A Peasant Dafa Practitioner's Appeal to be Allowed to Support his Family

I am a peasant, and not well educated. I didn't know much about Falun Gong before, but I witnessed that people who had practised Falun Gong became healthy, peaceful, and kind. In the past, the township officers had to collect the tax grain, [refers to agricultural tax paid in grain] one household after another. Even so, some peasants still didn't want to deliver the tax grain. However, after practising Falun Gong, these peasants began to actively deliver the tax grain of the best quality. Neighbours didn't fight over trivial matters any longer, and conflicts that had gone on for years among neighbours were resolved properly. Conflicts between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, and among sisters-in-law disappeared. All people began to get along well with each other. Later on, I started to practise Falun Gong as well. I don't lose my temper so easily now and I don't bully others any more.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the authorities wouldn't allow us to practise any more. Many practitioners, including many families, were sent to jail. As long as someone informed them that you practised Falun Gong, you were sent to jail right away. In one family, the mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, and daughter were all jailed, leaving a 90-year-old great grandma alone.

Everyone had to pay 6,000 Yuan (equal to one year's income of an average worker in China) after their detention was over. Without enough money, you were never released from the jail. If the police couldn't find the practitioner, they detained his or her family member as a hostage instead. They wouldn't release the hostage unless the practitioner turned him or herself in. I was puzzled at what I had seen. Why not allow people to practise such a good thing? It teaches people to be inclined toward goodness and become good people. Probably, the authorities did not know the truth; therefore, I went to Beijing in December of 2000, intending to report to the government what was happening in our county. However, just as I got off the train, a plain-clothes policeman approached me. Upon hearing that I was practising Falun Gong, he pushed me into a police car and sent me back to our local detention centre. I, together with other practitioners, suffered all different types of torture. It was common that they punched or kicked us violently. Once, with a board attached to each of us and without our coats on, we were paraded through all the streets and walkways in the cold snowy wind.

They also punished us by forcing us to kneel in the snow with only one sweater on. When we were frozen and our legs were totally numb they dragged us into the building. Some practitioners were tortured to the point of becoming mentally disordered. After a period of torture in one place, we were secretly sent to another place or another detention house. Even in the spring sowing season, they didn't let us go back. We are all peasants, living off farming, and we need to support our whole families, young and old. By keeping us in the detention centre for so long, we were forced to miss the farming season. How could our families survive? What was happening to the authorities? Why have they scattered and ruined good peoples' families? We ask for an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, and the unconditional release of all Dafa practitioners being unlawfully detained.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/12/29/17195.html