November 13, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net) When I was a child, relatives who had large numbers tattooed on their arms came to our house. I understood that they had survived concentration camps.

As I grew older, I read extensively and wondered how the peoples of the world could have allowed these atrocities to occur right under their noses. More recently, I was shocked to learn that a government would mow down unarmed students simply because they wanted to make a statement about democracy. In 1999 this same government banned Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Banned in China? I knew that I should check it out.

I found that Falun Gong teaches people to be truthful, compassionate and tolerant. Following these principles, practitioners of Falun Gong look inside their hearts to cultivate their inner selves, to become better people, and to improve their moral quality. In addition, simple, graceful qigongá exercises strengthen and purify the energy channels of the body to improve health and fitness.

What could be wrong with that? I became a Falun Gong practitioner. That's the easy part.

Trying to understand the persecution in China is very painful. In the worst case I read about, Ding Yan, a 32-year-old hairdresser, risked her life to tell reporter Beatrice Turpin about the persecution.

When the government caught her, they used the "water dungeon" torture on her. She was placed in an iron cage with spikes lining the walls. The cage was lowered into water up to her neck. It took her several months to die.

Her case is not atypical.

Such heinous persecution was forced on the country by China's president Jiang Zemin, who has made Falun Gong his personal vendetta. He has repeatedly vowed to eliminate Falun Gong, using brainwashing, and the most horrible torture.

Practitioners are not just shocked with electric batons. They are raped with them. They are beaten to death, their organs harvested, and their disfigured bodies immediately cremated. They are left outdoors, hanging from trees, stripped and thrown out in the freezing cold, tied naked to an iron bed until their limbs atrophy, force-fed feces -- I even helped proofread a compilation of such cases presented to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. I cried a lot.

Coercion cannot change people's hearts. Jiang's vendetta has not and will not wipe out Falun Gong. Instead, it is awakening people like me. Many of us became Falun Gong practitioners when we heard about the crackdown, but we are not enough. For too many others, the truth is unthinkable. The promise of trade blinds people. People don't want to know. "It doesn't have anything to do with me," is heard all too often.

There were believed to be 70 million to 100 million Falun Gong practitioners before the crackdown.

People take enormous personal risks to get information out of China. It is so dangerous that we have no idea how extensive the persecution is. We only know about 493 deaths in police custody.

Because of the danger to those who talk about it, we know the number of actual of deaths must be larger. One alleged insider reports 7,000 such deaths.

What has happened to the rest of the 70 million followers? When this regime falls, when Jiang's replacement takes over, when the details are made public, will we find that, just like Nazi Germany, the atrocities occurred under our noses?

We ask the federal, state and local governments to make statements so that the Jiang regime will know it is being watched. Will it reign itself in if watched?

Congress has passed legislation condemning the persecution. In October, we celebrated Falun Dafa month in California. We asked the City of San Diego to make a statement regarding San Diego's sister city, Yantai, where 11 practitioners have been tortured to death.

The compassion in our hearts makes us want to help in any way we can. If you want to express the compassion in your heart, or if you want to support Falun Gong, please check our Web site at www.falundafa.org. Most languages are represented, as over 100 million people in over 60 countries practice Falun Gong.

You may want to become a Falun Gong practitioner yourself. Who knows what will happen if truthfulness, compassion and tolerance become widespread?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/opinion/news_1e13freeman

á