp into assisting with the brainwashing tasks. Those who comply, try to make other practitioners give up their cultivation practice like they did. Conflicts reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution can be seen at the labor camp on a regular basis.

One Liaoning practitioner said, "Once one betrays his belief, the speed at which he falls brings him to the depths of hell." Some brainwashed practitioners even show hatred toward those practitioners who refuse to be brainwashed. They become the persecution tools of the labor camp. Falun Gong had once made them innocent and kind. After they accepted the propaganda from the brainwashing, their human nature was destroyed and they now stop at no evil.

One brainwashed woman cursed non-stop. She slapped practitioners so hard they couldn't see. When she became irritated she would stab practitioners' hands and faces with a sewing needle. One university professor who used to practice Falun Gong, reported fellow practitioners, and assists the police in inventing ways to torture fellow practitioners.

Once these kind of people betrayed themselves and their belief, their righteous standards were lost and they showed no self restraint. They let gave up their humanity completely. Unlike before, they began to waste food that they couldn't finish, fight among themselves over trivial matters, and refuse to give ground in arguments. Respect for the deities was lost, and replaced with human arrogance and political attachments.

Most brainwashed practitioners exhibited a drastic change to their personality. When happy, they laugh like mad, and they weep over a little disappointment. One graduate of a science and engineering university, was overjoyed upon hearing the Taliban had bombed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan. She started shouting, dancing and celebrating outloud with other brainwashed practitioners, as the bombing the Buddha statue suited their brainwashed mentalities.

Masanjia's brutal brainwashing program has changed countless kind and righteous living beings into soulless people who live to please the Masanjia Labor Camp authorities, in order to reduce their torture and speed their release.

Many police were sent to Masanjia after they graduated from school. Most of them were not against Falun Dafa at first, and some even had good will towards Dafa. But in this environment where right becomes wrong, and good and evil are reversed, they were pressured into brainwashing practitioners and forcing them to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. Their status was directly related to how many people they could get to renounce their belief. Each day they receive literature aimed at defaming Dafa, hearing only how right "disclosure" is, and distorting their personal viewpoints. They became evil without realizing it. They studied how to brainwash practitioners, actually believing these techniques will help practitioners.

Police often make a show of looking after practitioners. Some leaders might buy fruit for everyone, then brag about how "selfless" they were, "serving others and not oneself" in their reports. During major holidays, the police would celebrate with the prisoners, dancing and singing. Superficially, it appeared to be like a company picnic. The authorities are careful to not be directly cruel to practitioners, but instead send the former practitioners, now collaborators, to do the dirty work of torturing, so the authorities can later document that they cared for the abused practitioners and not be implicated in crimes against practitioners.

Some of the head police had righteous thoughts in the beginning. They didn't want to forcefully transform practitioners for their own personal gain. But pressure numbed them. When they didn't see any karmic retribution for their criminal acts, they no longer believed that they would be subjected to karmic retribution. Some of them arrogantly claimed, "If there was a hell, I would be there already. Once I'm dead, you're welcome to a different opinion."

In Masanjia, the cruel ones get promoted.

In this harsh environment, some practitioners still clarified the truth to the police, but too few to be effective. Other than keeping their righteous thoughts, newly imprisoned practitioners had little chance of making a difference, and didn't get to talk to police. Every day, the police were fed poisonous information about Falun Gong, and unwittingly became victims of the lies at Masanjia.

Since Jiang's regime's persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, due to enthusiastic performance by people like Su Jing (Head of Masanjia), Masanjia had became a machine to torture the human heart, destroying kindness and devouring souls.

No matter how cruel the authorities can be, many instances of brainwashing are done unwillingly. This is well known in Masanjia, but the authorities are only concerned with the quantity of the practitioners they can brainwash into renouncing their belief, rather than their sincerity or how much blood and pain they cause. Su Jing and her followers are motivated by the money and promotion promised with more brainwashed practitioners, and willingly assist Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan.

When doing brainwashing, those collaborators still reveal to those they trust "I couldn't handle the torture, but my heart remains unchanged. Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance are deep in my heart."

A practitioner from Liaoning gave these examples:

-Once during mealtime, a practitioner who shared my cell wept into her bowl of rice. Later she told me, "Today was the date I attained Dafa and started practicing." She longed for the days as a practitioner.

-A veteran practitioner became the leader in the brainwashing activities, but before she left the camp, she held my hand and whispered in my ear, "You are right not to be brainwashed!"

-During the forced brainwashing, I was stumbling from the torture. One day, a Lingyuan practitioner came to me with a cup of water. She looked into my eyes and ordered, "Drink this water!" I drank it; it was a cup of sugar water to give me strength.

-When I left this group, I found a box of sugar and 6 eggs in my bag. I knew it was from the old lady from Hulu Island who was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her husband had just visited her. She told me, "Falun Gong saved my life. My lung cancer is no more. I just saw the x-rays from the hospital."

-When I came to another group, there was a college student who had been brainwashed for almost a month. During forced labor, she kept singing one phrase from a song: "My heart is unchanged." Soon after, she declared to everyone that her transformation was null and void.

(to be continued).

February 26, 2004

(Clearwisdom.net)

This is a personal account of a Dafa practitioner named Hua Ming (pseudonym) who defended Falun Dafa while being incarcerated in the harsh environment of a forced labor camp.

In February 2000 Hua Ming was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He was sent to the Taiyuan City Zhencheng Forced Labor Camp. During his stay he went on a hunger strike twice to protest the detention. Due to his determination in resisting attempts at brainwashing, he was transferred to the Yongji County Yuxiang Forced Labor Camp in Shanxi Province, a thousand miles away from his home. One year later, in a joint effort throughout the entire province, the "610 Offices" rounded up all of the Dafa practitioners from different areas who had been sentenced to forced labor and transferred them to the Taiyuan Xindian Forced Labor Camp in order to persecute them in a coordinated, systematic way. As a result, Hua Ming was again sent back to Taiyuan City.

In June 2001 Hua Ming was transferred to the Second Team. Three days later, a Dafa practitioner in the Second Team named Zhao Tianlin was beaten. Hua Ming was very upset to see an innocent Dafa practitioner beaten up with bruises all over his face. He thought that the evil's persecution was targeting Dafa and Dafa practitioners, and if the situation were not turned around, the evil would escalate to ever-greater levels of violence. He felt that we should not endure it passively, but instead try to improve the environment. After asking the labor camp staff to stop persecuting Dafa practitioners met with no tangible results, he decided to go on a hunger strike to end the violent acts and rectify the environment. So Hua Ming began his hunger strike. The team leader asked Hua Ming, "How come all of a sudden you stopped eating?" Hua Ming replied, "It's not that I don't want to eat. I just can't bring myself to swallow the food. When I saw Zhao Tianlian's face with bruises all over, I just couldn't eat." No matter how the staff tried to persuade him, Hua Ming was determined to stop eating. Thereafter, the news of Hua Ming holding a hunger strike reached the Division and Management Sections. On the third morning of his hunger strike, the Division Head and the Management Section Head went to the Second Team to persuade Hua Ming to eat. They also promised and reassured him that they would take serious action on the issue of the beating. It was then that Hua Ming agreed to eat a bowl of instant noodles.

On that afternoon, all of the forced laborers in the Second Team, numbering about 100 people, stopped working and attended a special meeting with the presence of the team leader and the division head. In the meeting the staff member responsible for assaulting Mr. Zhao admitted his wrongdoing in front of the crowd. The team leader also announced that the staff member's bonus for the month would be deducted as punishment for the beating. He then made a specific announcement that such things must not happen in the future and that serious actions would be taken if they happened again.

The detained practitioners were greatly inspired by this incident. The evil in other dimensions that created the controlling factors behind this incident were diminished and the environment for practitioner improved. Since then, for almost a year before Hua Ming was released, the beating of Dafa practitioners in the Second Team never happened again.

In July 2001, in order to cause more practitioners to renounce their belief and report higher numbers to the upper levels, the Xindian Forced Labor Camp personnel found a person named Deng Jinhua from Beijing, who had turned into a "collaborator" [a former Falun Dafa practitioner who through brainwashing and torture renounced his belief and now aids the authorities in persecuting fellow practitioners]. Hua Ming thought that he could no longer let Deng confuse numerous Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts and faith by defaming Teacher, distorting the Falun Dafa principles and spreading twisted logic and outright lies. At that time, both inside and outside of the meeting room, several policemen from different teams, the division heads, political instructors, the education section chief, management section chief and the secretary of camp discipline were all present. Hua Ming resolutely stood up to interrupt Deng's speech and calmly told Deng, "I think you are being controlled by the evil and going down an evil path. You are also distorting the meaning of Dafa's principles." An instructor tried to get Hua Ming to shut up and sit down. Hua Ming replied, "I don't want to listen to this. I'm going to leave." Fearing that Hua Ming would affect other Dafa practitioners, the instructor let him leave before the meeting ended. As he was leaving the meeting room, Hua Ming reminded the other practitioners, "I hope that you all will take the Fa as our Teacher and be clearheaded." When he was just about to reach the door, a division head dragged him out of the room, fearing that Hua Ming would continue talking. Hua Ming fell to the floor from the forceful dragging. Later, the forced labor camp extended Hua Ming's forced labor term by another six months on the grounds of "disrupting order in a meeting and violating labor camp rules and regulations." Afterwards, while having a conversation with Hua Ming, the Secretary of Camp Discipline said, "At a critical time like this, there is still somebody like you who is willing to sacrifice his life for Dafa."

In February 2002, the Xindian Forced Labor Camp was making preparations for a joint performance in the auditorium on Lantern Festival (January 15 by Chinese Lunar Calendar) and each team rehearsed for their performance. Hua Ming heard that policemen in the Third Team found several people who had renounced their belief in Falun Dafa to create a play to slander and attack Dafa. Hua Ming thought that the evil was using the excuse of artistic performances to defame Dafa and poison the minds of those who did not know the facts. He thought that the evil was also using that to attack steadfast Dafa practitioners, and he was determined to stop them. Meanwhile, he thought about finding ways to explain the facts about Dafa, so that more people may position themselves well. Hua Ming also realized what kind of consequences he would face if he stopped the play in front of a large crowd in such an evil environment. Maybe he would be beaten brutally, get solitary confinement or receive an extended term. He had been kept in detention for more than two years. It wouldn't be long before he could leave and go home, as he only had two months left on his original sentence. However, Teacher said,

Hua Ming thought to himself, "I cannot stay out of this to protect myself and let the evil attack Dafa and poison people's minds."

Not long after the performance began, the people who had renounced their belief in Falun Dafa were up on the stage performing the defamatory play. After saying a few lines, those people began to attack Dafa. Hua Ming stood up with his finger pointing at the stage and said loudly, "Stop! Do not slander Dafa!" His voice was loud and clear. The entire room was stunned. Soon after, policemen quickly ran toward Hua Ming. Hua Ming seized the time to explain the facts of Falun Gong by shouting out: "Falun Dafa is not a cult! Falun Dafa is a true, good teaching, and has been spread widely to over forty countries around the world. Simply because too many people have practiced Falun Dafa..." Before he could finish, he was swarmed by policemen, who dragged him out of the auditorium by force. Meanwhile, several other practitioners also said loudly: "Stop the beating! Beating people is against the law!" Later, four Dafa practitioners were put in solitary confinement as a punishment. Nonetheless, the auditorium was in an uproar. Hua Ming returned to the Second Team after being confined for seven days. Some prisoners who were there for drug addiction said to him, "There were six hundred people in that auditorium and there was not one who didn't have respect for you. We certainly admire your courage." Some drug addict prisoners said, "When those people from the Third Team (the team containing former Dafa practitioners who renounced their belief) saw you, they knew. It is you who is indeed a true Dafa disciple!"

Hua Ming's act of justice inspired Dafa practitioners and moved other prisoners. He safeguarded Dafa and resisted the evil. The forced labor camp held several Party Committee meetings to discuss how to handle Hua Ming. However, they didn't extend his forced labor term. They only added the charge of "serious administrative demerit" to his prison record. Teacher said,

About sixty days later, Hua Ming walked out of the Xindian Forced Labor Camp openly and with dignity, and melted into the mighty current of Fa-rectification.

(Clearwisdom.net) Editors Note: The "Lotus Flower" described in this article is Liu Xiaolian, a Dafa disciple in Mainland China who experienced extreme tortures, but survived. Her detailed story was published on December 29, 2003 in a Clearwisdom article, "Surviving Extreme Torture - A Lotus Flower that Never Withers."

Indeed, the Fa-rectification cultivation stories of "Lotus Flower" go beyond how she faced up to the inhuman evil in prison. Each time I recall her stories, tears come to my eyes.

The following is a story about how she clarified the truth after she was forcibly given a toxic injection, and the evildoers believed she would definitely die and released her. In order to let more people know about the facts of the persecution against Falun Dafa, this story was published in a flyer to give to the public. This is her account:

"After I was sent home, my family did not allow me to go outside. My husband used two locks to lock me in at home. Relatives came to see me and thought there was no hope for me to survive. My children were borrowing money from everyone to prepare for a funeral and the accompanying ceremonies. But, because I practice Falun Dafa, I am still alive. I wanted to tell people that Dafa brings miracles. Even though the evildoers hoped to get rid of me, I was meant not to be killed. The laws of the universe are just, and Teacher saved my life.

It did not feel right for me to lie in the bed. I am a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple and my goal is to offer people salvation; how could I be lying in bed at home? Even though my husband and my children were still busy with things that they would have to do after my death, I needed to finish what Teacher asked me to do. So on September 14, 2002, I struggled to get out of bed and went to Honghu to distribute flyers and to rescue people from danger. Because I did not have many flyers, I wrote down my own story about the brutal persecution I had suffered, and Teacher guided me to the long-distance bus.

On the bus I talked to the people sitting on either side of my seat about the persecution of Falun Gong. They said that I did well and asked me to stand in the middle of the bus to tell everybody on the bus. I stood in the aisle and started to read what I had written. Strangely, I was not able to stand steadily on flat ground before, but now I did not even shake on the bus while it was lurching. All of the passengers praised me; even the bus driver listened carefully, turned his head and said, "Great!"

After we arrived at Honghu, late in the evening already, I passed out all of my flyers. I could not catch the ferry to go home. That day was very cold, windy and rainy. My body, which others claimed was on the verge of death, could not tolerate it any more. I walked to the front of a house and knocked on the door to ask the owner if they could provide me with one night's stay, but they declined. I stood outside and felt cold and hungry. My body also began to hurt.

Then someone walked close to me and yelled at me, probably because I was in his way. It did not bother me, but that person came back and apologized. He told me that he should not treat an older lady like that. I saw that he looked like a nice person and so I told him the facts about Falun Gong. He listened and showed sympathy. He condemned Jiang Zemin for being too evil and said that those policemen had lost their conscience. Then he asked me how I planned to spend the night by myself. I told him that the owner of the house refused to let me in. He helped me to knock on the door again and pleaded with the owners, but they still did not agree. He felt embarrassed and told me that his home was very far away and the roads were not easy to walk on; otherwise he would invite me to stay in his home. I thanked him and said that he did not need to worry about me. He accompanied me for a quite some time and then we parted.

The whole night was full of strong winds and pouring rain. I lay on a grass pile in the open air all night. The next morning it was clear after the storm, and I found myself not at all wet. I knew that Teacher was protecting me. At that moment, my physical body was at its limit. I did not know how I got to the ferry and how I climbed onto the bus. I was dizzy while the bus reached the destination terminal. I struggled to get off the bus and found that my husband and my children were there. It turned out that they had been looking for me after I had suddenly disappeared.

An elderly woman who had lain in bed waiting for death, whom the police thought to be dying for sure, got up by herself and took a bus and a ferry to clarify the truth and hand out flyers. I stayed outdoors all night, with a strong storm brewing all around me. Ordinary people certainly cannot imagine something like that, whereas I could do it because I am a Dafa disciple."

Practitioner's Visit Liu Xiaolian

One day, towards the end of the year, I went to Chibi, that small town by the Yangtze River, where I met Liu Xiaolian, "the Lotus Flower that never withers."

Walking along a narrow street in town, it looked somehow familiar to me. An accompanying practitioner pointed to the street we were on, which was several hundred meters long and told me that "Lotus Flower" walked on the same street when she made the trip to Honghu. A person, who was so close to death, while her family was already preparing for her funeral, actually got out of bed and rode on a long-distance bus all by herself. It was hard to imagine how she walked through the street; even the "Lotus Flower" herself said it was like "flying" at that time.

An ordinary building by the green hill appeared in distance, and the practitioner who went with me said that was where "Lotus Flower's" home was. Up on the third floor, from the hallway one could immediately see Teacher's new article "Foretelling the Fa's rectification of the human world" on the prominent wall of her home. The practitioner smiled and said that it had been changed again. Last time he came there was a truth-clarification flyer posted in that spot.

After we came in, I saw a slim figure with a bent back towards us sitting in front of a table, writing something. The practitioner called out her name. She turned around slowly towards us. She was very excited when she saw us and did not know what to do. Her shaking hand gradually pointed to the chairs and she said, "Sit down, please sit down." I noticed that her hand was misshapen from torture.

"Lotus Flower" said with her strong Hunan accent that she had a dream two days earlier. It was very clear and vivid. There were 13 disciples from abroad coming to see her. At the same time 13 geese were flying to her home, each holding a big character "Xi" (happiness) in their beaks. I counted - that was exact the same day when Clearwisdom published the story "A Lotus Flower that Never Withers."

"Lotus Flower's" body was badly tortured and devastated. It was obvious that the torture she received in prison was to blame for many of her ailments. Her head shook from a tremor while she spoke, her voice was faint and slow, but clear; her thinking was calm and logical. She went out daily to put up flyers. Her feet were crippled and the tips of her toes could not touch the ground. She could not allow bed covers to touch her lower limbs because hair follicles on her skin often bled. She could barely walk at home, even with help, but she never gave up posting flyers outside. She walked firmly every time she went out to post flyers and her health seemed to be better after she came back.

Her husband told us, "She was in terrible pain during the night a few days ago. Her whole body was in pain and she kept tossing in the bed. She has gotten better in the last few days."

The flyers from "Lotus Flower" were special; she hand wrote them all. Teacher wrote, "It doesn't matter how good or bad your handwriting is, they'll have energy!" (Zhuan Falun) It was really true. Lotus Flower always posted her flyers during the daytime, in the busiest and most visible places. Even the police would smile at her when they saw her.

She told us one day a neighbor downstairs had a party and many officials showed up. So, she placed the cassette player on the windowsill and played Master's new articles at the maximum volume. The guests downstairs heard the voice speaking and liked it, so she went downstairs with the cassette player and Dafa materials.

She handed Dafa truth clarification materials to one official. The man hesitated. Another official told him that it was OK, and told him to read it. While he was reading, the others said, "Secretary, don't be so selfish! Let other people read it, too!"

Her slow and gentle voice, emanating from her disabled body was really moving. I truly felt a Dafa disciple's compassion when I saw her. The practitioners who went with me said that what she said not only clarified the truth to people, but also helped people to obtain the Fa. It is indeed the case, as in the last few months since she came back home from the detention center, quite a few family members and friends attained the Fa. She had a cousin who is over 70 years old, who had a painful foot disease and couldn't walk any more. The weekly drug injections didn't help him. After listening to her explain the facts about Falun Dafa, he asked to read the Falun Dafa book, Zhuan Falun, and study the Dafa principles. His feet recovered soon after, and the man was even planning to plant a few acres of crops next year. He would take flyers from Lotus Flower and post them at various locations. He had just left when we arrived. Lotus Flower told us that he left his home at around 4:00 a.m. and walked more than 10 kilometers to her home. He then took the flyers from her and went to Jiayu County to distribute them.

Lotus Flower's sister is also a Dafa practitioner. Her brother-in--law used to oppose her practice and interfered with her cultivation, and also did some bad things against Dafa. When Lotus Flower came back from the detention center, her brother-in-law was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and was dying in a hospital. Lotus Flower asked her husband to carry her to the hospital. She sat on the edge of her brother-in-law's bed and said slowly, "I told you not to oppose Dafa and Teacher. My Teacher has come to save you, but you behaved badly, and you are now receiving karmic retribution. Go ask for forgiveness and apologize to Teacher. He will still save you!" By then, her brother-in-law could not speak any more, but he could hear and he nodded his head slightly.

A few days after, her brother-in-law was able to walk and went back home from the hospital. The news spread among his friends and relatives, "Falun Dafa is miraculous! Liu Xiaolian suffered so much, yet she is still alive. A few words of hers saved the life of a dying person. It seems that Falun Gong is indeed very good!"

"It has been three years, the hardships are bygones." Looking at her skinny and ravaged body, I deeply felt the greatness of Teacher. Only Teacher could bring up such an outstanding disciple. Nobody could block her way from offering salvation to sentient beings - nobody!

A few thousand copies of the flyer "The Lotus Flower that Never Withers" were distributed locally. The following are a few stories we heard recently: The elder brother of a practitioner is a leader at a local enterprise. After reading the flyer he said openly, "Why don't you sue them? Those evil people should be in jail."

A practitioner gave a copy of this flyer to a coworker. The next day her coworker told her that she cried for a long time the previous evening while reading it. Then she asked if she had a copy of Zhuan Falun; she wanted to learn Falun Dafa.

A few days ago I heard that this new practitioner had gone to distribute truth clarification materials with others.

The brother-in-law of a practitioner read the flyer and didn't say a word. Later, the practitioners learned that he had started practicing Falun Dafa.

The above stories are just a few that we know. There are a lot more we don't know, which have already become living legends.

Lotus Flower was arrested again at the end of last year. Though she is not around, her stories can still save people from danger and guide people to obtain the Fa. Isn't this itself a legend?

Think about it: With her disabled body, she wrote the flyers by herself and went out to distribute them to people with great difficulty. She even posted flyers in front of her own door. She praises Teacher and Dafa whenever she sees people. Her pure heart moves Heaven and Earth, indeed.

(Clearwisdom.net) Due to the rescue efforts of Falun Gong practitioners and kind-hearted people all over the world, at midnight on March 15, Dafa practitioner Ms. Tang Yiwen was released from the Chatou Brainwashing Center in Baiyun District of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.

On February 23, Tang Yiwen, who had already been illegally detained for over two years, was again abducted by Haizhu Police Department after she applied for a passport with the intention of visiting her sister in Australia. Hearing this news, Australian practitioners, together with Tang Yiwen's sister, Australian citizen Lisa Liang, held a press conference in front of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, and had a Sydney-to-Canberra car tour to appeal to the Australian government as well as the international community. Several mainstream media in Australia made positive reports about these events.

Tang Yiwen's abduction again attracted the attention of people with a sense of justice from many places. Since February 24, telephone calls from all over the world were made to Chatou Brainwashing Center where Tang Yiwen was detained, all levels of police departments in Guangzhou City and Guangdong Province, as well as the "610 Offices." In particular, when Tang Yiwen was on her 17^th day of hunger strike and her life was in danger, more telephone calls were made to Guangzhou. Bending under the pressure from the international community, the Guangzhou "610 Office" wanted to avoid taking responsibility and notified Tang Yiwen's family to pick her up. However, though they claimed they would release her, they sent four or five people to follow and watch her. Being aware of this, Tang Yiwen protested with her last breath: she would not leave the brainwashing center as long as she was being watched and monitored. The "610 Office" finally gave up and promised not to send people to monitor her.

All of Tang Yiwen's family members in Guangzhou, in addition to her husband who does not practice Falun Gong, have been interrogated and threatened by the "610 Office." This time, Tang Yiwen staged a hunger strike from the first day she was detained in the brainwashing center. She was isolated and locked up in a small room without windows. She could not see other practitioners or any sunlight. At midnight, she could often hear the screaming of other prisoners who were being hung up and beaten, which sometimes lasted for a long time.

At this moment, Tang Yiwen is in Guangzhou resting and recuperating.

We call on the police departments in Guangzhou to stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately, respect the Constitution of China, and issue a passport to Tang Yiwen.

Other practitioners detained together with Tang Yiwen, include Li Qiong, Xie Miao and Shi Bing are still detained in the Chatou Brainwashing Center. We hope that everyone will pay attention to this and demand their unconditional, prompt release.

(Clearwisdom.net, March 21, 2004) On March the 13th, despite heavy rain, many Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world gathered together in Geneva. They set up several Dafa information stands on the streets in order to demonstrate the exercises and hand out leaflets. Many people stopped at our stands and picked up the leaflets to take a look.

This has been the fifth year of Falun Gong practitioners gathering in Geneva during the annual UN Human Rights Conference. Each year, practitioners from all over the world come to appeal. They call on the world to pay more attention to the persecution of Falun Gong and urge all kind-hearted people to stop the evil persecution of practitioners, as well as the abuse of basic human rights in China. What's more, Jiang's regime has also exported the persecution overseas to other countries. A series of abuses of Falun Gong practitioners and attacks on basic human rights have occurred in Europe, where practitioners were arrested simply because they wore yellow during Jiang Zemin's visit to Germany as well as Hu Jintao's visit to France. Also, practitioners were not allowed to enter Iceland when Jiang was there in June 2002.

An overseas Chinese resident in Switzerland told us that he thought Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong is bringing trouble to himself. When the resident went out to accompany tourist groups visiting from China, he sometimes met Falun Gong practitioners handing out leaflets and just told the tourist group to have a look at our leaflets. If the leader did not allow them to accept, he would say that 'Falun Gong is legal in overseas countries and is protected by the government, as we have the freedoms of belief and speech here. If you forbid others to take the leaflets, then you are breaking the local law.'

After giving a leaflet to a person from Africa and telling him what it was all about, he told this practitioner that he was taking part in the UN Human Rights meeting and that he would pass on our message during the conference. Some practitioners have actually mentioned in the past that for those countries that do not have practitioners, this can be a golden opportunity for them to find out the truth and secure their future.

When a practitioner gave a leaflet to a western couple, the lady spoke to him slowly in Chinese: 'Falun Dafa Hao!' At the moment when her husband smiled and nodded his head, this practitioner couldn't help but have tears in his eyes.

In response to, 'Why have you come to Geneva?' Ms Uta from Germany told us, 'After practicing Falun Dafa, I know how to be a good person by following the principles of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance'; I have gained so many benefits in both my mind and body. Falun Gong practitioners inside China could not come to Geneva to appeal to the UN because of the torture and persecution; however, they never gave up practicing nor stopped telling people the facts about Dafa. So I have come here to act as their voice. I have come here to tell the whole world that Falun Dafa is good and about what is going on inside China. By taking part in Dafa activities, I want to bring about people's awareness to stop this brutal persecution against Falun Gong inside China.'

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200403/18538.html

(Clearwisdom.net, March 19, 2004) Recently, Falun Dafa practitioners from California taught a workshop at a homeless center in Oakland, California. The manager of the homeless center, who met a practitioner months ago and was very impressed with what he heard about Falun Dafa, asked if the practitioners could give a workshop to the members of the homeless group.

As the practitioners prepared for the workshop, a group gathered to attend. From the very beginning, we noticed that the audience was quite interested and paid a lot of attention to what was being said. During the presentation, they were very attentive, nodding their heads and commenting once in a while. If someone who came in late would make some noise during the presentation, everyone would ask him or her to be quiet. They also asked several questions at the end, and their overall understanding and awareness were quite good. The manager commented at the end of the presentation how thankful he was that we came to give this workshop, how he thinks that these people will get a good chance to improve themselves through being introduced to Falun Dafa.

Those at the homeless center were very appreciative of the information given to them. They seemed to genuinely want to learn the exercises and the Fa. Some people had a very hard time moving their arms straight up and down, and even though their arms were shaking sometimes, they would still do their best to continue and not give up. For some, during the sitting meditation they could not sit on the ground with their legs folded, so they had to straighten their legs. There was also a person in a wheelchair, and others who had a hard time sitting on the floor for the meditation exercise. Yet they all tried to do it and there were no complaints. In addition, after we taught them the exercises, we played the music for the 5th exercise for quite a few minutes, so they could experience the meditation. None of them said anything or stopped; they all tried hard to finish the session.

Many were interested in books, magazines and other materials. We left some books for the library, which they could read later. We talked to them during the break and afterwards, explained more the difference between Falun Gong and Tai Chi for example, told them about the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance", and how practitioners follow these principles in their daily lives. They were very impressed and mentioned that even though the principles seem simple on the surface, they can be very complex at higher levels.

They applauded several times during the presentation and at the end, they asked us to come back sometime and teach the workshop to more people.

(Clearwisdom.net, March 19, 2004) In the latter half of February 2004, a western Dafa practitioner received a phone call from the Swedish Party Youth Group, inviting practitioners to join their meeting and introduce Falun Gong to them. The youth group representative said that they were very eager to understand more about Falun Gong and why it was being persecuted in China. The practitioner felt that this was a good opportunity to tell people the facts about Falun Gong and immediately promised to attend their meeting.

Several days later, together with another three Dafa practitioners, she attended the Youth Group meeting. There were more than ten young people at the meeting, all eager to understand Dafa. The practitioners used their personal experiences and understanding of cultivation to introduce Falun Gong to them and answered their questions. They also demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Surrounded by a peaceful energy field, the young people of the Youth Group watched the demonstration intently.

Source: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200403/18492.html

(Clearwisdom.net) Shizuoka-ken is a city in central Japan with beautiful scenery. It is known for green tea and oranges, and also has a famous hot spring resort. In order to let people here learn more about Falun Gong and the persecution in China, local Falun Gong practitioners held a series of activities to clarify the truth on March 14, 2004.

The practitioners gathered in a famous park in the county. They first practiced the exercises and then held a symbolic trial of Jiang. At noon, they held a parade to raise awareness about the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong and made speeches near several busy streets.

Falun Gong practitioner Yoko Kaneko, who was once arrested and detained for one and a half years by Beijing police for explaining to the Chinese people the facts about Falun Gong, came to express her thanks to the public. During Yoko's detention in China, more than half of the congressmen in Shizuoka-ken extended their help to support a signature collection for the rescue of Yoko. Many kind-hearted people cooperated with the signature collection campaign. Yoko also told of the persecution she suffered in a Chinese labor camp. Many people smiled upon seeing that Yoko had been released. Passersby stopped and looked at the poster boards.

Clarifying the truth on the streets	Clarifying the truth on the streets	Clarifying the truth on the streets
A symbolic trial of Jiang	A symbolic trial of Jiang	Performing the exercises

(Clearwisdom.net)

Yue Yang, the former Chief of Wuxue Cities Public Security Bureau, has been torturing Dafa practitioners with cruel methods since he started to work at the Huangmei County Public Security Bureau. After been promoted to the Chief of Wuxue City Public Security Bureau, he continued following Jiang's directives to persecute Dafa practitioners who believe in the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance." Because of his direct involvement in the persecution, many Falun Dafa practitioners were illegally sentenced to forced-labor camps or they were taken to brainwashing centers to suffer mental and physical torture. Some practitioners received sentences and some passed away as a result of the brutal abuse. Some were persecuted to the point that they suffered mental collapses. Some practitioners' families were broken up, while others were forced to go from place to place. Many families were fined, their homes were ransacked and their family, relatives, colleagues, and friends suffered as well. Because Yueyang committed numerous evil deeds, he received karmic retribution. In 2003, he was arrested for being involved in a financial crime.

The head of Wuxue City Court Yu Jiagui placed practitioners on trial. In 2001, due to financial crimes, he was sentenced to jail himself.

Cao Zhiyong, a policeman from Wuxue Cities Public Security Bureau and Police Station actively participated in monitoring, arresting, and persecuting Dafa practitioners during his tenure at Wuxue City Shushang Police Station and Longtan Police Station. Because of that, he was featured on TV and received awards. In 2001, he was promoted to be the head of the police station. He then died of cancer even though he was in his prime. Before he died, he told people that he regretted committing so many evil deeds.

Zhang Puwen, the former Head of Wuxue Cities Cuijiashan Detention Center, took advantage of the occasions when Falun Gong practitioners' families were visiting practitioners by requiring their families to pay either 50 yuan or 20 yuan ⁽¹⁾ per visit. He also cooperated with the "610 Office"⁽²⁾ and the Public Security Bureau to brainwash and transform Falun Gong practitioners and to extend their detention. In addition, he extorted tens of thousands of Yuan worth of accommodation fees from Falun Gong practitioners' family members. Now he has been sentenced to jail for corruption.

Zhang Jiaguo, the Mayor of Macheng City, specialized in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Since he assumed his position as Mayor in March 2001, a female Falun Gong practitioner named Wang Huajun was burned to death by individuals in April in front of the City government building after she was beaten unconscious. On January 28, 2002, Zhang Jiaguo made a claim on television that during the Chinese New Year period, he would arrest all Falun Gong practitioners. The next day he had a bad case of sore throat, and the medical check-up showed that he had developed a tumor in his throat.

He Lisan, the Jichun County Political and Juridical Committee Secretary and the Head of the "610 Office", brutally persecuted Dafa practitioners. He often slandered Dafa and the founder of Falun Gong. In December of 2001, he died suddenly from illness.

Zhang Guoliang, Nanchang City's Public Security Bureau Chief, who was also the former Head of the Yingtan Railway Police Force, has been actively participating in persecuting Dafa practitioners since 1999. In 2001, because he was credited for his involvement in the persecution of Dafa practitioners, he was transferred to Nanchang City Public Security Bureau to become the new police chief. In June 2002, he died in a car accident.

One day in May 2001, two policemen from Xishui County Police Station in Hubei Province were riding motorcycles on their way to arrest a female Dafa practitioner. As they approached her home, their motorcycles suddenly tipped over and threw them quite a distance, resulting in broken bones for both of them.

Xia Shousong, a policeman from the No.1 Section of Xishui Public Security Bureau, adopted cruel means to abuse Falun Gong practitioners who went to appeal to the government for a stop to the persecution or those who performed the exercises in public. Right after he had finished his torture interrogation and trying to force confessions from a number of practitioners who had participated in group practice at the square, he was hospitalized. He had to have a big operation on his chest, which left him with a 3.3-inch scar.

A hired thug with the surname of Yang from Xishui Public Security Bureau is suffering from diabetes.

At the end of 1999, police officers from Xishui Police Station seized a number of Falun Gong practitioners and took them to the Xishui No.2 Detention Center for detainment. A jail police officer with the surname of Ma beat up Falun Gong practitioners with a bamboo pole that he carried. Soon after, this person died from a sudden illness.

The Politics Security Section Assistant Manager of Macheng City Police Station developed a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and died.

Lou Xuejian, the Assistant Manager of Macheng City Public Security Bureau Politics Security Section, was over 50 years old and strictly followed Jiang's regime to commit many evil acts. When he was alive he sent a large number of Falun Dafa practitioners to forced labor camps. When a Dafa practitioner was advising him about virtue, he cursed at him and the founder of Falun Gong, and refused to heed the practitioner's advice to do good. In July 2003, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage while visiting prostitutes.

Tu Qingsong, the Deputy Head of Nanhu Police Station of Macheng City, is the principal criminal in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioner Liu Guiqin. Once he beat up Liu so badly that it caused Liu to lose control of his bowels. He also caused Liu to be sentenced to four years of imprisonment. After Liu's family appealed to the court, he increased Liu's sentence by another year. Currently Tu is in the last stage of cancer.

A retired secretary who goes by the surname of Xu from Huangshi City Bicycle Manufacturing Factory of Hubei Province listened to the lies and propaganda spread by Jiang's regime andattacked Dafa many times himself. As a result, his stomach cancer relapsed and caused his death.

(Clearwisdom.net) A "solemn declaration" is a person's public statement declaring to the world that whatever he or she has done or said under duress or deception that was against Falun Dafa is null and void. Most of these statements have come from Falun Dafa practitioners in China who wished to express regret that, in the face of physical torture and brainwashing, they had signed documents renouncing Dafa and guaranteeing not to practice again. Also, as more and more people in China learn the truth about how they have been deceived and lied to by the Jiang regime, many non-practitioners are also submitting "solemn declarations."

Here are some examples of the Solemn Declarations:

• Dafa Practitioners' Solemn Statements [3/10/2004]
• Solemn Declarations by Non-Practitioners[3/5/2004]
• Solemn Declarations by Young Dafa Practitioners [3/2/2004]

Please click here for more Solemn Declarations.