(Clearwisdom.net) The little girl in this photo is Ji Yawa. She is now 15 years old and a middle school student in Weifang City, Shandong Province. Her childhood was a happy one. In this photo she was smiling joyfully in her mother's arms, and her mother was smiling cheerfully, too. Her father was the one who took the picture.

Ji Yawa's father started to practice Falun Dafa in 1994, when Yawa was a small child. Yawa's father contracted hepatitis B, and he suffered so much that he could not go to work. He tried to seek a cure everywhere and tried all kinds of medicine. Yawa's mother had to take care of all of the household chores, and the family was in a tough situation. Ever since Yawa's father started to practice Falun Gong, he changed into a different person. Seeing the miraculous effects of Falun Dafa, Yawa's mother started to practice Falun Dafa, as well. Yawa told others, "Since my mother started to practice Falun Dafa, she never yells at me anymore."

However, when the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Yawa's family's life, like so many other families, was turned upside down.

On Christmas Eve 2000, the day the Chinese people refer to as "the night of peace," disaster struck Yawa's family. Yawa's mother Lou Aiqing died that day as a result of the persecution.

Falun Dafa practitioner Lou Aiqing dies On December 24, 2000

On the morning of December 23, 2000, Saturday, Yawa's mother called her on the phone. Yawa was sleeping when she heard the phone ring. Yawa's mother told her that she was being held in a detention center again. Before she was detained, she had left home to avoid being captured. Yawa had not seen her mother for a long time, but she always felt that her mother was just beside her. After getting the phone call from her mom, Yawa thought that her mom would be home soon.

On December 25, Christmas Day, as soon as Yawa arrived at home from school, someone from her mother's work unit came to ask her grandmother, aunt and Yawa to go to her mother's work unit. Her mother's supervisors told them that Yawa's mother had passed away on December 24. Yawa was only 11 years old at the time. She was shocked. It was only the day before yesterday that she heard her mother's voice. She burst into tears.

At this most excruciating moment, the little Falun Dafa disciple was still considering others first and did not want to bring more pain to others. The principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" that Falun Dafa practitioners are following are deeply rooted in their hearts, even when enduring tremendous sufferings.

After Yawa's mother's death, Yawa went to a forced labor camp to visit one of her aunts. Her aunt didn't know at the time that Yawa's mother had died. She asked Yawa, "How is your mother? Is she doing well?" Yawa didn't want her aunt to be heartbroken while being imprisoned in the labor camp. She replied, "My mom went somewhere far away from home." As she said this, she couldn't hold back her tears.

Yawa often talked about her mother. She said to her grandmother, "Grandma, the days without mom are so long." Later, Yawa read the statement that her mother wrote before her death. When she learned the whole story of how guards had beaten her mother cruelly, tears poured down her face.

Yawa missed the days when she validated Dafa with her mom. After July 1999, her mother went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong three times. When Yawa's mother asked her whether she wanted to go to Beijing as well, Yawa replied "I want to go!" In October 2000, Yawa and her mother went to Beijing together.

Yawa and her mother were both sent back to the Guangwen Police Station in Weifang after they went to Beijing. Yawa was held there for two days. She witnessed the police beating fellow women practitioners, including her mother.

After Yawa came home, Guangwen Police Station officers called Yawa's school to inform them of Yawa's situation. Then Yawa's teachers told her to write a "Guarantee Statement" to give up Falun Gong. As she refused to write the statement, her teachers didn't allow her to participate in classes and forced her to crouch outside the classroom. Yawa then wrote a report on the true story of Falun Gong and how the practice of Falun Gong benefited her father, her mother and herself. Her teacher read her report and told her, "The schoolmaster will talk to you in a few days. Just tell him you will no longer practice Falun Gong." Yawa replied, "I won't say that. I will never say I would no longer practice Falun Gong." Since then the schoolmaster has not broached the subjected again.

One day in early 2000, Yawa was notified during dinner that her father was captured. In March, fellow practitioners from out of town had an experience-sharing meeting at Yawa's home. Police came and arrested all of them. The next day the police took her mother to their home and ransacked their house. Yawa's mother tried to stop their illegal action. One of the police officers opened a window and yelled at Yawa's mother, "Why don't you jump out the window. We'll report that you committed suicide!" He then opened the master electric switch box and said. "Why don't you electrocute yourself? Go right ahead!"

Seeing the police's outrageous actions, Yawa said to them sternly, "You can't do that! You don't even have a search warrant. You don't have any documentation. This is illegal!" One of the police officers replied, "Who said it's illegal? The government said that this is what we should do to Falun Gong followers."

The police wanted to leave after they found Falun Gong materials, but Yawa and her mother stood at the entrance to prevent them from taking the books. One of the police officers grabbed Yawa's mother's long braids and dragged her to the police station. Another police officers pulled Yawa's arms and threw her onto the bed. During the days when Yawa's mother was detained, the police came again and wanted to take her father away.

Young Falun Dafa Disciple Ji Yawa

Yawa felt that dreadful things would soon happen to her family. She wept and said to the police, "You arrested my mother. What should I do if you detain my father?" The police told her, "We'll just ask your father a few questions. He'll be back soon."

Yawa did not believe him and insisted on going with her father. The police forcibly took her father away. Yawa cried out, "My mother was arrested. I can't let my father leave me!" She held her father's hand and would not let go. The police still forcibly separated Yawa and her father.

Yawa's father was thus taken away and sent to a forced labor camp.

After Yawa's mother passed away and her father was sent to a labor camp, Yawa often dreamed of her mom and felt the saddest when her classmates' parents went to visit them. She has become quiet and is no longer the same child who was beaming in the older pictures. She said that she would continue to do what her mother had not been able to finish, which is to expose the evil persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

After Yawa's mother's death, her family members didn't want to cremate her body immediately. Yawa's relatives wanted to keep her body until after the New Year. However, the police and the responsible persons from the Township Business Bureau forcibly had her mother's body cremated after promising the family a pension.

It has been almost four years now since Lou Aiqing passed away. Yawa's family has not received a single penny. Time and time again, the elderly people of the household went to the Township Business Bureau supervisors to ask for the promised money. The supervisors always tried to evade them. Zhou Lizeng, the former assistant head of the bureau, was the one who assured that the pension would be paid. Now he would say, "The government caused Lou Aiqing's death. It didn't have anything to do with our bureau." As of now, they still owe Lou Aiqing ten months of salary and the pension they promised.

Yawa is only a fifteen-year-old girl. In the past five years she has witnessed the cruel persecution of her loved ones. It's really difficult to imagine how one day in the future Jiang's followers will face these kind-hearted people and their children or grandchildren.

Accounts of persecution suffered by Ji Yawa's family members

Ji Yawa's mother:

Ji Yawa's mother, practitioner Ms. Lou Aiqing, was a former employee of the Supply and Marketing Corporation of the Bureau of Township Enterprises in Weifang City, Shandong Province. Lou Aiqing was arrested many times because of her practice of Falun Gong, and her supervisors forcibly suspended her from her job many times. In October 2000 she was imprisoned for going to Beijing to request the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. Later, she was sentenced to incarceration in a forced labor camp for three years of forced labor. Lou Aiqing left her hometown to avoid being sent to the labor camp.

On December 20, 2000, at around seven p.m., Lou Aiqing and Xu Bing (Lou Aiqing and Xu Bing were murdered at the same time) posted signs that read "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and "Falun Dafa is a righteous way" in the Huangdao District in Qingdao City. They were arrested by Changjiang Road Police Station officers from the Huangdao District. The police used torture during interrogation, trying to find out the source of the Falun Gong materials they had and also their names and addresses. On December 22, the police found out the information after subjecting both Lou and Xu to excruciating abuse. Later, police in Weifang City sent them back to the Kuiwen District Detention Center. On December 25, at around 5:00 p.m., the police notified Lou's family that she had died at 6:00 a.m. on the 24^th (It was not until 36 hours later after Lou's death that the family was notified.) Lou's family members went to the crematorium the next day. The police had already been there, and Lou Aiqing was covered with thick make-up. Her family members found many wounds and bruises on her body.

At the crematorium, Ji Yawa found that her mother had bruises everywhere. There was a bruise the size of a foot on one of her thighs. She asked a police officer present named Gu Zhiyong about the injuries. Gu Zhiyong told her that Lou Aiqing was limping when she was sent back from Qingdao City and said nothing more.

Lou Aiqing's family members took photos of her body as evidence. When the police found out about this, they went into a panic. They sealed off the dorms of Lou Aiqing's work unit. Even elementary school kids were not allowed to go out. The police detained incoming and outgoing cars for questioning. The police station dispatched many policemen to search for the film Yawa's family had taken of her mother's body. The police station people threatened Lou Aiqing's family and her work unit. After being subjected to several hours of questioning and threats, Lou Aiqing's family had no other way out. They eventually submitted the negatives. The police station blocked any flow of information to the community. They claimed that Lou Aiqing had died of a heart problem and forced the two practitioners' families to cremate their bodies immediately. Xu Bing's eight-year-old son and Lou Aiqing's 11-year-old daughter thus lost their mothers. On December 28, 2000, Xu Bing's body was cremated. The next day, so was Lou Aiqing's body.

Yawa's father

Yawa's father, practitioner Ji Jun, was an official in the Township Business Bureau in Weifang City, Shandong Province. He was imprisoned many times because of his practice of Falun Dafa. In November 2000 he was sentenced to the Qingdao Forced Labor Camp for three years, where he suffered from all kinds of torture. He didn't know that his wife was killed while he was detained in the forced labor camp. The anguish that he suffered upon finding out about his wife's tragic death after his release was indescribable.

Yawa's Aunt

Yawa's aunt, practitioner Lou Hongmei, was subjected to criminal detention three times and administrative detention on many occasions. After her husband Li Tianmin was arrested, she was constantly harassed. Her telephone was tapped and her residence was monitored. Their private business, where they performed photocopying and typewriting services, was searched or shut down many times. They had to eventually hand over this business to others.

On October 27, 2000, Lou Hongmei was sentenced to three years of forced labor. Her husband was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. While Lou Hongmei was detained in the labor camp, her sister Lou Aiqing was tortured to death.

Ji Yawa's Uncle

Ji Yawa's uncle Li Tianmin is 37 years old. He used to be the Falun Dafa volunteer assistant for Weifang City. On July 20, 1999 he was arrested for "revealing state secrets," a charge which the court later declared invalid, and "organizing Falun Gong practitioners in Weifang City to take over and attack the city government." He has been imprisoned since then.

On February 2, 2000, the Weifang Intermediate Court sentenced him to four years of imprisonment. Li Tianmin defended himself in court. When the judge asked him to sign his name on the deposition record, Mr. Li rolled up his sleeves and pant legs, showing his injuries and bruises to the audience, "This is the result of their extorting confessions by means of torture." The audience members were astonished. The judge was dumbfounded and had nothing to say.

Li Tianmin suffered inhumane tortures in the prison. At the detention center he tried everything to gain the right to study the Fa and doing the exercises. He was eventually allowed to study the Fa and practice the exercises openly. At the Chinese New Year it was snowing hard in Weifang. He recited "Lunyu"[preface of the book Zhuan Falun] loudly when he was in an open space outside his cell, and sent greetings to Master and fellow practitioners in the detention center. One fellow practitioner was moved to tears when he heard Li's sincere voice. Whenever Li Tianmin was interrogated in the detention center, he took the opportunity to try to see and encourage fellow practitioners to remain steadfast.

In March 2000, Li Tianmin was sent to the Weibei Ranch in Weifang City and was detained there.

Li Tianmin's mother passed away two years after he was sentenced to imprisonment. In those two years she cried so much that she almost lost her eyesight. In the morning of the Chinese New Year she cried bitterly. When she heard that Lou Aiqing was tortured to death, she thought of her son in prison and her daughter-in-law in the forced labor camp. She could not sleep for days and subsequently went into a coma for three months. Li Tianmin's mother once said, "Tianmin is the best son, the most filial son among all my children." When Li Tianmin's mother was dying, her family members asked the Department of Public Security to let her meet her son before her death; however, the Department of Public Security were conducting their "discussion and investigation" at all levels for the matter and refused to authorize it. Li Tianmin's mother passed away without seeing her son.

Ji Yawa's Grandmother

Ji Yawa's grandmother, practitioner Fan Fumei, is 67 years old. In 2000 she was arrested and imprisoned for going to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. In the past several years, she suffered through the family tragedies of the death of her second daughter Lou Aiqing, her youngest daughter Lou Hongmei being sent to forced labor camp, and two son-in-laws being sentenced to imprisonment and sent to a labor camp. Hearing of their daughter's death, her husband stayed in bed without taking any food or drink for over four days.

Ji Yawa's Grandfather

Ji Yawa's grandfather is a new practitioner. Having experienced all of the family tragedies and faced with all these tremendous tribulations, he decided to choose the path of cultivation.

Telephone numbers of responsible persons in the Township Business Bureau and the Supply and Marketing Corporation of the Township Business Bureau in Weifang City:

Han Shujian (director of the bureau): 86-536-8240058 (Office) 86-13905369270
Zhou Lizeng (the former deputy director of the bureau): 86-536-8232260 (Office) 8253688 (Home)
Han Bingxin (the former manager of the Supply and Marketing Corporation): 86-536-8232260(Office) 8253688(Home)
Manager Liu (the current manager of the Supply and Marketing Corporation): 86-536-8232293(Office)
The Director's Office: 86-536-8237287, 86-536-8237294

Note: Lou Aiqing's former work unit: the Supply and Marketing Corporation of the Township Business Bureau in Weifang City
Chiefly responsible persons in Lou Aiqing's work unit: Zhou Lizeng, Han Bingxin
Chiefly responsible persons for Lou Aiqing's death: "610 Office" in the Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Changjiang Road Police Station, Huangdao District, Qingdao City, Public Security Detention Center in the Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Sun Kuizhen (head of the Public Security Detention Center, the Kuiwen District, Weifang City, responsible person in "Office for handling Falun Gong issues"