(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 1) Many Falun Gong practitioners have recounted how their lives changed for the better by practicing Falun Gong. They tell how, when they were imprisoned for their faith, they were able to change inmates and often guards in prisons and detention centers. They clarify the truth to awaken people’s consciences and prevent them from harming practitioners. One such practitioner shares her story, which continues below.
Validating Falun Dafa in a Forced Labor Camp
More than 80 practitioners from our county went to the State Bureau of Letters and Call [a petitioning bureau] on August 2, 2000, asking to restore the innocence of Falun Dafa, and that of the Master of Falun Dafa, as well as the unconditional release of all the detained practitioners.
Afterward, the Domestic Security Division asked a practitioner to identify me in a photo taken at the scene. They used this as evidence that I had organized the petition. I was arrested on August 7, 2000, and detained in a detention center where I was interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Team and the Domestic Security Division jointly. Four groups of people took a turn to grill me overnight. I was not allowed to sit down. My feet were swollen so severely that I could not wear shoes. They wanted me to name the other people who discussed the matter at my home.
The next day, after 8:00 am, the director of the police department came and asked if I had said anything. The police on duty said, “Not a word.” The director was so furious that he slapped me a few times. Then, I was taken to a forced labor camp on August 17, 2000, where I was detained for three years.
Master said,
“Cultivation is hard. It’s hard in that even when a terrible calamity strikes, even when evil madly persecutes, and even when your life is at stake, you still have to be able to steadfastly continue on your path of cultivation without letting anything in human society interfere with the steps you take on your path of cultivation.” (“Path,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
After arriving at the forced labor camp, I did not forget that I was a Dafa practitioner and wanted to prove the goodness of Falun Dafa on various occasions.
Validating the Fa During a Celebration
On the eve of the birthday anniversary of the communist regime's head in 2001, the labor camp prepared a celebration. Some practitioners believed that this was an opportunity to validate the Fa and made a banner. When we arrived at the meeting, we recited the Fa in our hearts. While the inmates were concentrating on listening to the speaker, a banner with “Falun Dafa is good” was suddenly shown, which stunned the guards and inmates. About 10 minutes later, they realized what happened. They tried to grab the banner.
I held on to one end of the banner and refused to let it go. At this time, the sounds of “Falun Dafa is good” guards’ beating practitioners, and inmates’ cursing were heard. It was chaos. On the surface, it looked chaotic, but in reality, Master was protecting us. A team leader of the inmates was next to me. She was desperately trying to fight me off. A male guard team leader grabbed her hair and dropped her on the ground. Then he started kicking her again and again. Then she came to her senses and shouted to the team leader, “Stop kicking, stop kicking. I'm one of yours!” That was the end of the meeting.
When Forming One Body, Evil Perishes
The highest priority for the labor camp was preventing practitioners from forming one body. I arrived at the labor camp with nine other practitioners from other areas. We were assigned to a class, separating us from the other practitioners in the labor camp. I shared with fellow practitioners in the class that we needed to start a hunger strike to protest this. The team leader called me to her office to find out why I organized a hunger strike. I was not moved by her fierce look.
I told her, “This is not the place we should stay in. We want to be with the rest of the people.” She told me that one is not allowed to talk to anyone at that place.
“This is not in the Constitution,” I said. “The Constitution guarantees citizens freedom of belief. We are good people, but locked up here.”
She took me back to the cell and claimed that I would be allowed to be with others the next day.
Everywhere I went, an inmate would follow me. I said to her, “I'm not a bad person. Don't keep following me. Otherwise, I'll shout 'Falun Dafa is good.'" Then she no longer followed me.
I was asked to do some small jobs. I thought that this was a good thing, as it would allow me to see other practitioners. The New Year came. We felt sad. Our Master (the founder of Falun Dafa) was still suffering the injustice, and so many practitioners were still being persecuted. We had no appetite.
At 5 a.m. fellow practitioners from the 12 classes started to memorize Master's articles together. The team leader of each class could only stay outside and did not dare to enter the cell, because every practitioner in the room was reciting the Fa. They did not dare to open the door, either. Because we would shout, “Falun Dafa is good.” if we left the room. The regular inmates became excited and listened silently. Later they recited the Fa with us. Several days passed. Whenever we started to recite the Fa, the loudspeaker in the room would broadcast with a deafening volume. But, it did not bother us a bit.
One morning, the team leader took us to the large dining hall. Once we arrived there, we immediately formed a large circle holding hands and began to recite Master's articles again. The voice from more than 100 people from 12 classes shook heaven and earth. The team leader on duty called the director of the labor camp. The director came in and looked around and said, “Don't bother them. Whoever touches them will be in trouble!” We realized that evil factors were eliminated as soon as we formed one body to validate the Fa.
Master Opened My Handcuffs
I was in class 12. Our class was facing the entrance. As soon as the guards pulled a practitioner out of her class, our class would shout, "Beating is not allowed!"
One day in the spring of 2001, we saw a lot of practitioners being pulled out from their classes. Our shouting didn't work this time. I tried hard to bend the iron bars' windows. I tried three times. The bars were bent with Master's help. I said, “Let's get out and stop them.”
At this point, male team leaders came to my class. They were dragging practitioners to the outside. We all knew whoever was pulled out would be persecuted. Guards tried to pull practitioners out, and we tried to hold them back. During this process, the glass on the door shattered and cut the hand of a male team leader.
He dragged me out and took me towards the large vegetable garden. On the way, I saw two guards dragging the two feet of a practitioner on the ground—her clothes were torn. I shouted, “Where are your feet, fellow practitioners? Why do you let others drag you that way?” The guard let go of his hands, and the practitioner stood up.
I solemnly said to the team leader, “We have left our families so that you may know that Falun Dafa is good and you would stay alive in the future. But you keep committing bad deeds without listening to our advice. What you have done will be recorded in the annals of the history of the universe!”
The team leader could not say a word. He slapped me twice, and then handcuffed me to a persimmon tree. Another team leader whose finger was broken could not vent his anger. He re-handcuffed my hands behind my back so that I had to kneel.
From the guards talking, I learned that every persimmon tree was used to handcuff practitioners to it. I shed tears, and said, “What sins have all of you committed!” When the director of the labor camp came over, the team leader with the broken finger said, “She's crying for us.” The director said, “Bring her back.” Before the guard could open my handcuffs it opened by itself with a click sound. I handed the handcuffs to the guards. Everyone was stunned. One of them said, “Your Master opened this for you?” I said, “Yes.”
Disintegrating the Transformation Class
The Goyang Forced Labor Camp was well known nationally for persecuting practitioners. Many practitioners who were firm on Dafa were forced to give up their belief here. It claimed that every practitioner in this place would be “transformed”. To achieve the 100% transformation rate, some practitioners were tortured to death, some were severely injured during the brutal brainwashing process. Some suffered a mental breakdown. The torment turned some into a vegetable. It was hell on earth!
The environment was terrible. The steamed buns were hard and black. There was no vegetable dish, only a small bowl of soup with each meal, containing a few leaves of vegetables, a layer of greasy worms on top, and a layer of fine sand on the bottom.
Six of us were transferred there in the summer of 2001. Four people could not stand the pressure and gave up their belief within two days. On June 29, I was taken to the “Transformation” Class ("Strict Control Team"). The previous “transformation” class would not end unless a 100% “transformation” rate was reached.
The team leader of the “transformation” class was Liu, and the hatchet man was Zhao Jun, a female inmate. All practitioners were forced to sleep on the ground. The weather was hot and humid. Mosquitoes were especially abundant. We had to use toilet paper to plug our ears to be able to fall asleep. The mosquitoes and bugs sometimes got into our comforters. Every day the person on duty would use the iron dustpan to clean up the bugs. We got up at 5 a.m. and went to bed at midnight every day. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep if they resisted the brainwashing.
Practitioners had to sit on a small stool for 20 hours. The upper body had to be straight, both legs together, both palms facing down on the knees, both eyes forward to watch the slandering video. If a practitioner lost concentration or fell asleep, Zhao Jun would hit the practitioner with the soles of her shoes, and the team leader would use an electric baton to punish the practitioners. Sometimes, we were tortured with the method “flying an airplane” [the body is bent downward, the upper body and thighs parallel, and the arms straight upward]. Sometimes we were even forced to write words that slandered Dafa. If we missed one word, we were punished with 10 minutes less sleep. We had so many sleepless days and nights.
Since I refused to admit that I violated any state law, the team leader wouldn't let me eat the pickles. She said I could eat whenever I changed my mind. Sometimes we were punished and had to squat for one entire day. At that time, Master had not published the article about sending forth righteous thoughts. We did not know what to do. But the three months of sleeplessness was too much to bear. I took the opportunity of going to the bathroom to tell everyone that we should let Zhao Jun be punished. We transferred the suffering of sleeplessness to Zhao Jun, and immediately dismantled this “transformation” class!
That night, Zhao Jun paid for her brutal deeds. She was reported to have broken her arm on the way to fetch water. When she returned, she lay in bed, saying that she felt terrible, and wanted to sleep. The next day another team leader came for her shift, but Zhao was still sleeping. The team leader gestured for us to get out. When we returned after half-a-day she was still sleeping. After that, she did not have any energy to beat us.
On September 23, the "transformation" class was disbanded entirely. Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp's 100 percent transformation rate was no more.
Young Woman Protects Practitioners
I was then taken back to the “transformation” class in the spring of 2002. I was forced to dig a big trench during the day and write thought reports at night. If I refused to write, I was left standing all night and not allowed to go to the toilet. Since I didn't cooperate, the division head Ye Shuxian was furious and said, “You old bag. Why won't 'transform'.? With you here, none of them will 'transform.' Get out of here!”
I was taken back to my class. A young woman from Henan Province was in charge of monitoring me. She was incarcerated for stealing. I was nice to her and took care of her in everyday life. I told her about the relationship between loss and gain and taught her to memorize the Fa. She quickly understood that Falun Dafa is good.
By this time, I had already been brutally tortured. I could not see, had headaches, and was covered in pus and blood. Guards took me to a hospital. The doctor asked the police, “She cannot see. Why didn't you bring her in sooner! There is no place on her body that isn't affected.”
The next day, the labor camp called my county's police department and told them to get my family to take me home. Many of my relatives came. They could hardly recognize me. At this time, the team leader insisted that I write the statement to give up Falun Gong or they would not let me leave the labor camp. I refused. My family waited from noon to 3:00 p.m. But the labor camp did not let me go without the statement. My family left worrying about me. The team lead on duty slapped me 16 times after they left.
Although I was already fragile, the labor camp did not leave me alone. Fearing that they would be held responsible for the consequences, they brought doctor Wang Guoyou and a team leader whose family name was Zhao. But they did not stop persecuting me.
One morning, doctor Wang ordered an inmate to help me into an empty room. They made me sit down with both legs straight while two male prisoners stepped on them and female team leader Zhao tugged my head from behind. The doctor started to shock me with an electric baton, beginning at my feet. He said to the practitioner next to me, “Whoever doesn't 'transform' will be next!”
Although I couldn't see, I learned there was a practitioner nearby. I was afraid that the practitioner was frightened, so I gritted my teeth and didn't make a sound. When Wang saw that I was so strong, he called Liang Baoke, the team leader of a men's team. Both of them tortured me with two electric batons. They did not stop until I was having spasms, started shaking, and passed out.
They started to torture me again when I regained consciousness. The inmate from Henan suddenly cried, “Team leader, I beg you to stop. She treats us like a mother. Please, please!” The guards were stunned. This inmate used to beat practitioners for them. That day she asked them to stop. Team leader Zhao did not say a word and walked to a window to look outside. Later, she gave orders that I be taken back.
The soles of my feet were blistered. My toes were swollen very badly. I couldn't get out of bed or walk for half a month. On January 19, 2003, I was released and went home.
This is only a fragment of my experience as a Dafa practitioner who validated the Fa at the beginning of the persecution. The Fa-rectification is approaching the end. We must treasure every minute, which Master has extended for us. We need to cultivate well, walking righteously on the final leg of the journey.
(The end)
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