April 26, 2009

The mother and daughter sat cross-legged on the living room floor of their tiny Des Moines apartment, calmly describing the horrors of Chinese prisons and labor camps.

They talked about prisoners working as slaves, saying those who refuse are hung from their handcuffed wrists for hours. They spoke of prisoners who go on hunger strikes being force-fed with stiff, filthy plastic tubes jammed up nostrils and into stomachs.

Starvation, the electric shocks, beatings and burns - and most horrifying, the harvesting of the organs of healthy, living prisoners - were mentioned.

There were no tears as the women described the atrocities. They spoke quickly and quietly, explaining they were discussing these things so people in the United States might understand.

"These things happened to us and we saw it happen to others," said Chungang Zhang, 37, whose husband and a daughter, 10, remain in China. "Nothing is stopping it."

Zhang and her mother, Guizheng Yang, a retired physician, each served two years in China's most horrendous prisons and labor camps.

Their crime: Adherence to a spiritual movement known as Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, which is [persecuted] by the Chinese government and has been banned there since 1999.

The women escaped from China in 2006, spent two years moving through Asia and arrived in Des Moines on Nov. 20, with the help of Iowa's Department of Human Rights.

They've studied English and Western culture since arriving in the state and, with delight, have continued as practitioners of Falun Dafa.

Their apartment a few blocks west of Drake University is simple, clean, without so much as a picture on the walls.

State workers helped them settle here and arranged for basic needs and for classes.

"We have done what we can to help the ladies," said Cyndi Chen, administrator of the Asian and Pacific Islander section of the Iowa Department of Human Rights. "Iowans always open their arms to refugees. That's the nature of Iowans."

But the help, while appreciated by the women, has been somewhat limited. That's because, according to Chen, the Iowa Department of Human Rights has to be careful to not offend the Chinese government.

"Iowa sells a lot of things to China," Chen said. "We have to strike a balance."

While many Chinese are living in Iowa and going to school here, Chen believes Zhang and Yang are the first refugees to come from China to Iowa with special "United Nations refugee status." That is a recognition by the U.N. that the women risk persecution or imprisonment if they are returned to China.

Tens of millions of Chinese practice Falun Dafa. Its practitioners believe it is an effective method of improving the body, mind and spirit through exercise and meditation. It is not a religion. There is no worship of a deity or adherence to a higher authority. There is no official membership and no dues are paid.

It is simply a way of life that was embraced by the government in China when it was introduced in 1992. But it was outlawed seven years later when the nation's Communist leaders considered it a threat[...]

Although there's no way to know for sure, Falun Dafa practitioners are believed to comprise half of the prison population in China's labor camps.

Amnesty International reported that more than 100 Falun Dafa practitioners died "in detention or shortly after release as a result of torture, denial of food or medical treatment and other forms of ill-treatment" in 2007. Thousands were reported to have been imprisoned in the months prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Zhang and Yang said they knew the dangers, but they persisted in doing the exercises, reading Falun Dafa literature and meditating. They were, and are still, convinced it is the reason for their good physical and mental health. Their persistence and devotion came at a terrible cost in China.

Yang, 65, was arrested May 24, 2004, in her home in the city of DanDong. She said police confiscated books and videos related to Falun Dafa and a day later she was in a labor camp.

"They forced me to sign my name on a piece of paper," she said. "They made copies of that and used it to show I was confessing to things."

The retired doctor said she was watched constantly, that 40 prisoners, all Falun Dafa practitioners, worked day and night sewing garments and gloves in a tiny room.

"Those who refused to work were beaten and hung by their wrists for many hours," she said. "We were starved if we didn't work fast enough."

Yang said her weight dropped from 140 pounds when she arrived at the prison to about 80 pounds when she was released after her health began to deteriorate. She was released after two years of imprisonment.

She didn't know that during that time, on Aug. 28, 2004, her husband died. Her daughter, Zhang, was arrested walking home from the funeral. She spent two years in China's infamous Masanjia prison camp.

"They got me up at 4:30 every morning and yelled at me until midnight, telling me Falun Dafa was bad and harmful," she said. "I could speak with no one else. It went on for weeks. I finally signed a statement saying I would never touch (Falun Dafa) again."

On Jan. 1, 2005, she renounced her earlier, forced statement, and said she would not give up the practice.

"They held me in a room until April 1," she said. "It was freezing cold. The windows were covered and I couldn't see out. I went on a hunger strike and they fed me through my nose."

She said she was handcuffed on an iron bed and injected with unknown drugs that caused her body to swell.

"I was kicked and beaten and they put dirty rags in my mouth so I couldn't speak. One in my room died. They let me out when they thought I was going to die."

The women are less specific about how they escaped China. Border guards were bribed in one instance. They reconnected in Thailand and arrived in Iowa two years and four months later.

They'd never heard of Iowa and had no idea it would be their destination. Here, they met others in the Chinese community, including Yajie Liang of Ames, who acted as the translator for these interviews.

"They wouldn't survive if they'd stayed in China," Liang said. "Our hope is to find them a place to live forever, where they can be safe. We think we have accomplished that."

A couple of days ago, the women got on a bus in Des Moines and began the next part, hopefully the last part, of their journey. Their destination was New York, the place they believe will become their permanent home.

"We love Iowa very much," said Zhang. "But there are many Chinese in New York where we are going and many practitioners of Falun Dafa. We think New York will be a good place for us. We will never forget Iowa. People have been so good to us here."

Her mother nodded and smiled at the words. She put the palms of her hands together and bowed slightly.

"I hope people understand our beliefs and know we are good people," she said. "We just want to be free. Here we are free."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090426/NEWS03/904260379/-1/LIFE04