More and More Practitioners Withdraw Statements Forced Through "Brainwashing"

"Transformation" refers to the use of physical and mental torture to force practitioners to sign statements to say that they will stop practising Falun Gong, or to sign statements slandering Falun Gong. This "brainwashing" process is so inhuman, so thorough, so heartless and so twisted, it is hard to communicate the truly horrifying implications behind this phrase. Every imaginable despicable and wicked psychological and physical torture technique is employed in coldly-calculated programmes designed to eat away at the souls of those who practice Falun Gong, to force them to give up their practise.

According to some Government and media reports in China, and some media reports outside China, the campaign of "transformation" of practitioners is a successful and effective one - the claim is that more and more practitioners are being "transformed". There is nothing at all to suggest this is true.

Practitioners who have buckled under the intense pressure of this "transformation" and signed statements saying they will give up practising Falun Gong, often deeply regret doing so afterwards. To retract their statements and to make public their intention to continue to practice Falun Gong and to appeal against the ban, they send public statments of retraction to a Falun Gong website. These are known as "Solemn Statements." Since they know that this website is accessible to those who persecute Falun Gong, these statements are an expression of enourmous courage, and are written in full knowledge of the fact that they may result in further detention and torture.

Statistics show that between early January, 2001 and October 29, 2001, over 41,500 people have published Solemn Declarations on Minghui Net - a Falun Gong website. These people declared in their statements that the brainwashing done by Jiang Zemin's regime is null and void.

In Mainland China, Jiang's regime strictly blocks the Internet and controls email at all costs. Even in such an environment, every day an average of 143 people have successfully published their solemn declarations on Minghui Net, overcoming many difficulties and taking the risk of being arrested, sentenced, and tortured to death. This fact has proved that suppression with violence and brainwashing with force have failed, thus verifying the famous words of the founder of Falun Gong: "Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts."

Category: Persecution in China
Posting Date: 10/30/2001
Source: Clearwisdom - 10/30/2001