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Commentary: My Conscience Forbids Me to Keep Silent Any Longer
By Du Daobin
[Du Daobin is a writer from Hubei Province, China who has published numerous
articles overseas in recent years commenting on China's current political
issues.]
(Clearwisdom.net July 26 report) About four years ago, I often ate out
with the deputy head of a state-run enterprise, who was in charge of Party
affairs (Please allow me to not mention his name here to save him unnecessary
trouble due to the political atmosphere in Mainland China). There are over 1,000
staff members in his enterprise, and among them are three Falun Gong
practitioners. He was assigned to take care of the Falun Gong issue in the
enterprise and to communicate directly with the "610 Office"* in the
political and judicial department. One of his main responsibilities was to stop
the three Falun Gong practitioners from going out to appeal.
Should they manage to run out, his job required him to get them back and
properly "take care" of them. At the beginning, he did not take this
seriously, and because he did not want to offend people, he mainly
"educated them with criticism" and used persuasion. The three Falun
Gong practitioners managed to get out twice. For this, he was severely
criticized and was given stern warnings. At a meeting, the head of the municipal
Party committee warned him that if the Falun Gong practitioners managed to go
out one more time, even if only one of them did, he would be immediately removed
from his position.
As this deputy head is still young, he did not want to stumble in his career,
nor did he want to look bad at his work place as he still wanted to fulfill his
ambitions. But how could he make sure that they would not sneak out again? He
said to us, "I've made up my mind. I told them and my subordinates very
clearly that if they get out, no matter who, I would nail his feet onto a wooden
board." What he said made my hair stand on end. I asked him, "Is this
a proper way of doing things? It is illegal." He said, "Who
cares." Because we used to be classmates, I know him quite well. He came
from a rural background and was relatively kind and honest. I went on to ask him
why he would treat people this way. He said, "I have no alternative. I'm
forced to do so."
At about the time when it was approaching the Spring Festival three years
ago, the persecution of Falun Gong intensified nationwide. From him and other
channels, I got to know that departments at various places adopted a policy of
tight control to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going out to appeal
during the festival period. At that time he was in a critical moment for
promotion, and if something went wrong, more than ten years of hard work would
amount to nothing. When eating out, if someone suggested that we have a game of
Mahjong, he would decline the invitation with the excuse that he had to be on
duty at work to keep control of Falun Gong practitioners.
I was concerned that those Falun Gong practitioners would be treated
illegally, but found it hard to openly voice my concern. So I asked him in a
roundabout way, "Can you kill them?" "No! As long as they do not
run away." I asked him again, "Are they afraid of death?"
"They are so stubborn, they are not afraid of death," he replied.
"That's right. They are not even afraid of death, what else are they afraid
of? You know, to those who are not afraid of death, even gods and ghosts would
yield a bit. Your work place is not a political organization, so you should not
be too harsh on them. You must be careful, or they may bide their time and ask
back what you owe later. Don't take any chances. If by any chance their
difficult situation should change and they come to settle their account with
you, you will have to take all the responsibility. You follow the higher
authorities so closely simply for a low-level position. Who would come to take
responsibility for you when things change? So, listen to me, have mercy on
people when you can, and don't make them suffer too much." He was silent
for a long time after hearing what I said. I don't know if what I said to him
had some effect, but after that the Falun Gong issue was never mentioned again.
I would never have believed it possible for a person with a kind and honest
nature to be forced to use cruel torture on people who simply wanted to go out
to appeal, had I not heard it with my own ears. It is because of this personal
experience and because I have heard and seen so much darkness in the judicial
system, that when I read the following material I could only believe everything
was true:
"On midnight July 20, 1999 the nationwide arrest of Falun Gong
practitioners started." "Up until now, 754 practitioners have been
verified as being tortured to death, many of them died from the brutal killing
in labor camps and prisons. Due to the tight blockade on information by Jiang
Zemin's regime, these cases are only the tip of the iceberg." "Jiang
Zemin employed the army and the police to beat up Falun Gong practitioners in
broad daylight, including elderly people, women, pregnant women and
children...according to incomplete statistics, Falun Gong practitioners who
suffered persecution at the time (including being dispersed by police force,
beaten, illegally detained, interrogated, etc) amounted nationwide to more than
300,000 people."
Did the 754 people commit any offense? Even if they did, should they have
been treated in such an inhuman way? I can say for sure that most of them were
innocent, and they were victims of a political plot. The "610 Office"
cannot escape the responsibility for the fact that these people died such tragic
deaths right under our noses like Sun Zhigang**. According to the same source of
information: The "610 Office" carries out this policy in persecuting
Falun Gong: "defaming their reputation, bankrupting them financially,
destroying them physically." Later it added more specific instructions:
"no law regulates the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners," and
"death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be
counted as suicide; the body shall be directly cremated without investigating
the person's identification." People like us who are familiar with what
happened during the "Cultural Revolution" and the inhuman treatment
people experienced in the birth-control movement such as "if you see a
person drinking poison to commit suicide, do not wrestle the bottle from him; if
you see a person hanging himself to commit suicide, do not help untie the
rope," all have reason to believe that the above mentioned is indeed true.
In the last four years, because I one-sidedly believed the government's
propaganda attacking Falun Gong and because I took an unconcerned attitude
towards the Falun Gong issue, I did not pay much attention to the inhuman
suffering Falun Gong practitioners experienced and kept silent while they were
being persecuted--which meant that I indirectly chose to conspire with the
autocratic regime. Today, all of a sudden I see their tragic situation; I see
that an enormous evil has become reality and is still expanding. I feel shocked,
and my heart and conscience are filled with guilt.
I feel I must break my silence and I want to loudly appeal to the
intellectual circles and people who are on the Internet: Kind-hearted Chinese
people who still keep silent, wake up! While you are keeping silent, the spirit
of the Nazis has returned and usurped the power of our government, killing your
countrymen with the most inhuman means. It is time we took action! It is time we
offered the victims our helping hands! Voice your support to those unfortunate
people who have the same civil rights as us! Say "No" to that huge
beast, and it is high time we ended this miscarriage of justice.
?
*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 or judicial systems.
**Mr. Sun Zhigang, not a Falun Gong practitioner, was a clothing designer who
was arrested simply for not having his personal identification. Mr. Sun was
later beaten and tortured at the police station for unknown reasons. When
friends of Mr. Sun called later about his whereabouts, they were told that he
was sent to the hospital. His medical records showed that he was
"calm" at the time of admittance and sleeping for most of the time he
was at the hospital. The day after, however, Mr. Sun's friends were told that he
had "died of a heart attack." When some courageous reporters heard
about this case, they conducted a low-key investigation at great personal risk.
After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be massive internal
injuries consistent with being beaten in the last 72 hours. There was also
evidence of burn injuries on his shoulders and knees. After the story came to
light, the local police denied it completely. However, after it was circulated
on the Internet, many people posted their own stories of family members or
friends who have been raped, beaten, and even murdered in police custody. Mr.
Sun's case was shown to be clearly just the tip of the iceberg.
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