By Yao Zuohua, a practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) I began practicing Falun Dafa when I was on the
verge of mental and physical collapse. However, after practicing Falun Dafa, I
said farewell to the former me whose face was awash in tears every day.
Persistent gastro-intestinal problems, liver and cystic problems, and
intrauterine sarcoma that had tortured me for many years were all gone. My body
was purified and my moral standard was raised. I had an entirely new
understanding of life, and realized that my goal should be to become a good
person following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. On July 20, 1999, Jiang and his followers started the persecution of Falun
Dafa. They also launched major propaganda campaigns to defame Teacher and Dafa.
Because Jiang had ordered the government to block all avenues of appeal, we went
out to tell people the facts about Falun Gong and to reveal the lies being
perpetrated. One day in November 2000, I was reported when I was distributing
truth-clarifying information. I was dragged to the police station. A group of
police officers rushed at me to search me. They took all my handouts and
personal belongings away. The chief asked me where I got those materials, but I
refused to tell him. They then handcuffed me to a heating radiator. At 2:00 p.m.
they put me into a police car and took me to my home to search it. They took
away Teacher's portrait. They interrogated and threatened me for a whole day,
but I still refused to give in. At 11:00 p.m. the authorities sent me to the Benxi Detention Center in Benxi
City, Liaoning Province, where the guards searched me and tore apart my clothes
in the process. The food quality at the detention center was really poor. We ate
plain buns and a porridge of corn. They also gave us some watery soup that had
almost nothing in it. Even with this low quality of food, we still had to do
labor for long hours. Sometimes we needed to redo some of the work, making the
working hours even longer. Since I had to sit on a cold bed that was made of Bakelite (hard plastic) for
a long time, my hands and legs started becoming painful and swollen. I also
developed the problem of frequent urination. After several interrogations, I
still remained steadfast in my belief. As a result, at the beginning of 2001,
they sent me to the Ajialing Detention Center. Before long, the detention center
head, Liu, announced an illegal sentence for me. In face of this unjustified
sentence, I wrote an appeal. On the surface they agreed with what I wrote in the
appeal. But in reality they intensified the persecution against me. For example,
Liu knew I could not squat down because of my swollen legs, but during the drill
routine he forced me to sit on the snow. After he had given a long rebuke, it
took several people to pull me up. The team head Wang knew I had leg
problems, but he ordered me to shoulder manure and carry it up a hill, even
ordering the criminals to put together a full load for me. When I staged a
hunger strike in the protest, the police force-fed me. During my time in the Ajialing Detention Center, the police often found
excuses to torment me and the other practitioners. One day, it was 5:00 p.m. and
snowing. Team head Xie told us the time was up and we could quit working. When
team head Wang came out of his office and saw that we were going back, he
immediately yelled at us, "Who told you to go back?" We told him that
the time was up. He replied, "Time is up only when I say time is up. You go
back to work!" We had to go back to the hill and work. We then realized
that this was blatant abuse, and gathered at the top of the hill and stayed
there. It was about 6:00 p.m. The police didn't know how to resolve this, so
they apologized to us and asked us to come back down. On the night of January 15 of the lunar calendar, we practitioners were still
persisting in studying the Fa (1) and doing the exercises. Team head Wu came in
to inspect us. When he saw that we were doing the exercises, he yelled at us and
ordered us to go to bed. He saw we didn't move and then rushed into our room,
jumped on our beds and punched and kicked us for about two hours. We continued
to sit in the full lotus position and didn't budge. Right then, people in an
adjacent cell yelled, "Don't beat people! Falun Dafa is good!" At
last, the police retreated. We won the right to study Fa and do the exercises. We fully understood that the detention center is not where we should stay. We
thus wrote appeal letters again, asking for our unconditional release. In
response to our requests, however, they transferred several former practitioners
who had turned against Dafa under extreme pressure, to our area from Liaoyang
City, Liaoning Province, with the aim of shaking our righteous thoughts. The
outcome was the opposite of what the police had expected. Eventually, the police sent some of us to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
That was at noontime on March 23. The police suddenly called our names and
ordered us to pack our things. They used a bus to transport us to the Masanjia
Forced Labor Camp. When we were in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, the police utilized those
persons who had turned against Dafa to brainwash us. Every morning we got up to
do handcrafts. If one didn't comply, they would use someone to barrage you with
lies all day long. These lies eventually caused severe distraction and
confusion. In the beginning, I could use Teacher's Fa to counter their
arguments. Later, because of the long exposure to the brainwashing and physical
pain, I told them I had to go to bed. Then, the head of our cell would order the
criminal inmates above and below me in the bunk bed to continue the
brainwashing. I was in such a mentally and physically exhausted state, and my
mind was not clear. In that condition I wrote the "Three Statements"
(2) and did something a Dafa practitioner should have never done. After that, my
health got worse. I could not get out of bed, could not put on my clothes by
myself, and I needed to have others take care of all these things for me.
Considering me as a burden, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp sent me to receive
medical treatment under surveillance. Therefore, toward the end of April, under
my daughter's monitoring, I left the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and returned
home. In the two years since I have returned home, the joints in my body have
become swollen and painful. I cannot take care of myself. Even so, the police
officer who is in charge of our local area and the people from the Xibozi
Residential Committee often come to harass me. The head of the residential
committee, Yang, came to my place several times and took away Teacher's portrait
and Falun Dafa books. Particularly whenever a politically sensitive date
approaches, they come to my home more often. Even when I moved out of the Xibozi
residential area, they still asked my neighbors about my whereabouts.
Photos showing the effects of the persecution against Yao
Zuohua June 27, 2004 Notes (1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa. (2) The "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under
brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up
their belief. Created by the "610 Office," the Three Statements
consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practice Falun
Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and
acquaintances who are practitioners.
Posting date: 9/6/2004
Original article date: 9/5/2004
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 7/20/2004
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/28/78180.html