On the evening of 18th of November, Amnesty International's Dublin Central Office held a release party for a documentary entitled "Anti-persecution" at the Ireland Film Center. Falun Gong practitioners were invited as special guests to talk about the severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. They also answered questions from the audience. Their speeches touched the hearts of many people. After the presentations, some audience members spoke to the practitioners, thanking them for providing details about the situation in China and expressing their concerns and support for Falun Gong.
The following are the practitioner's presentations:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would to like to express my gratitude to Amnesty International Dublin Central Group for inviting me here to talk about the persecution of Falun Gong and its practitioners in China.
On the night of 19th July 1999, the police arrested hundreds of key Falun Gong practitioners all over China. Three days later, the Chinese authorities declared Falun Gong to be an "illegal organization"; and the Department of Public Security issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. However, this was just the beginning. Falun Gong practitioners were systematically coerced into writing letters renouncing Falun Gong. Failure to comply could result in immediate expulsion from their workplaces, universities, schools, the army, etc. Those who didn't comply were later sent to labor camps, psychiatric hospitals, and prisons. They could be detained without provocation anywhere, government offices, their work places, or even in their own homes.
While under arrest or in detention, practitioners are continuously pressured to renounce Falun Gong. Ian Johnson reported in the The Wall Street Journal:
"The day before Chen Zixiu died, her captors again demanded that she renounce her faith in Falun Dafa. Barely conscious after repeated jolts from a cattle prod, the 58-year-old stubbornly shook her head."
"Enraged, the local officials ordered Ms. Chen to run barefoot in the snow. Two days of torture had left her legs bruised and her short black hair matted with pus and blood, said cellmates and other prisoners who witnessed the incident. She crawled outside, vomited and collapsed. She never regained consciousness, and died on Feb. 21..."
"Wrote an adherent who was in the next room of the squat building: "We heard her screaming. Our hearts were tortured and our spirits almost collapsed." Officials from the Chengguan Street Committee used plastic truncheons on her calves, feet and lower back, as well as a cattle prod on her head and neck, according to witnesses. They shouted at her repeatedly to give up Falun Gong and to curse Mr. Li, according to her cellmates. Each time, Ms. Chen refused..."
"On the 22nd, Ms. Zhang and her brother were taken to the local hospital, which was also ringed by police. Their mother, they recalled, was laid out on a table in traditional mourning garb: a simple blue cotton tunic over pants. In a bag tossed in the corner of the room, Ms. Zhang said she spotted her mother's torn and bloodied clothes, the underwear badly soiled. Her calves were black. Six-inch welts streaked along her back. Her teeth were broken. Her ear was swollen and blue."
Liang Jiantian, who had distributed Falun Gong materials, received a life sentence after being charged with "manufacturing obscene materials and conducting an illegal business," as reported by Xinhua News Agency. Another person, Liu Jingsong was given a 20-year term under the same charges.
The above cases are only a few out of hundreds and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been brutally treated in detention centers. It will be impossible for me to list every single case. To date, 82 practitioners have died in the hands of the police; over 500 have received severe prison sentences--some as long as life imprisonment; over 600 have been committed to psychiatric hospitals; over 5,000 have been sent to labor camps; more than 10,000 students have been expelled from universities, colleges, and schools; and tens of millions of people have lost their jobs.
I started practicing Falun Gong in 1996, just a few weeks before I came to Ireland. In China, I had looked for a Falun Gong practice site and was hoping to cure my severe migraine and lumbago. However, I didn't have the time to look around since I was too busy preparing for the journey abroad. Luckily, I met a man on a trip who gave me the book Zhuan Falun. That is when my cultivation practice began. All of my health problems disappeared after I started the practice, and more importantly I became more and more peaceful and tranquil. I was able to concentrate on my work better.
Upon hearing about the crackdown on Falun Gong in China, I was confused and very upset by the actions of the Chinese government. I decided to go back home and reveal the truth of Falun Gong to the authorities during my Christmas holidays. After getting off the plane, I could feel the tense atmosphere there and found that no one dared to mention Falun Gong. With the help of a Swedish practitioner I had a meeting with a Beijing practitioner. Prior to the meeting, we even informed each other what color of clothing we would wear. This made me feel like a character in one of the films I watched as a child. Anyway, I decided to go to the State Council Appeal Office to express my concern about Falun Gong and appeal. It was the first day of the new millennium. I was told that the State Council Appeal Office was located right next to Tiananmen Square. However, I couldn't find it, so I asked a policeman for directions and told him the purpose of my visit. He then told his supervisor and immediately several policemen surrounded me. They took me to a police van, asked where I was from, where I worked, etc. They then moved me to a larger van where three women dressed like farmers were already being held. A very big policeman asked those ladies where they were from and they refused to tell him. He then walked towards one of the ladies and started to forcefully beat her. I was so upset to see what was happening, I tried my best to stop him but failed because he was almost twice my size. I learned that these ladies had cycled for 7 days to get to Beijing because police searched all public transportation for Falun Gong practitioners. Once found, Falun Gong practitioners would either be expelled or arrested. They even forced people to swear at Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi so that refused could be identified as practitioners. They confiscated all identification cards of the Falun Gong practitioners so that they would be unable to travel to Beijing to appeal.
After the van was full of practitioners, we were driven to a place that I still haven't identified. The police let the others out but kept me in the van. Finally, I was taken to Weifang Representative office in Beijing, where my local county council worked. The police questioned me twice in great detail. They wanted to know everything I had done from the moment I got off the airplane. I told them that the ruling of the central government towards Falun Gong was wrong and therefore must be lifted. I also told them that they should allow people to do the things they like freely. After a few days of detention, they took me back to the airport and I returned to Ireland.
I have two older sisters and one younger brother and they all practice Falun Gong. All of them went to Beijing to appeal to the government after Falun Gong was banned last July. My younger brother and one elder sister were detained for several days in Beijing before they were brought back to our hometown, where they were kept in police custody. My younger brother was detained in a very large sports stadium for a couple of days together with a several thousand other Falun Gong practitioners. There was no food, no water, and no toilet facilities. His ribs and back were kicked by the police in Beijing. After he was sent home, the police in his hometown continued to try to force him to renounce Falun gong. Since he refused to do so, a well-built policeman then stepped on both of his ankles and began to crush them violently--as if he wanted to smash the ankle joints into pieces.
My two elder sisters were detained many times. Whenever the police thought there was a big event in China or they heard there would be some Falun Gong activities, the police would arrest my sisters. Both of them have been expelled from their jobs. One of my sisters is divorced because her husband was afraid that the police might bring trouble to him. Now my sister is looking after her little daughter with no money, no job, no social support, and no place to live. My other sister is still in police custody since her last detention (this is her 8th detention since July 1999). She went on a hunger strike for 14 days during the 2nd detention earlier this year. The police force-fed her in a very brutal way using an ordinary tube.
Three friends of mine, who studied in Ireland last year, also went back to China to appeal for Falun Gong. Unfortunately they were not allowed to return to Ireland to continue their studies. Zhao Ming was a postgraduate student from Trinity College, Dublin. He helped to run Falun Gong classes voluntarily at Trinity College. He went to China on 15th December 1999. On 6th January 2000, he went to the State Council's Office of Appeal to appeal and was immediately arrested. He was escorted to his home city of Changchun, where his family paid a fine to have him released. However, the police confiscated his passport and tried to force him to write a pledge promising that he would never appeal the anti-Falun Gong Policy, but this unjustifiable demand was sternly rejected by Zhao Ming. These details were reported in The Irish Times.
Ming was unable to return to Ireland and complete his graduate studies because his passport had been confiscated. Having no financial means to support himself, Ming returned to Beijing to look for work in March 2000. The police declared him a "Falun Gong organizer" and put him on the wanted list. He was arrested on May 13 and no one knew where he was being held. It was only on the 1st of August that his loved ones found out his whereabouts: On May 13, when he was at the home of a fellow practitioner in Beijing where they were preparing to unfurl banners on Tiananmen Square, he was arrested by a police agent who had secretly followed him. He was taken to the Haidian police station. Several other practitioners were arrested at the same time. Ming said to the police, "What justification do you have to arrest me? It is illegal to arrest people arbitrarily." The police said, "You will know that it is legal to arrest you when we get to the police station." At the police station, Ming refused to answer any questions, and refused to have his photo taken. He suffered vicious tortures in the detention center and one of his legs was injured.
On 7th July 2000, he was sent, without trial, to a Tuanhe Male Labour Camp, Daxing County (a suburb of Beijing), where he is still being held.
Ming has suffered a lot in the labour camp. The guards and prisoners have beaten him severely and repeatedly used electric batons to shock him. He was only allowed two hours of sleep a night. The guards tried to force him to write anti-Falun Gong materials. When he refused to do so, they surrounded him and beat him to the verge of death. It is difficult to describe the amount of his suffering with words. He was forced to sit in a wash basin, head between knees, and then pushed under a bed. When the bed was lifted upwards by his body, the torturers would sit on the bed. He was beaten by more than 10 people, who used wooden floorboards to strike his ankles and knees, used their knees to knock his body, and hit his ears. Following one such torture, Ming was unable to sit on a toilet for 5 days and unable to walk normally for two weeks.
Yang Fang, is an accountancy student in Senior College Dun Laoghaire, who went back to China for Christmas last year. She was arrested on 19th December 1999 while staying at a friend's place in Beijing with three other Falun Gong practitioners from UK. The UK practitioners were deported after a couple of days in detention. Fang was detained in her hometown city of Shenyang, Liaoning Province. She was detained for 41 days and was released on 28th January, 2000. She is under 24-hour house arrest. The police confiscated her passport.
Liu Feng is a marketing student in Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education. He returned to China for Christmas and brought a letter to me to reflect his opinion of Falun Gong. His whereabouts were unknown for several days. We now know that he is under house arrest in his hometown of Dalian, Liaoning Province. The police have confiscated his passport.
Then, what is Falun Gong? Why do millions of people in China still refuse to renounce it after being sent to labor camps or prisons, and will even be tortured to death? Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is an advanced-level cultivation system for mind, body, and spirit. It was passed down on a one-to-one (master to student) basis through many generations. Master Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Gong to the public in May 1992. He revised it so that it would be available on a larger scale and benefit more people. Millions of people have started their Falun Gong cultivation and practice due to its effectiveness in improving one's physical and mental health. More importantly, it can improve one's morality by assimilating to the characteristic of the universe --Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance. Falun Gong also has some gentle and beautiful movements that are easy and simple to learn. Falun Gong practitioners help to teach the exercises voluntarily. From East to West, from Scandinavian countries to the Pacific islands, Falun Gong has attracted over 100 million people in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Falun Gong practitioners outside China have started an international appeal for a peaceful resolution to the current crisis in China. We call for help from all governments, organizations, and kind-hearted people to urge the Chinese government to stop the brutal violations against Falun Gong practitioners, lift the ban, restore the reputation of Falun Gong and Master Li Hongzhi, and allow Chinese citizens basic human rights and the freedoms of belief, speech, and peaceful assembly.
In Ireland specifically, we ask people to help Zhao Ming and the other two students to return to Ireland to continue their studies.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you very much.
Practitioners in Ireland
Nov. 27, 2000