(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Zhang Yulan. My father was Zhang Quanfu; my mother is Jiao Yongzhi and my elder brother was Zhang Qifa. We live on Zhengpen Street at the Sanchazi Forestry Bureau residential area, Jiangyuan County, Baishan City, Jilin Province. My parents are retired from the Forestry Bureau. My brother was a plumber. I work at a veneer factory. Because of they were both were firm in their belief in Falun Dafa, my father and my brother have been killed.
My whole family started to practice Falun Dafa in January 1999. Within one month, my father became free from multiple illnesses he had previously suffered from. Everyone was healthy and happy, and the whole family lived in harmony.
Since 1999, when Jiang's regime started persecuting Falun Gong, my family has suffered relentless persecution by the Jiangyuan County Police Station and the Sanchazi Forest Police Department, also known as the Sanlin Police Department.
In the middle of December 1999, my father and my brother went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa and were intercepted at a train station. Jiang Yuguo, head of the Political Security Section of the Sanlin Police Department and his subordinates, Zhang Fengyou and Yu Xiaoguang, went to escort them back to their hometown. They confiscated more than 1,000 yuan from my father and brother [Chinese currency: 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly salary of an urban worker in China]. Although they had sleeper-berth tickets, the police didn't allow them to lie down. My brother Zhang Qifa and another practitioner were handcuffed to the heating duct in the corridor and had to stand up the whole night. My father, Zhang Quanfu, was handcuffed to the seat. However, the persecutors, Jiang Yuguo, Zhang Fengyou and Yu Xiaoguang, ate and drank well in the train with the money they had stolen from my father and brother.
My father and my brother were sent to the Sanlin Detention Center where they were detained for 15 days. The food there was of a poor quality and consisted of corn buns and thin radish soup. Ofen there was dirt in the soup. When they were released, they were required to pay a sum of 450 yuan for their food. My father's retirement pension at that time was only 460 yuan per month.
From December 1999 to the end of 2000, they deducted 200 yuan per month as a "fine" from my father's retirement pension, for a total amount of 2,600 yuan. After my father and brother were released, officer Zhang Fengyou threatened to search our home if we didn't turn in the book of Falun Dafa teachings, Zhuan Falun. He confiscated one copy.
During my father's and my brother's detention, the authorities from my work unit, the Party secretary, the director and the security people all came to talk to me and required me to write a "guarantee statement." [to say that I would not practice Falun Gong any more]. Because I had not studied the Falun Dafa principles well enough, I went against my conscience and I regretfully did what they asked.
On January 8, 2000, my mother and I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. We were arrested at Tiananmen Square and sent to the Baishan City liaison office in Beijing. On January 13, 2000 we were sent back home. I was held in the Forestry Bureau Detention Center and had to pay 275 yuan for food. My mother was incarcerated in the Jiangyuan County Detention Center and had to pay 300 yuan for food. I was told that I could not go anywhere without permission of the authorities. The Party secretary from my work unit told me that my action had caused the work unit to lose an opportunity to be a "model" unit. The manager said the work unit was fined 6,000 yuan and it would come out from my salary after I started back to work.
On February 17, 2000, my entire family went to Beijing and we were again arrested at Tiananmen Square. On the way to send us to our hometown's liaison office in Beijing, two policemen from Jiangyuan County, knowing that my father was prone to carsickness, deliberately took him on a long detour, with the excuse that they needed to pick up something. When they came back, my father was pale and dizzy and had to lie down for half an hour to recover. Sun Dali at the Beijing Liaison Office for Baishan City stole more than 600 yuan from us "to purchase tickets." The local police took another 500 yuan from us to buy sleeping-berth tickets for themselves while escorting us back. The police officers who escorted us were named Jiang Yuguo, Zhang Fengyou and Yu Xiaoguang.
My father, my brother and I were detained for 15 days and had to pay 675 yuan for food. My mother was detained for 15 days also and had to pay a total of 500 yuan. We were all sentenced to forced labor -- my father for one and a half years; my mother for one year; my brother, 2 years; and I, for one and a half years.
At the end of 2001, because my father was so worried about his granddaughter being at home with no adult taking care of her, he bowed to the pressure to renounce his belief in Falun Dafa, which resulted in his being released on January 9 [Chinese Lunar calendar]. After reading Teacher's articles he knew he had been wrong, so he published a solemn declaration and started Dafa cultivation again. My mother served her term, plus an additional extension of 35 days before she was released on March 29, 2001. After coming back home, police officers from the Zhengpen Police Station and the Sanchazi Police Station in Jiangyuan County kept harassing my parents. My parents did not cooperate with them.
One day in July 2001, two officers from the Zhengpen Police Station came to my home and saw my parents practicing the Falun Gong exercises. They forcibly took away their exercise practice tape. Later, two officers from the Sanchazi Police Station came and told my mother that the police chief wanted to talk to her. My mother refused to go and said she did not do anything wrong and there was nothing to talk about. The officers said, "Your attitude is enough to send you to a detention center." Several days later, seven or eight police officers arrived in two vehicles from the Jiangyuan County Police Department to harass my family. After this, they came frequently.
At the end of November 2001, my brother Zhang Qifa was sent to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City because of his persistence in practicing Falun Dafa, and was detained there for two months. On February 19, 2002, he was released after serving two years of forced labor. My father wanted to go there to bring him home, but Jiang Yuguo rejected his suggestion and demanded 100 yuan from my father as his travel expenses to pick up my brother himself. My brother came back and learned that he had been fired from his job.
Around 8:00 p.m. on March 3, 2002, several officers in two vehicles from the Sanlin Police Department came to my home and again took my father and my brother away. They also confiscated their Falun Gong exercise tape and the tape player. They did not show any arrest or search warrant at the time. They wrote one out after the fact. Both my Father and brother were detained for 15 days and released on March 21, 2002. Not long after they were sent back home, the police ordered them to write the "guarantee statement," but they refused. They were sent to the Forestry Bureau Detention Center. At about 4:00 p.m. that same day, several police officers, led by Zhang Fengyou from the Zhengpen Police Station, came to search my home and took away the tapes of Master's Fa lectures given in Dalian and several other Dafa books.
I was released on April 9, 2002, after serving my term plus an extension of seven months and seventeen days. My father had come twice to visit me during this time, far away from home, but they refused to let him see me. I didn't see my father and my brother for two years. I was escorted back by the police from the Forestry Bureau. Jiang Yuguo told me that I had been fired from my employment and I would be under the administration of the Jiangyuan County Police Station. Officer Yu Rongxin from that police station registered me. I came back home and only saw two family members remaining at home, one old and one young. It was a very sad scene. I tried several times to see my father. Finally, accompanied by two police officers, I saw my father. He looked much thinner than before, his hair and beard were long, and he was wearing a pair of slippers. His hands were shackled in the front.
Yu Rongxin and Guo Shan from the Sanchazi Police Station often came to my home to harass us. During the time of the 16th Party Congress, Zhao (given name not known), chief of the Sanchazi Police Station, led several officers to come to my home. They searched the house as soon as they arrived and asked me whether I still practiced Falun Gong. I didn't answer them. Zhao ordered, "Take her." They started to pull me down. I didn't cooperate with them. Zhao ruthlessly pulled my arms behind my back. They didn't even give me a chance to put on my shoes. My niece finally helped me into a pair of shoes.
I was brought in to a big room with more than 30 police officers present. When I was brought in they called out, "The head of Falun Gong has come." Nie Sanxian, the Secretary of the Jiangyuan County Political and Judiciary Committee was there as well. He tried to talk to me and I kept silent. At 1:00 a.m. I was sent to the Jiangyuan County Detention Center. Zhao, head of the Police Department, threatened me, "If you don't write the 'guarantee statement' you will be put in prison forever."
I started my first hunger strike that lasted five days. They kept interrogating me but didn't release me. I took up another hunger strike. It lasted 20 days. I was finally released on December 10, 2003. The repeated separations from our family members caused my mother and me to suffer severe mental anguish.
In the evening of January 6, 2003, the labor camp authorities called and told us that my father was unwell. My 65-year-old father died at 1:30 a.m. on January 8, 2003 in the Chaoyangou Forced Labor Camp. We were in extreme anguish over the loss of my father. We also faced severe financial difficulties since my father's retirement pension was the only income our family had.
On January 18, 2003, my brother Zhang Qifa was tortured so much that he finally hung on by a thin thread between life and death. The authorities of the Chaoyangou Forced Labor Camp sent him back home in fear that he would die in the labor camp. The next day, on January 19, 2003, my brother died at 11:35 a.m. at the age of 38.
His whole body was covered with wounds and dark bruises. The flesh and bone were separated in several places. The actual cause of death is unknown. I questioned the Zhengpen Police Station administrators about his death. They told me I should ask the officials at the Sanchazi Police Station in Jiangyuan County. A little after 2:00 p.m., several officers from the Sanchazi Police Station arrived. The legal medical expert took photos. When my mother inquired as to the cause of death, they didn't answer.
They demanded money and my mother refused. In the evening, relatives and fellow practitioners wanted to come to my home and discuss the funeral arrangements. The police from Sanchazi Station blocked the small bridge in front of my house with vehicles so that no one could come to my house. Because the authorities forgot to ask for my father's death certificate, shortly after the Spring Festival, Yu Jinxin from the Sanchazi Police Station kept coming to my home to harass us and ask for my father's death certificate.
February 18, 2004