April 18, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net)

Police officers at the Qiantong Town Police Station in Yanshan County, Hebei Province, viciously persecute Falun Gong practitioners. For over three years, the Police Station Director Zhang Moxiang has continually lead police officers to illegally kidnap Falun Gong practitioners. Inside the police station, the officers use sticks to beat practitioners so brutally that the sticks have broken into several pieces. The police officers also beat the faces of practitioners until the faces are virtually unrecognizable. During the freezing winter weather, they tie up practitioners and leave them out in the cold all night long. They use metal pliers to clamp the practitioners' flesh. They also force practitioners to jump up and down or hold certain positions for long periods of time, while they cursed Teacher or Dafa. They often impose arbitrary fines and ransacked the practitioners' homes.

The following describes the persecution that one family experienced, involving a heartbreaking experience. Two brothers and their wives all practice Falun Gong. They are innocent people who are persecuted just because they follow "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and strive to become better people. The younger brother had all of his property ransacked and confiscated, including a horse-drawn carriage, the sheep his family raised, and their clothing and bed sheets. Nothing was left. Seeing the empty house after coming back, they were forced to find a place to rent in order to live. However, the police kidnapped them at the rented place. The police tortured them using various means, and they sentenced the husband to jail. After the wife went on a hunger strike, the police promised to release her so that she could go home to recover, as well as take care of the children. However, the director of the Qiantong Town Police Station led some police to her place to kidnap her again in the middle of the night. As a result, she was unable to look after her children.

The elder brother and his wife went to Beijing to appeal. The police detained them in the police station and fined the wife 500 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]. The police officers lied by saying they would release the husband on bail if they received 2,000 Yuan. However, they not only failed to release him but also sentenced him to four years in prison. As a result, only the wife could take care of the children. The police still did not give up. They continued to kidnap the wife after releasing her on numerous occasions. They also harassed the children repeatedly, causing severe emotional trauma. On the evening of February 26, 2003, the police station director came to their neighborhood. With other policemen, he broke into many homes to kidnap people. At midnight on that day, they went to the wife's home yelling and pounding on the gate. They climbed over the fence and broke in through a window. After climbing in through the window, they began taking people away. They abducted the wife's two sisters and a cousin, who had come to visit her elderly mother. The police pushed their heads down and took them to the police station. Then they kidnapped and detained Falun Gong practitioners in the freezing garage. Meanwhile, the police ordered a feast for themselves, eating and laughing wildly. Some of them said that the Police Station Director would soon receive an award. The following morning, the police sent the wife to Yanshan County Brainwashing Center, where she remains today. Back home, one child of the elder brother is left to look after the 80+ year-old grandma and two young cousins. One could imagine what an arduous life the children are living right now!

In Mainland China, this is only one family among the thousands or millions of families being persecuted. We hope that international organizations and the public will extend their help. In this way, we can avert further disasters.