By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Gansu Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Mazi (nickname). I am female, was born in 1939, and I am 66 years old. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Gansu Province, China.

Many of my family members practice Falun Gong. After my oldest daughter started practicing, she quit her bad habits of smoking and drinking, and also stopped doing illegal business. She started living and working virtuously. After my second daughter started practicing, her health became quite good. Even her hair, which had looked withered and yellowish before, regained its pure black luster. Also, she no longer threw fits of temper. After my son started practicing, he became more kind, and loved helping others, and he also stopped smoking and drinking.

Before practicing Falun Gong, I was a person with an extremely competitive mentality. I would rather go through a lot of physical pain than lose face. The result was that I brought upon myself a whole body of illnesses including migraine, hypertension, coronary disease, pyelonephritis, frequent constipation, hemorrhoids, arthritis, problems with my cervical vertebra, nosebleed, Meiniershi Syndrome (1), Psoriasis and so on. The medical bills added up to tens of thousands of yuan. At that time I suffered bitterly with my illnesses, and it was truly difficult beyond words. I couldn't do any physical exercises, so I practiced some qigong exercises, but the result was not significant. However, when I started practicing Falun Gong in September 1996, and strove to act as a good person according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance," all of my eleven illnesses simply went away. For the first time in my life I experienced what it was like to have an illness-free body. My temper became good, and I no longer flew into rages at my children and husband. My relationships with my husband, son, and daughters became loving and happy.

However, in July 1999, Jiang Zemin issued orders to persecute Falun Gong, and used slanderous lies to frame Falun Gong. My wonderful family and I were broken up by the persecution. Why should it be this difficult to be good people?

My oldest daughter was arrested in July 2002, and was illegally sentenced to 8 years in prison. She is currently jailed at Tiantanghe Women's Prison. Before her imprisonment, she spent more than one year in a detention center. During that time, no one was allowed to visit her or bring clothes to her. There was no way to know whether she received the money that we sent. When I called and asked to visit her, the official in the detention center told me shamelessly that if I went to the street and yelled, "Falun Dafa is good," I would be arrested and brought there too, and then I could see her.

My second daughter was arrested in April 2003, and her home was also ransacked. The officials said that her crime was spreading information from the Minghui website (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net), and they illegally sentenced her to 13 years in prison. She is now being persecuted in Lanzhou Prison. The Minghui website is a website for Falun Dafa practitioners to share experiences and improve together. It is not political, and not against any government. It is a resource for the people of the world to enjoy, and anyone can visit the website. My daughter received a 13-year sentence for simply visiting the website; is that normal for a country with laws? Jiang Zemin ordered that certain government agencies use all their power to block the Minghui website. Doesn't that show how much he fears the people of China learning the truth?

My son was illegally sentenced to 2 years in a forced labor camp in November 2003. He was put into Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing City. When I saw him at the police station, his neck was full of blisters from electric shocks and he was chained to a metal chair. At the labor camp, I simply said to him, "Be true to yourself," but his team leader, a man named Yue, became angry over that, and he took away my right to visit my son. It is truly inconceivable! Would it have been correct if I had said, "Don't be true to yourself" instead?

My son-in-law, who was forced to leave home to avoid being persecuted, was arrested in July 2003. In January 2004, he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with a three-year probation period. Currently, he is back in his hometown.

My daughter-in-law was arrested on November 9, 2002. She was with her 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. The police forced me to take the kids and took her to the Shijingshan Police Station. I asked the station to release my daughter-in-law so that she could care for her kids, but in today's society, where the leader is corrupted, and thus his followers are corrupted, who in the government truly cares about the affairs of common people! My daughter-in-law, because of the stress and torture, contracted heart disease. However, she was not allowed to go to the hospital on medical parole. Instead, she was immediately sent to a forced labor camp to serve a 2-year term.

My daughter-in-law's mother was arrested in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province in November 2003, and was sentenced to 3 years in Guangdong Province's Sanshui Women Forced Labor Camp. Her father passed away this year and she was not even allowed to go back home to visit.

My telephone is tapped and my daily activities are limited. My company's security office, the local police station, and the residential association frequently send people to harass me. Every day I am without peace. In September 1999, I went to help my daughter look after her kids. Five days after arriving in Beijing, my company called me and told me to return immediately. They even went through the police department and had the Babaoshan Police Station detain me, so I was forcibly brought back by my company. They were afraid I was going to use my constitutional right to appeal for the fair treatment of Falun Gong. In March 2000, after being forced to write a Guarantee Statement promising not to appeal and not to see any practitioners, I was then allowed to travel away from home.

My oldest daughter, because of her participation in the "April 25" event, was fired by the Service Examination Bureau, and they took away her government housing. My husband and I used up all of our savings to buy a home. In order to pay the debts, we both started working, even though we are retired. During the time that I worked, my previous company kept making harassment calls to me to interfere with my work. In middle of October 2002, my company asked me to return to my previous employer so that I could be watched more easily. I did not go back. Instead, I went to visit my 80-year-old brother. Hours after I arrived however, I was taken to the police station to be questioned. They asked me where my children were and also ransacked my home. Four policemen took turns interrogating me, and after 30 hours they put me into a brainwashing class. The police station later took me from the brainwashing center and detained me for 4 days without sleep. Policeman Yang Haifei ordered me to sit on a metal chair for one whole night, and after he saw that he couldn't get any results from interrogating me, he put me back into the brainwashing class.

My husband was still out of town working in order to pay back our debts. Besides paying back the debts, we are also required to pay living expenses to detention centers and forced labor camps for all our relatives in detention. The huge psychological pressure and the heavy financial burden, plus the responsibilities caring for of our grandchildren, are all making it difficult for my husband to go on. I brought my grandchildren back to my old home, which had been empty for two years. In the home everything was dusty, and there were no daily necessities, and no children's clothes. Now when I think about our peace and happiness in the past, and look at today's empty home, I truly feel that I want to cry, but I have no tears. I want to call for help but there is no one who can help. I miss my son and daughters very much, and I don't know if I will ever see them again in this era of evil, secretive, and bloody persecution.

Jiang Zemin, out of jealousy, started suppressing Falun Gong. It is because he cares only about his personal power. He cannot accept that there are so many Chinese people, young and old, who want to practice Falun Gong. Actually, Falun Gong heals illnesses and keeps the body fit, and it teaches one to be kind and to become a better person. To any government and society, it can only do many good things and can do no harm. But Jiang does not care about ordinary people's rights and concerns. What is wrong with being a good person in accordance with the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance?" Isn't it good to have more and more good people? He simply had to single-handedly use his power to start the brutal persecution, and he even directed the scandal of the Tiananmen Self-immolation in order to deceive China's good citizens. He also used the media to weave lies and spread hate, just as the media was used during the Cultural Revolution. He implemented secret orders such as "Ruin their reputation, destroy them financially and eliminate them physically," and "Killing of Falun Gong practitioners is nothing and should be counted as suicide." This also made things difficult for high officials, since if they do not follow the orders, their positions will be in jeopardy. Therefore, many officials follow these orders against their conscience.

An unjust political policy has killed over 1,200 people and illegally put over 100,000 people behind bars. With so many families broken up and family members dispersed, China is again in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution. What my family has gone through is solid proof! I have experienced first-hand the political movements in China's past. Who can say which one of those movements was not solely harming people? In the end, only the common people are left to carry the burden after being deceived. I reflect these real situations to the officials whose job is to be responsible to the people. It is because I believe in them. I believe that they shouldn't forsake the people's hope; they should carry out their duties, and give fair investigation into the unjust persecution of Falun Gong.

I hope for an end to what is happening in China, an end to this heartbreaking national catastrophe! I sent out four petition packages, but they were like stones dropped into the ocean. There is no one concerned about the common people's hardships, and it is truly disappointing.

Jiang Zemin is already being sued in over ten countries for torture, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The officials who are followers of Jiang should leave themselves a way out. Everyone knows that during the Cultural Revolution the officials who took the wrong path did not end up well. If the officials nowadays do not awaken and listen to kind words of advice, but still help the criminals to do crimes, then what awaits them is justice from people's hearts and from the law. Falun Gong practitioners know that goodness will be rewarded with good, and evil will meet its retribution; therefore they let go of their own worldly material wealth and use their savings to make truth-clarifying flyers, to spread sincere words from their hearts, and give kind advice. People have the right to believe or not, but please do not irresponsibly slander Falun Dafa.

Note

(1) Meiniershi Syndrome - A kind of ear disease caused by accumulation of fluid in the inner ear.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/1/24/94125.html