St. Louis, Missouri: Torture Exposed in Washington University Classroom Shocks Students and Professor (Photos)

Minghui.org staff writer Yu Peng reports from St. Louis, Missouri

(Clearwisdom.net) "Besides the physical tortures, the most unbearable thing was that they [the Forced Labor Institute] forced me to give up my belief, forced us to watch videos and read printed materials slandering Falun Gong and ordered us to write our understandings after reading and watching the programs. If we refused, they beat us and swore at us. The pressure made me almost crash. When I looked at the mountains outside of the Forced Labor Institute, I thought, even if there are beasts and snakes in the mountains, I would rather stay in the mountains and not in the labor camp.

"After repeated torture and coercion, I wrote a promise of giving up Falun Gong against my will. I betrayed Dafa and Master Li who saved my life. The regret and pain of writing these letters against my conscience has been torturing me all the time since then. The persecution by Jiang Zemin's regime is not limited to physical tortures, but the mental torture is more severe. It makes you a living dead." With tears, 61-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Li Huagui talked about her experiences of being tortured in a Chinese forced labor camp four years ago.

About 60 students quietly listened to Ms. Li in the classroom, some with tears also.

Students listen to Ms. Li's experience sharing

Students listened carefully to Ms. Li's personal experience

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Huagui (Right)

This was a class about International Human Rights Law, taught by Professor Legomsky at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Legomsky invited Ms. Li to come to his class on April 7, 2005, to introduce human right violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China

In the 80-minute class, Falun Gong practitioners first introduced the practice of Falun Gong and talked about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They showed a truth clarification video and discussed practitioners' experiences of being jailed in forced labor camps. In the question and answer section, students asked many questions, and obviously the time was not enough. Many students visited a Falun Gong website from their laptop computers in the classroom.

Students browse a Falun Dafa website

Students browse a Falun Dafa website

Students request more truth clarification materials after class

Some students had heard about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, but many don't know the details about it. One class session is only enough time to cover just a small portion of such a large topic, but this small portion has illustrated enough facts to shock the students and the professor. They expressed deep concern about the current situation of Falun Gong practitioners and asked if the American government has helped and protected practitioners in China.

Before the class was over, Professor Legomsky thanked the Falun Gong practitioners and especially Ms. Li Huagui. He said that International Human Rights often has a lot of boring legal terms and technical details. But this class provided the students with a first-hand look at human rights persecution in China. He thanked Ms. Li again and said that to recall such unbearable past experiences must have been very painful but that she did this to help the practitioners still being persecuted in China. The students gave the practitioners a long round of applause.

Later, Professor Legomsky sent a thank you e-mail to one of the practitioners and said that the lecture touched his students' minds and hearts.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/4/12/99400.html

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