Eyewitness to History: The Persecution of Falun Dafa as Experienced by a Practitioner in Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province
By a Dafa practitioner from Hegang, Heilongjiang Province
(Clearwisdom.net) Following the appeal of the 10,000 practitioners on
April 25, 1999 at Zhongnanhai Central Government Compound, many practice sites
in Hegang City encountered interference. Our practice site, located at an
elementary school, experienced a similar situation. We had practiced there for
many years, but suddenly the door guard refused to open the front gate, saying
the school principal said they had orders from above that Falun Gong should not
be provided a place to practice. We were forced to practice on the side of the
street, outside the school. (Note: most urban residents in China live
in apartments that are relatively crowded. It has been a longstanding tradition
for the Chinese people to do morning exercises in public parks and along the
streets.) On May 26 and 27, 1999, we were blasted with water from high-pressure hoses
during our exercises in the New Century Square (related photographs were
published on Clearwisdom Net). On the morning of May 29, my wife and I went to
the New Century Square, but our practice site was taken over by a dance team,
organized by the local government. We had no choice but to go to a place close
the Electrics Building on the east side of the square. By this time, several
cars had arrived and a loudspeaker repeatedly broadcast a city government
announcement. There were scores of plainclothes police, and many people
surrounded us. After practicing for a while we could not continue. On the morning of May 30, my wife and I went to the Children's Park. The park
staff allowed other people to do exercises but refused to let Falun Gong people
practice. They pushed and shoved us but we persisted; they lit a pile of dry
leaves in an attempt to drive us away with the smoke. At another practice site, near a grocery shop, the security workers installed
a loudspeaker and played loud music whenever we tried to practice the exercises. April 8 [according to the Chinese lunar calendar] was Master's birthday. We
stood in front of the train station square to do group practice, as we had
always done in the past. On that day in 1999, a big drum was placed in the
square. If we attempted to practice, someone would beat the drum. A large bus
was parked on the north side of the square, full of police officers. Many
plainclothes police were also in the square. Yang Yuguang, Secretary of Hegang
City Political and Judiciary Committee, Deputy Mayor Wang Limin, and Tian Xiwen,
Chief of the Police Department were all in the square. We left and went to the
Hexiang Park to do the exercises. Soon, those individuals arrived at that park
and stopped us from doing the exercises. There were also some special agents
from the National Security Bureau lurking among our practitioners. On the evening of July 3, I took a bus to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun
Dafa. On July 4, the authorities checked me at Harbin City Railway Station and
found an appeal letter in my bag. I was sent to the local police station.
Practitioners Shi Chengjie, Yan Huijuan (female) and Huang were also sent to the
same station. At the police station a meeting was in progress with many police
officers participating and making preparations to search for more practitioners
who were on their way to appeal. We inquired of Ma Liangcai, chief of the
railway police division, why we were not allowed to appeal. He said the
government issued an order forbidding appeals. We asked him to show us the
decree, but he refused. We were detained in the police station for more than ten
hours. Around 2:00 p.m., they arbitrarily cancelled our train tickets and
confiscated our cancellation fees, and turned us over to Zhang Han, Chief of
Hegang City "610 Office."* We were forcibly taken back to Hegang City, our
appeals letter was confiscated. I was on the blacklist of Hegang City. On July 13, a department in Hegang City confiscated hundreds of Dafa books we
had bought from other cities. On July 14, my wife and I went with five or six
hundred other practitioners to the city government to appeal and requested the
government to return our books. They not only rejected our request, but also
dispatched police in the evening to round us up. It was learned that they had
planned to arrest practitioners at 6:00 a.m. on 15th, so most of us
left around 4:00 a.m. Between July 20 and July 22, the head of the residential committee came to
check the number of people at our practice site every morning. Sometimes a
police car would park next to us and leave after a while. On July 22, my work unit put me under house arrest and turned me over to Song
Jiaju, director of the Vocational Education Center, and Tang Yalou, Party
committee secretary of the Vocational Education Center. In the afternoon, they
took me to the No. 2 division of the City Disciplinary Committee, where two
division chiefs talked to me and ordered me to leave the "Falun Gong
organization." I said to them, "We have no organization." Seeing my determined
attitude, they asked Song Jiaju and Tang Yalou to take me back to my work unit
to watch T.V. At 3:00 p.m., all Party officials at the Vocational Education
Center were compelled to watch a Dafa-slandering T.V. program. I was forced to
sit in the first row. After watching it, I stood up and announced, "I practice
Falun Gong." I was taken to the education center's office and was put under surveillance
of the security officers. In the evening, the district police and security
officers from my work unit illegally took me to the district police department,
and later they transferred me to the police station in my residential area. The
next day local police officials ransacked my home and took away some Dafa books
and Master's pictures. After being detained for more than 24 hours, I was forced
to give in to their demands. With many people acting as my guarantors, I was
released around 9:00 p.m. on 23rd . During the following days, the head of the residential committee and local
police officers came to my home to harass me. On July 26, the head of the
residential committee notified me to go to the Shengli Administration Office at
8:00 a.m. the next day. I was forced to go to a meeting at the district Party
organizational department. When I got there, they asked for my opinion. I didn't
say anything against Dafa; however, the local newspaper published a photograph
of me in its July 30th issue and added in the caption under the
photograph words that I had never said. In the evening of July 27, two police officers from the Guangming Police
Station arrested me and sent me to Xiangyang District Police Department for
interrogation. They made a written record. At my work unit, they held a meeting and ordered me to take a stand. I didn't
say anything. In those days, every day we felt burning with anxiety and were
overcome with regret for having done things against our will under pressure. I remember one day when I bumped into fellow practitioner Xie Lanxiang. We
went to get some groceries together, and saw another practitioner, Yan Jinwei,
at the vegetable market. We were all very pleased. As we had not seen one
another for a long time, we decided to go to Jinwei's sister' house for a little
chat. By coincidence, Jinwei's sister and her husband, both of them
practitioners, too, were at home. Within 20 minutes, the police came, saying
that we were having a "meeting" and it was not allowed. At the end of October 1999, bad people heaped slander on Falun Gong. Because
of this, many practitioners from our city went to Beijing to appeal. I was
worried that I might involve those people who vouched for me, so I wrote a
letter of appeal, to clarify the truth and took it to the Shengli Police Station
to apply for permission to appeal. However, I was illegally detained and was
released on the 13th day. During the time while I was at the detention center, I was given two meals a
day, plain food and a bit of soup. Occasionally we were given some pickles.
There was never enough to eat, and even so we had to pay 15 Yuan per day for the
meals; otherwise family visits would be denied. Where we were detained was gloomy and damp, and a ten-square-meter room was
crammed with over 20 people. There was an open toilet in the corner and the room
stank. At that time, any practitioner, if he/she insisted on practicing Falun Gong,
would be sent to the 2nd Detention Center 15 days later where they
would be subjected to forcible brainwashing, and be deprived of sleep until they
said that they would not practice any more. If they refused to give in, they
would be put in long-term detention or sent to forced labor camps. On February 3, 2002, I was working in our family-run store. At around 8:00
a.m., local police officer Li Shuxiang came and ordered me to go with him to the
police station. Later, he went to my home and tricked my wife and my son, not
even 8 years old then, to go to the station. Li asked me if I would still
practice Falun Gong and if I would still go to appeal. I told him that appealing
was our civil right, bestowed to us by the constitution. I was detained for 15
days for saying this. I spent the New Year in a jail while tens of thousands of
families were having a get-together. My wife and son were released the next day
after she made a guarantee that she would not go to Beijing to appeal. When I was sent to the detention center, I saw two other male practitioners,
Guo Xingguo and Zhou Dianjie, who were already detained there. Many female
practitioners were also there. Later, Meng Xiangguo was sent there, too. He
suffered severe beatings by the police from the Xinyi Police Station for going
to Beijing to appeal. His nose was bleeding and his lips were badly swollen.
Fifteen days later, Xiangguo was forced to give in to the evil's demands, but
the head of the Xinyi Police Station demanded several thousand Yuan from his
family. When the family was unable to meet the demand he continued to be
detained. Later, many practitioners were sent into the detention center. At the
beginning of January, all female practitioners from the detention center, the 1st
Lockup and the 2nd Lockup were sent to Luobei County Detention
Center. All the male practitioners remained where we were. The cells were so
crowded that for a few days we had to take turns sleeping. I did not feel hungry during the first few days, but receiving only two
steamed sponge cakes and some thin soup everyday, I began to feel extremely
hungry. We had to appease the feeling of hunger by drinking cold water. We were
denied access to things our families had brought for us. Two weeks later, when our detention term was up, we all expressed that we
would continue to practice Falun Gong, so none of us was released and our
detention continued. On February 26, all the illegally detained male
practitioners and those female practitioners arrested after 9th were
sent to the 2nd Administrative Detention Center, where we were
detained beyond the 15-day limit. They extended our term to three months, with
the excuse of "accepting appealers." Many practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention,
and many were force-fed. On March 22, Zhang Chunqing, deputy head of the police
department in Hegang City who is in charge of jails and was also a head of the 2nd
Lockup at that time came with some assistants and forcibly took Wang Shusen, Sun
Shihong and Yu Yongtao to the 1st Lockup, while Wang Liguo, Cong
Zhiwu were taken to the 2nd Lockup. Yu Yongtao was later forced to
give up his belief and was extorted money. Because his family was unable to give
the persecutors the money, the criminals strapped him up tightly until he
fainted. From March 22 to April 30 the criminals beat him badly almost daily.
On March 23, Zhang Chunqing picked six criminals and ordered them to force us
to give up the practice, telling them that if they succeeded, their detention
terms would be reduced. The six of them started to beat us as soon as they
walked into our cell, making Gong Guidong's nose bloody, while many others were
kicked in the chest and back. Ma Yingquan was forced to endure an extremely
painful form of torture called "Suqin Beijian" [Suqin carries sword]. He
was forced to split his legs to the extreme degree and his head was forced to
the ground; then the criminals held his arms and lifted them up till his feet
could barely touch the ground, causing him excruciating pain. We were also
forced to recite the detention regulations. If we failed to do so, we would be
tortured. Not a single day passed by without us being tortured or beaten. We
silently endured. The guards and criminals were allowed to beat us at will. In their words,
"Speaking loud is disturbing the detention center; speaking quietly is plotting
to escape; not speaking at all is resisting being reformed." The food we ate was different from that for other criminals; theirs was much
better. The cook and the boiler room attendant also bought alcohol for the
criminals, which is against regulations. They would beat us up after drinking
alcohol. Once Hou Gangzhu beat up Lengbing after drinking, and the chef cruelly
called in Lengbing's wife Yan Jinbo and her sister Yan Jinwei to watch the
beating from outside the cell. At the 2nd Lockup, we had to pay 20 Yuan per day for the meals,
and if we refused we would be denied family visits. They also forced us to do
chores, such as working in the fields, cleaning the yard, clearing away slag and
painting rooms, and other manual labor. Because an old lady with the surname Sun was persecuted to death in prison in
Luobei County Jail, on April 30 the vicious police illegally put all of us into
the 1st Lockup. On May 27, with my family's effort, I was among the first group of
practitioners to be released. During this process, my family had to obtain
permission from 13 different governmental agencies and I would not be released
if any one of them said no. These governmental agencies included two officials
from the division of my work unit, residential committee, administration office,
district government, district "610 Office," city "610 Office," city appeals
bureau, local police station, district police department, detention center,
police office in the detention center and city police department. My family was
extorted 2,000 Yuan upon my release and they had paid 10 Yuan per day for my
food at the 1st Lockup. During this process, my family spent lots of
money for related expenses, but because they would not tell me the details, I
did not know the exact amount. In late 1999, my work unit launched a competition to stimulate a hiring
process. My direct supervisor resisted pressure from a higher institutional head
and didn't lay me off. During the time in 2000 when I was illegally detained, my
work unit paid me only 300 Yuan a month of my regular salary of 1,000 Yuan per
month. Tang Yalou said during a public meeting that "good people" were all laid
off. He attacked and persecuted Dafa practitioners, withholding their jobs and
forcing me to leave my post. When my family went through the release process,
Song Jiaju and others tried their best to pick on me and taunted that I would be
"the most safe in jail" for I wouldn't create any trouble for them. After I was
released, my salary was 60% of my regular base salary, and I didn't begin
working again and receiving a full salary until the end of 1999. Right after I was released, my work unit forced me to write a "thought
report" and I was forced to report to the Political and Security Section from
Xiangyang District Police Department every week. I remember the first time I
reported, the section head threatened me, "You were released on bail, not an
unconditional release; if you don't behave yourself, we'll throw you back in
jail." On January 13, 2001, I moved. The personnel at Shengli Police Station
transferred my wife's and my profile to the Hongjun Police Station. One officer
at the Hongjun Police Station interrogated me but I refused to answer many of
his questions. On January 18, local police officer Li Jun perceived that I
wasn't cooperating with them, so he came to my home and tricked my wife, my
child and me to come to the police station. Chen Li, the head of the District
Public Security Section called the people at the Hongjun Police Station three
times to ask for my profile. A kind-hearted police officer told my wife in
secret that they wanted to throw us in jail. On April 20, 2002, Dafa practitioners from Hegang City successfully broadcast
a truth clarification video in the Gongnong area. The Party secretary of Hegang
City, Zhang Xingfu, was exasperated and ordered the arrest of Dafa practitioners
in the city. 500 to 600 practitioners were kidnapped and sent to labor camps;
more than 50 practitioners were illegally sentenced to jail or waiting to be
sentenced. The highest sentence was 13 years. My wife and I were forced to leave
our beloved son and leave home. Some Dafa practitioners couldn't stand the
brutal torture in jail and reported me. My home was ransacked and both my wife's
relatives and mine were implicated. The police forced them to tell our
whereabouts and they didn't even spare the children. When the police ransacked
my sister Tang Mingfen's home, they arrested her because they found a copy of
Zhuan Falun and my sister said she would not give up cultivation. She was
sentenced to two or three years of forced labor and is currently being detained
in the Harbin City Drug Rehabilitation Center. I don't have any other specific
information about her. My wife and my name are on the "wanted by police" list
online. On June 28, we were cornered on the seventh floor in a building near
Harbin City Bus Factory. Luckily, my wife and I escaped, but two practitioners,
Li and Hong, were kidnapped and I have not heard from them since. Right now, our life is supported by Dafa practitioners and kind-hearted
people. In China, countless thousands of Dafa practitioners are still suffering
all kinds of torture in jail. * The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong,
with absolute powers over each level of administration in the Party and all
other political and judiciary systems.
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/6/45808.html
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