I first met Mr. Yu Zhou and his wife, Ms. Xu Na, on a mild winter afternoon. Ms. Xu had just been released from Beijing Women's Prison. She was thin, but her eyes were bright. I knew some of the suffering she had gone through during her five years in prison. Yu Zhou was tortured to death by the Communist regime on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Ms. Wang Pinrui, 21, is a Falun Gong practitioner living in Nongan County, Jilin Province. Because of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong, she was forced to leave school six months before the college entrance examinations. In order to elude the most recent round of persecution, Ms. Wang and her mother (who does not practise Falun Gong) left their home and travelled to Baicheng City, Jilin Province. But even there, the local police found her, verbally abused her, and her mother was slapped around while being accused of leading a Falun Gong group. Ms. Wang Pinrui is still detained in the Fifth Division of the Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp. She is often brutally beaten and has sustained many injuries to her face.

In March 2008, Sun Tangbin, director of the Economic Security Division at the Taoshan Police Branch in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province, was publicly exposed as being a major person responsible for the persecution and arrest of many Falun Gong practitioners. Director of the 610 Office Bi Shuqing threatened, "Do not expose me once I have released you, or I will arrest you again!" One practitioner was threatened as follows, "If your child exposes me, I will arrest you again!" The child had called Bi Shuqing because his mother was arrested, and said that if Bi did not release her, he would expose Bi's crimes on the Internet.

Ms. Li Chaoying, 65, went to Beijing to appeal in 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong but was taken back by the local government officials and held for two weeks. The officials deprived her of sleep during that time and tried to force her many times to write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Li appealed in Beijing again in 2001. She was taken back and held at the County Detention Centre where she was tortured. She was handcuffed, stretched on the "Death Bed", and frequently beaten.

Ms. Qi Suqin, 35, went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in December 2000 and was arrested and sent to a detention centre. Guards locked a dozen people in a small room that had only one large metal board bed. At night, if the guards discovered practitioners doing the Falun Gong exercises, they would order people to bring several basins of cold water to throw on the practitioners. Water ran all over the bed. The guards then turned on a fan to freeze the practitioners. In the winter, the radiator in the room was cold.

The Changchun Police Station has established a background check office in order to protect the Beijing Olympics. The office's activities include ID examination, review of relationships and backgrounds of coaches, athletes, volunteers, officers and individuals who plan to attend the Olympic games. One of their focal points is to identify Falun Gong practitioners and their relatives. State Security Brigade officers provide a list of practitioners and their social connections, and then monitor the people they've identified. If any of these people are Falun Gong practitioners or their relatives, they are disqualified from attending the Olympic games.

On May 26th, 2008, Mr. Liu Haibin was arrested by police officers and is being held in the Dongli District Detention Centre. According to inside information, ever since his arrest on May 26th, he has been on a hunger strike in protest. He has spoken only three sentences: "Falun Gong is good. 'Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance' is good. I am innocent." Back in October of 2000, Mr. Liu was sentenced to four years in prison for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong. While in prison, he suffered various forms of torture for not giving up his belief.

After the Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) County Council and the local government, 610 Office, Public Security Bureau, National Security Team, and all levels of village and town Party committees created a special squad dedicated to arresting and harassing Falun Gong practitioners under the pretext of "protecting the Olympics." They used a list of practitioners from 1999. Moreover, the local television station was used to manipulate local citizens into monitoring and reporting practitioners, and promised, at least in name, a reward of 5,000 yuan for each report.

Mr. Yang Weihua, 35, was arrested and detained three times in the past nine years. On June 27th, 2003, Mr. Yang and ten other practitioners entered Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. Guard Zhao Shuang (male) led a group of assistants to shock all the practitioners with electric batons for three hours. Guards tortured practitioners by almost suffocating them with plastic bags, shocking them with electric batons, brutally beating them, locking them in a "Small Cell". After being released, Mr. Yang's health worsened and he was in critical condition several times. He died on June 5th, 2008.

In September 2007, Ms. Dong Xuexia was arrested by the Nongken Police and taken to the Heping Ranch Detention Centre. During her 50 days of imprisonment, she was brutally tortured, severely beaten, and subjected to electric shocks. She was physically and mentally tormented to such a great extent that all of her hair fell out. The police did not let her leave until she was mentally traumatized. On June 5th, 2008, several officers from the Ranch Police Station again arrested Ms. Dong before she had completely regained her sanity. She is now detained in Heping Ranch Detention Centre.

Mr. Qin Sichao, 53, suffers from heart disease. Believing a Falun Gong amulet could cure his illness, Mr. Qin hung one in his car. Someone informed the police of this and on May 21st, 2008, Mr. Qin was tricked into going to the Linjiang building, where he was arrested and taken to Linjiang Detention Centre. On June 5th, 2008, Qin Sichao was sentenced to one year of forced labour. Mr. Qin's wife has not received any information regarding her husband.

The horrifying discovery of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners and the immediate cremation of their bodies to destroy the evidence was first reported on March 4th, 2006. The Falun Gong Association and the Minghui and Clearwisdom websites started the "Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China" (CIPFG). CIPFG is collecting evidence from people who have come forward with information and is calling on people who know the truth to further reveal the details of the crimes concerning illegal organ harvesting in China. We call on all people of conscience to help expose the facts of this vicious persecution of Falun Gong practitioners inside secret concentration camps, forced labour camps, prisons, and hospitals in China.

On December 30th, 2005, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Qingqing was taken back to her family in Fu'an City six months prior to the end of her five-year prison sentence. At that time, she was in very poor health. She was unable to walk or lift her left arm. Once, in Fujian Province Women prison Ms. Li was taken to a pitch-dark room where she was hung with her arms handcuffed and only her toes touching the ground for six days straight and another twenty-four days with her arms stretched horizontally. During these many days of horrible torture, she went on a hunger strike against the persecution for ten days. Seeing that she looked near-death, the Fujian Women's Prison sent her home to avoid taking any responsibility. She died six months later.

Mr. Zhang Xuefeng was arrested in February, 2001. He was then sentenced to eight and a half years of imprisonment. Mr. Zhang has now been imprisoned for seven years, during which time his family has been persecuted in other ways as well. These past seven years have been a time of great stress for Mr. Zhang's 14-year-old soon. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, his grandfather was taken away to a brainwashing centre while both his parents were in prison. Only nine years old at the time, he had to get to school by himself. Because of the long-term persecution of the whole family, the boy is easily scared by the ring of a phone or a knock on the door.

Over the past nine years, I have been detained, arrested, harassed, and sent to a forced labour camp. In August 2000, in Shuanghe Forced Labour Camp I was taken to a solitary cell. On the floor was a layer of wooden boards with an iron ring. There was nothing else in the cell. They had me sit on the wooden boards and handcuffed my hands behind my back and to the iron ring. I could not stretch my back or legs. I was forced to curl up and could not move a bit. When they closed the door, I could not see any sunlight. I could hardly breath. They would keep me from going to sleep for 24 hours around the clock. I was not allowed to wash my face or brush my teeth. Someone would give me two small meals a day and I was always hungry.

On May 23rd, 2008, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Zhouyu was arrested and taken to the local police station by approximately 20 police officers. During this time, he was handcuffed, deprived of sleep and beaten to try to force a "confession" from him. On May 25th, the police began to beat Mr. Zhang again. They forced him to sit on the ground with his legs and arms held out straight in front of him. If he could not hold his arms up at an even level, the officers would beat his arms, hands and feet with a rubber stick. After two hours of constant beatings, Mr. Zhang could not sit still.

I spent two years at the Zhuhai Detention Centre. During my detention, I produced all kinds of plastic flowers. Some had an electronic device for playing music. In addition, I made colourful lamp strings, and pearl strings, for desk lamps and other uses. All products were exported. As a matter of fact, the prison benefits more from producing items for export, therefore the quotas were continually increased. After I came to the United States, I saw many of these plastic flowers and colourful lamp strings with the label "Made in China" in supermarkets.

From May to June, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has disseminated propaganda throughout China that slanders Falun Gong and intensifies the persecution of practitioners. The CCP has also planned the arrest of Falun Gong practitioners in different government organizations. Recently the Taiyuan Police Department of Shanxi Province has arrested about twenty Falun Gong practitioners.

Agents from the 610 Office of Tianjin City arrested practitioners in the name of preparing for the Olympic Games. There are 21 practitioners listed on the name register of Dagang District. Zhang Gaoli, chief of Chinese Communist Party in Tianjin City, secretly came to Dagang District to assume personal command, compelling work units, families and individuals to promise they would not go out to participate in group activities or appeal to the government or other things of this nature. The Political and Judiciary Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of Dagang District, Tianjin City, 610 Office, and the police participated in these arrests and the harassment of Falun Gong practitioners.

There are chopsticks with red, green, blue, yellow and other coloured heads produced in the Third Detention Centre of the Changchun Public Security Bureau. Currently, there are dozens of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police. The inmates are forced to get up at six o'clock every morning, and have only five minutes to wash and gargle. They then have to work on the bed where they sleep and eat. A toxic-smelling glue is used to attach a small flower and leaf made of polyester to the ends of the chopsticks. There are 125 units per bundle, eight bundles per box, a standard box is 1000 chopsticks.

Ms. Xiao Sumin was a 46-year-old practitioner. On May 30th, 2008, she was arrested and detained. After enduring more than two weeks of non-stop torture, Ms. Xiao's life was in eminent danger. Guards were forced to take her to intensive care at the hospital, where she was immediately put on oxygen. However, due to the severe torture she had previously suffered, she died within 3 weeks. Her body was quickly cremated on June 21st, 2008.

On June, 6th, 2008, more than a dozen police officers from Laishui County arriving in three vehicles harassed many Falun Gong practitioners and ransacked their homes. The officers claimed that they were from Hebei Province, Baoding City and Laishui County. Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Helin was supporting the victims of the terrible earthquake in Sichuan Province with donations. For some reason, his kind actions were construed as a "crime" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They claimed that Mr. Zhang must be a Falun Gong leader because he had donated lots of money. As a result, his home was ransacked by police officers.

The Olympic torch relay was scheduled to pass through Yueyang City, Hunan Province on June 3rd, 2008. On June 1st and June 2nd, members of the Yueyang City 610 Office arrested 25 practitioners. The police also searched the practitioners' homes. Orders were given to Party officials to keep an eye on each practitioner on file. The officials spread the rumour that it was mandatory to prevent Falun Gong followers from disrupting the Olympic torch relay. An all-out campaign was launched to arrest practitioners. Each practitioner on file was closely followed or watched. The officials even threatened some practitioners to prevent them from leaving home.

Mr. Yu Qingyuan is a Falun Gong practitioner who was arrested by the police on the train in May 2008. On the evening of April 23rd, 2008, police arrested Mr. Yu's wife Yuan Shujun. Later, Ms. Yuan Shujun escaped from the Shuanliao Detention Centre and then abandoned her home to avoid further persecution. Mr. Yu's daughter has been traumatized by this series of events. Presently, Mr. Yu's father-in-law takes care of Mr. Yu's daughter and their life is very difficult.

Mr. Yu Zhou, a well-known Chinese folk singer and a Falun Gong practitioner, died six months ago. His death has raised concerns around the world regarding the severe human rights violations in China. Mr. Yu's wife, Ms. Xu Na, is still imprisoned. Ms. Xu's elderly parents are seeking justice for their daughter and son-in-law. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) perpetrators found no "evidence" when ransacking Yu Zhou and Xu Na's home. They found only money bills on which were written messages exposing the persecution of Falun Gong that are circulated widely in China and cannot be counted as "valid evidence." Ms. Xu's trial has been put on hold because the regime is afraid of attracting international attention to her and her deceased husband's circumstances.

On February 12th, 2002, Mr. Jiang Honglu was severely wounded by gunshots fired by Meng Qingqi (male), Director of the Politics and Security Office of the Mishan City Police Department. In October, 2002, Mr. Jiang was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and for the past six years he has been in the Mudanjiang Prison. Mr. Jiang is very thin, suffers from severe malnutrition, and has difficulty speaking clearly. Mr. Jiang's life is in danger.

Mr. Wu Wenfeng, a blind Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested in June 2008 at an elderly people's centre by police from the Xinjieji Police Station on June 5th, 2008. Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Wu has also been often persecuted. On September 22nd, 2003, Mr. Wu was transferred to Dongsheng elderly people's centre where he was detained and closely monitored. One policeman from the 610 Office told him, "We will lock you up here until you die."

I am not a practitioner, but I was once detained in the Chuanxi Prison, and I personally witnessed how the police persecuted Falun Gong practitioners who were jailed there. In 2005, a Falun Gong practitioner was tortured to death in the Chuanxi Prison. In order to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners, the police physically tortured them. They hung the practitioners by their handcuffed wrists from window frames for ten or fifteen days and didn't let them down. The practitioners were also deprived of sleep. Their strong wills when facing tyranny and their peaceful minds and pure hearts in adhering to Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance greatly touched me.

On December 14th, 2007, practitioners Ms. Liu Yanchang and Ms. Wang Yingxia were arrested by the Tongjiang City police and severely beaten. The following day, Yang Hua (male), the deputy director of the Tongjiang City Detention Centre, mercilessly beat Ms. Wang Yingxia. Seven days later, Ms. Liu went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Yang then incited inmate Fu Guoshan to brutally attack Ms. Liu. On May 5th, 2008, practitioners Ms. Wang Yinghua and her sister, Ms. Liu Yanwei, were again arrested. Four days later, Yang savagely beat them, too.

Ms. Qi Yunping is a teacher. On July 23rd, 2007, she was arrested by five police officers and taken from her home to a detention centre. After she was severely tortured and mistreated, she went on a hunger strike for a month. During that period, she was brutally force-fed, which resulted in additional physical and emotional abuse. Later, the agents from the Haixing County Court held a secret trial where they planned to sentence Ms. Qi. She told the officers that it was not a crime to be steadfast in your faith and that they should stop persecuting her immediately. The trial abruptly ended halfway through.

For the two years from late 2005 to July 2007, practitioner Ms. Piao Lihua from Shijingshan, Beijing served a sentence in a forced labour camp. The police recently attempted to arrest Ms. Piao again, using the Olympic games as an excuse. The police have also harassed and threatened Ms. Piao's fifteen-year-old daughter while attempting to find Ms. Piao. They also went to Ms. Piao's parents and sister's house to harass them, severely interfering with their everyday lives.

Around May 14th, 2008, Jiang Qixiang, a doctor from the Baoxia Town Clinic, was secretly taken into custody by agents from the 610 Office. His wife is also missing, and it's likely that she was also taken. There has been no news from the two since. Previously, in December, 2000, Jiang Qixiang went to Beijing to petition for justice for Falun Gong and was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp. His wife was also sentenced to a labour camp, which left their children at home without care. Guards tortured him by tying up his arms and legs, depriving him of sleep, forcing him to stand for long periods of time, beatings and forced labour.

In 2001 I was arrested by police because I practise Falun Gong. In the detention centre, the guards forced us to perform hard labour daily. We had to meet a high quota. We hand crafted flowers for funerals. We were forbidden to do the Falun Gong exercises. I did the exercises anyway, so the guards beat me. The guards treated me brutally. They handcuffed me to an iron bed, and chained my feet to it. When the guards gave me an intravenous injection, they claimed that they were trying to find the blood vessel. They hit my wrists heavily. My hands hurt a lot from these beatings. The guards used the thickest feeding tube they could find to force-feed me. They took pleasure in making me feel pain.

On March 12th, 2008, Ms. Lu Yanling, a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested by three police officers from the Nancheng Police Station and a group of police officers from the State Security Division. She was detained in Nanshan Detention Centre, where she developed serious heart disease and other problems due to ill-treatment. Under the pretext of medical treatment, the authorities of the Shulan City Procuratorate transferred her to the Changchun City Police Hospital for further detention and abuse. At present, she is critically ill.