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Dafa Practitioner Ms. Yang Shulan: "I am Persecuted for Being a Good Person!"
(Clearwisdom.net) The following article was written by Ms. Yang Shulan
in April 2003. In February 2004, Ms. Yang was again arrested by the police. Her
relatives in the U.S. are trying to rescue her. They have brought her case to
the attention of local media and members of the U.S. Congress. My name is Yang Shulan. I am a 55 year old retiree from the Datong City
Public Transportation Company in Shanxi Province. My home address is Unit 2, Row
4, Yiwei Street, Wenming Subdivision, South Datong City. After I started practicing Falun Gong in 1996, I became a healthy person, and
in the meantime learned many principles for being a good person. After June
1999, just prior to the persecution of Falun Dafa, I noticed many plain clothes
policemen and undercover agents near our practice site. In July, our practice
site coordinator was placed under house-arrest. On July 22, 1999, the massive
persecution against Falun Gong started. On that day, five police vans arrived at
our practice site to harass the practitioners. Later, the police searched my
home and confiscated all my Falun Gong books and other materials. They said that
based on orders from superiors, they could search Falun Gong practitioners'
homes anytime, without a search warrant. The residential administration asked me
to complete a questionnaire. One question asked was whether I believed in Falun
Gong. Of course I checked "Yes" because I am a Falun Gong practitioner
and have received benefits from my practice. Consequently, the police
intensified their persecution against me. Both the city and neighborhood police,
as well as residential administrators, frequently harassed my family and myself.
Our normal family life was cruelly disrupted. On October 29, 1999 I prepared to
write a letter to the National Appeals Office, and was on my way to Beijing to
appeal for Falun Gong. Before the train even left Datong, the railway police
arrested me on the train. They handed me over to the local police. The next day,
I was sent to a temporary dentition center where I was held for 97 days. I lost
my freedom and was treated like an animal. The place was so overcrowded that a
sleeping area for 8 people now held 24. The police assigned criminal inmates to
monitor practitioners around the clock. No one was allowed to do the Falun Gong
exercises. We were not even allowed to talk to each other without permission. We
were forced to recite the jail rules. When the police talked to us, we were
forced to squat on the floor. When police talked with my family, they threatened
to give me a three-year sentence. After my family paid them 3,000 Yuan (1) and
wrote a "Guarantee Statement" (2) promising not going to Beijing on my
behalf, they released me. My son and little brother went to appeal for Falun
Gong in Beijing, and they were also detained by the police. Police and
residential officials frequently harassed our family at home. We no longer had a
normal life. In October 2000, I went to Beijing again. This time I witnessed how the
undercover agents, the plainclothes police, and the armed police violently beat
Falun Gong practitioners. I was arrested by the police while I was just talking
to a friend. They arrested too many people to keep, so I managed to escape.
After I got home, the local police planned to arrest me soon after learning that
I had just returned from Beijing. I managed to avoid them. Later in December, I
went to Beijing again. After I displayed a banner that read "Falun Dafa is
Great" in Tiananmen, the police brutally beat me in public. They forced me
into a police van by pulling my hair, and once in the van, a policeman
repeatedly hit me on the head with a club. At 2:00 p.m. they sent me to a forced
labor camp. They asked me to write a statement promising I would stop practicing
Falun Gong, but I declined. To punish me, the police forced me to stand still
until midnight. Then, they threw me into a cell with five other practitioners
and six criminal inmates. We were locked in the cell for 46 days without even a
toilet break outside the cell; everything was done in the cell itself. Later the authorities illegally sentenced me to two years of forced labor. I
was transferred to the drug rehabilitation team. Over there, the police assigned
two drug addicts to monitor each practitioner. Practitioners were not allowed to
talk to each other. The criminal inmates were told to use physical and verbal
abuse to stop the practitioners from talking. The drug addicts also forced us to
recite the jail rules. Since we refused to give up our belief, they intensified
the persecution around the clock. To protest the brutal persecution, we held a
hunger strike. Under police supervision, the drug addicts pinned us to the
floor, sat on our bodies, and forcibly fed rice congee into our mouths. At
night, they put two single beds together and forced the practitioners to sleep
between two drug addicts. The police often used profane language to slander our Teacher and Falun Gong
in front of us. Police officer Ms. Li often hinted to the drug addicts that they
should physically attack us. Nevertheless, we refused to give in. The police
later transferred us to the newly formed Direct Team. This team was created
specifically to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Here we were not allowed
sleep before midnight each day. They used sleep deprivation to torture
practitioners who refused to give in. They also individually brainwashed
practitioners using long-term sleep deprivation. Some practitioners were not
allowed to sleep for 5 consecutive days. The minute they closed their eyes, they
were immediately attacked. More and more practitioners were severely injured. I was released after serving a full term. But at present, I still have no
freedom. I am monitored at all times. The police and residential officials
frequently visit my home and ask me to write all kinds of "Guarantee
Statements." I am not allowed to travel to Beijing, or even out of town.
Fellow practitioners and I cannot visit each other. They said that it's OK to
gamble but not OK to practice Falun Gong. The above story details my own experiences. I want to press charges against
Jiang Zemin for this most brutal persecution. Updated Information In February 2004, officers from Saihan Branch, Huhehaote City Police in Inner
Mongolia arrested Dafa practitioner Yang Shulan. Family members are not allowed
to visit her. Her relatives called the police many times to ask about her
situation, but they refused to answer any questions. When the relative
telephoned and asked, "Why did you arrest an innocent person?" the
policeman did not say a word. Her relatives in the U.S. have no choice but to
seek help from sympathetic media, supportive government officials, and people
with kind hearts. They need help to condemn the illegal behavior of the police
in Saihan Division. When many Americans hear that people who believe in the
principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" are being persecuted in
such brutal ways in China, they find it hard to believe, as everyone feels that
"Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is most wonderful!" A U.S. senator's assistant in the state where Yang Shulan's relatives live is
very sympathetic to Yang's case. He asked Yang's relative to prepare a document.
He would like to contact the State Department, asking the officials to have a
dialogue with the Chinese Foreign Ministry on this issue. He also wrote a letter
to Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi, urging him to open a dialogue between the
U.S. and China. This congressional staff member said, "The senator has
always paid attention to the persecution of Falun Gong, and has appealed to
China to improve its human rights situation." Another U.S. congressman's
staff member has contacted the State Department, urging the Chinese Desk to
communicate with the Chinese Foreign Ministry to find where Yang Shulan is
detained. Falun Gong practitioners in the congressman's district held a press
conference to expose the crimes of Jiang's regime during the four years of
mental and physical persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Contact Phone Numbers of the police: (1) Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban
worker in China is 500 Yuan. (2) "Guarantee Statement" - A
statement to declare that one 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. 5/3/2004
Posting date: 5/29/2004 |