Sweden: Speech from the Stockholm International Conference on "Genocide in the New Era" (Photo)
(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Zhao Ming. I am a Chinese
national, but now I am stateless and holding refugee status in Ireland. I am
still studying. As a Falun Gong practitioner, I was persecuted in a Chinese
labor camp for nearly two years. Due to the diligent efforts of many
kind-hearted people, human rights organizations and the Irish government, I was
released in March 2002. I am lucky to have been rescued and freed. Today I am
speaking here not on behalf of myself but on behalf of millions of Falun Gong
practitioners who are being persecuted in China. I would like to share with you
some of my very personal experiences about my suffering in China's labor camps. Once in the Haidian District Detention Centre of Beijing, the
police guard told the inmates in the cell to force-feed me in a very brutal way
when I was on hunger strike. One of the inmates held my nose tightly so that I
had to open my mouth to breathe. At the same time, another inmate poured liquid
food into my mouth continuously. I tried my best to turn my head to breathe in
some air, but my head was held very tightly by them and it was not possible for
me to turn my head at all. When I opened my mouth to breathe, they put a tooth
brush in to keep my mouth open and poured in liquid very quickly. I hardly had
any chance to breathe, liquid got into both my bronchi and esophagus. I coughed
very violently afterwards and felt very painful in my lungs for many days after.
It was actually a very dangerous procedure. Quite a few practitioners recorded
on our websites were tortured to death in this way.
Several practitioners in the labor camps were tortured into
losing their sanity. During the Chinese New Year 2002, a section chief of
Beijing Labor Camp Bureau whose surname was Luo came to Tuanhe Labor Camp to see
me. He said nothing really meaningful except one sentence, "I hope that you will
not become like Wu Jun." Wu Jun was a Falun Gong practitioner who was tortured
into losing his sanity. Some practitioners told me that he once saw Wu Jun lick
saliva off the ground. Another practitioner told me that some gangsters sexually
abused him. Now this section chief Luo was directly referring to Wu Jun to
threaten me. I knew that they would torture me sooner or later.
About two weeks before the end of the one year and ten months
extended labor camp period, they finally started. Firstly they did not allow me
to sleep for forty-eight hours. Very exceptionally, on the evening of the second
day of depriving me of sleep, one policeman told me to watch TV. While I was
watching, he rushed into the room suddenly, pulled me and pushed me all the way
along the corridor to a police office. When I got into the room, I saw a bed
board on the ground and some straps torn from bed sheets. Five policemen were
standing in the room including three section chiefs of Tuanhe Labor Camp. I knew
they would torture me using electric batons. They pressured me to renounce Falun
Gong. I refused. Then they put me on the bed board and started to bind all parts
of my body on the board to prevent my body from going into spasm during the
shocking. They bound my ankles, my thighs, my upper body, my arms and across my
mouth. Afterwards, they asked me to renounce Falun Gong again. I refused again.
Then one police guard took out a bundle of electric batons, which were about
half a metre long, and distributed them to the others. They started to shock me
all over my body simultaneously. My body was trembling very violently and was
completely out of control. I heard the sound of very intensive electric sparks.
One police guard took one baton in each hand and started to shock my chest. He
moved the two batons in circles in parallel to my body to shock me with the
metal winding around the baton. That shocking made me breathe rapidly. My throat
was dry with a burning sensation. They continued shocking while pressuring me to
renounce my faith from time to time. I said nothing but was breathing deeply and
rapidly. I tried my best to endure, but suddenly one of my legs went into spasm.
The pain was huge. I just could not think rationally any more. At that moment I
agreed to sign the things they requested.
During the days after that I could not sleep well. I often
woke up suddenly at night. When I was awake, I nearly went crazy. A big
opposition was in my mind. I could not agree with what I had done at all. But it
was not the end. Days later, the police got a CCTV journalist into the labor
camp to interview me. That woman journalist had made a lot of programs
slandering Falun Gong. Actually she had interviewed me once before. In a
previous interview she pretended to be very supportive to Falun Gong and asked
me all my experiences and benefits in this practice. But her real aim was to get
some footage to show that I was living very well in the labor camp so as to deny
the torture and cheat the public. But this time, she was not friendly at all.
Her face looked dark and evil in the shadow of the window light. She asked me
while holding in hand the paper that I signed, "What do you think of Falun Gong
now?" I knew very clearly that if I said anything complying with her, it would
be broadcast to deceive more than a billion people all over the country. I
definitely would not do that. I gathered all my courage and rationality and
answered all her questions by saying repeatedly "I have nothing to say." Maybe
because of the strong international pressure, they did not torture me any more. Days later, I was released. I stepped out of the labor camp
without any happiness, hope or relief, because my spirit had been murdered. I
was not free at all. I was closely followed by secret agents every day after
being released.
Some commonly known genocide in history was aiming at
eliminating a racial group. But this on-going genocide against Falun Gong
practitioners in China is totally aiming at eradicating a spiritual system. The
police guards were committing all the torture to force us Falun Gong
practitioners to renounce our belief in Falun Gong. Over the twenty-two months
of detention, I was transferred back and forth between two cities, three
detention centers, two labor camps, three police stations and one drug
rehabilitation centre. On different occasions I tried to appeal to higher
officials to complain about the abuses committed by some police guards or
inmates, but I found more and more clearly that the torture, brainwashing and
different kinds of illegal treatment were actually planned, instigated and
admitted by high levels. The persecution against Falun Gong is being implemented
by the whole police system all over the country. What is happening in this
persecution of Falun Gong in China has met with the definition in the current
International Convention against Genocide. Now the number of verified death
cases in this persecution has reached more than eight hundred. The death toll
has not reached millions at the moment, but all the characteristics of commonly
known genocides have been manifested in this persecution of Falun Gong:
If there had not been strong resistance and exposure by the
Falun Gong practitioners and strong concerns from the international community, a
holocaust would have happened much earlier in this persecution. I learned that
in the official meeting of this forum many people are discussing the definition
of genocide. I do not think this is the topic to discuss. Now there is already
an on-going genocide that we can identify. What should be discussed is what we
should do about ending it. Now is the time to act!
I believe this conference "Genocide in the New Era" is a very
historical one because it is the first time that the lawyers from different
countries who are filing lawsuits to sue the Chinese perpetrators have come
together to discuss about this issue. I have acted as a plaintiff in a series of
these cases. I want to take this chance to thank my lawyers. You are not only
helping me or other plaintiffs but also upholding justice for the tens of
millions of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China. I understand
that there are a lot of technical difficulties attached to these lawsuits. But I
believe that law should be a tool to assist in seeking justice instead of
preventing people from seeking justice. I believe there will come a day when the
Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, who has instigated the persecution of Falun Gong,
will be brought to justice in a court in China. On that day, people will all
find that what you are doing today is very meaningful, very meaningful.
Thank you.
Zhao Ming January 28, 2004
Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200402/17687.html
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