(Minghui.org) The eight-year-old boy whispered to his mother as the police stood nearby. “Don't be afraid, Mom.”
It was September 2001.
Ms. Han Aiwen jumped out a second floor window to escape the police when they tried to send her to a forced labor camp.
The 50-year-old Falun Gong practitioner had barely recovered from her injuries seven months later when she was taken into custody to serve out an illegal forced labor term.
Her son, in second grade at the time, had a high fever that day. He wouldn’t see his mother again for two and a half years.
When she returned home three years later in February 2003, Ms. Han was arrested again and given another 18 months of forced labor.
Her son was 14 when Ms. Han was released in 2007. He had suffered vicious bullying at school because of his mother’s belief and had turned into a rebellious teenager.
He failed his high school entrance exam and is now jobless without a diploma.
Ms. Han holds former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin responsible for her lengthy detention and her son’s miserable childhood.
She filed a criminal complaint in May 2015 against Jiang for launching the persecution of Falun Gong, which resulted in irreparable damage to her and her family.
Ms. Han took up the practice in 1996 when Falun Gong was popular and actively promoted at her workplace. She affirms that it had made her healthier and a better person.
“Many of my illnesses went away. I found peace with my mother-in-law. I bought birthday cakes for my in-laws, whom I hadn't talked to for years.” However Ms. Han's happiness did not last.
In April 1999, police illegally detained dozens of Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin. Ms. Han went to Beijing to appeal for their rights like many other practitioners. She became a target afterwards and was put under constant surveillance.
Three months later in July, the government officially banned Falun Gong. Ms. Han found herself working 14 hour days when others didn't have to work. Her supervisor used all sorts of excuses to keep her at work, just so she would not go to Beijing to appeal.
Ms. Han managed to go to Beijing in October, only to be brought back by police. She was detained for 10 days at Zhoucheng Detention Center.
Police arrested Ms. Han on September 10, 2001 and took her to Jining Detention Center, where she was forced into heavy labor without pay. She went on a hunger strike to protest the ill-treatment and was force-fed by inmates who had no medical training.
“One time, they inserted the feeding tube into my windpipe. It would have killed me if I hadn’t struggled to free myself,” she said.
When police tried to send her to Shandong No.1 Women's Labor Camp, Ms. Han jumped out a second floor window and injured her back and feet. She was taken to a hospital. Police extorted 2,000 yuan from her family before letting her go home. Ms. Han stayed home for several months to recover from her injuries.
“My son used to hold my neck and told me how much he wanted to have me around at that time,” said Ms. Han. But police soon sent her back to prison. She was released in February 2003, after eight months.
In 2006, Ms. Han was arrested again for putting up signs with the words “Falun Dafa is good.” She was given 18 months of forced labor at Shandong No. 1 Women's Labor Camp.
For the first three months in the prison, Ms. Han was confined to one room and was monitored 24/7 by four inmates and guards. She was not allowed contact with anyone else.
In that room, she was beaten and verbally abused daily. “When I refused to acknowledge that I was an inmate, I was not allowed to use the toilet, sleep, or wash, or anything else, for that matter. When I refused to put on the prison uniform, I was pushed to the ground and stripped naked, and left with only the prison uniform to wear,” she said. “I did not have the basic right to live like a human being. After three months of confinement, I had almost forgotten how to speak.”
She was also bombarded with propaganda 18 hours a day that defamed Falun Gong and its founder.
When she refused to give up her belief, she was subjected to torture. Ms. Han was forced to squat or sit on a small stool for prolong periods of time, she was deprived of sleep, and not allowed to wash or shower.
Later when she was put into a regular prison cell, she was required to work. “We got up at 5 a.m. and went to bed around 11 p.m.. Apart from three meals (each only took half an hour), we were working all the time.”
She developed a skin irritation and cough from working with possibly toxic material used for stuffed animals.
Ms. Han was released in November 2007, although she wasn't allowed to go back to work until 2009. The family was financially stranded.
When the persecution started, Ms. Han's son was only five years old. “It was two days before his eighth birthday, when I was taken to a detention center,” she said.
Ms. Han talked about his difficult childhood. “Because I was imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong, he was taunted by other students and teachers all the time. He grew up with constant fear and worry.”
Ms. Han's son is now 22. She worries about his future, “I wasn't around much to take care of him due to the persecution, and he has developed many bad habits. He didn't even get into high school, and he doesn't have a job.”
Ms. Han’s husband felt so helpless that he started to smoke and drink. Many of her relatives distanced themselves from her family.
Ms. Han's own father also practiced Falun Gong for a time. When the persecution started, he stopped out of fear. In 2013 when he was critically ill in the hospital, he said, “I have always known that Falun Gong is good!”
He tried to take up the practice again, but wasn't able to and passed away shortly.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.