I'm Li Xiaocui, a female Falun Dafa practitioner from Henan Province. Because I was determined in Falun Dafa, the authorities sentenced me to three years of forced labour. Over four years of brutal torture has caused both my feet and legs to become chronically numb, swollen, and painful. Although I was not killed by the abuses, I am disabled and unable to work. My husband, terrified by my arrest and detention, died three years ago due to mental anguish. Now I only have a lonely daughter at home, who is suffering from the harm inflicted on our family.

Since July 20, 1999, the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang Zemin regime, her family has suffered a great deal. Her brother was choked to death during force feeding torture. Her younger sisters were sentenced to prison and forced labour camp. Her son was cruelly tortured to the brink of death. Ms. Lu was dismissed from her job at the school and was detained many times. The following is the story of Ms. Lu and her family.

"Then they forced my legs into the lotus sitting position, with one leg first on top of the other thigh and tied together, then pulled the other leg from underneath to the top of the first thigh. They pulled the straps up, while they pressed my legs down by stepping on them with their feet. They used so much force to pull my legs that my two legs were almost overlapping. It was very painful. Then they tied my legs tightly together. Finally, they used the last piece of strap left from the thigh to fasten my neck into a position that made my head bend toward my legs. Thus, my whole body was tied up into a ball."

My wife is a Falun Gong practitioner, while I am not. After July 20, 1999, the police from Shenzhou City have come to harass my family many times. They have broken into my house and ransacked it and have abducted and detained my wife illegally. They also fined me 885 yuan. During my wife Li Bo's detainment, I could hardly take care of my family. My 14-year-old daughter is paralyzed and bedridden and my 11-year-old son is a student. The heavy burden of life all weighed down on me.

"I have been disabled since being tortured by police in 2002. Besides having been personally caused great mental and physical harm, the persecution against me has also greatly pained and burdened my family and friends, especially my mother. She had already suffered through the horror of my father being tortured during the Cultural Revolution until he was permanently disabled. And now, as an added burden, she has to face the horror repeating itself, with her son becoming disabled as a result of police torture, simply for practising Falun Dafa. Her anguish and suffering are hard to describe."

My name is He Lizhi. After suffering prison life for three and a half years in China, thanks to the help of the international community, I came to Canada this May. Practitioners and the Canadian Government made arduous efforts to rescue us. After my release, I was granted priority by the Canadian Immigration Ministry. Now I have reunited with my wife after three years and ten months separation. I was greatly moved by these kind people's actions for justice, and hereby cordially express my gratitude.

Dear Mum and Dad: How are you? I have not been able to see you for several years. I miss you very much in my heart. I have personally experienced the persecution of Falun Gong over the nightmarish last five years. I am a Falun Gong practitioner and have the responsibility to protect Dafa. Since you were cheated and deceived by lies, and because you have fostered the old concept of "people do not fight with their governors" deep in your minds all these years, you could not understand what I do.

"My name is Liu Cuiqing. I live in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. I was arrested by the police for printing materials that explain the truth about Dafa. Eight people assaulted me. I was secretly sentenced to three years of forced labour, and put me in Kaiping Labour Camp. In the labour camp, the methods they used to persecute practitioners were very cruel. My family members also went through tremendous suffering."

"I would like to tell you about the death of three practitioners, Ms. Zhang Yali, Ms. Zhang Baoju, and Ms. Guan Ge in a labour camp. Zhang Baoju said, "We cannot just watch our fellow practitioners be tortured and forced to renounce their belief''. They all wrote their wills, which stated, "This is not suicide. We do this under the circumstance where the evildoers rampantly persecute practitioners. we all know that Teacher states clearly in "Zhuan Falun" [the main text of Falun Dafa] about the issue of killing...we are willing to give up our young lives." The three of them hanged themselves on June 4, 2003."

"I am 66 years old and am the former chief of the Research Institute of Ningan Paper Mill in Heilongjiang Province.On February 3, 2001 while I was at my relative's home, police arrested me for no reason and took me to the detention centre of the Dongli Police Department. On November 19, 2001, they sentenced me to four years of imprisonment. This is very unjust. I did not commit any crime."

In their closing arguments, the public prosecutor could not find anything to rebut and became very upset. When the court adjourned, the public prosecutor asked his staff, "Isn't there a regulation saying that lawyers cannot defend Falun Gong practitioners who plead not guilty? Who authorised that lawyer to defend the Falun Gong practitioner?" That same day, Attorney Wei's home phone, cell phone and office phone were monitored. After a few days, the police went to the Judiciary Bureau and asked the bureau to suspend his license to practise law and sentence him to three years of forced labour reform.

"Later, the police drove me to a remote location to continue to abuse me. They found some hard and strong nylon rope that is used specifically for the boating and fishing industry. They suspended the rope from a roof-level heater pipe and hung me up, with both arms tied, and poured water over my face. The police then located two plastic rectangular "barrels" full of water, each able to hold about 40 to 50 jin [approximately 45 to 55 lbs.]. They said, "Since your are female, we will fill them slightly less." I was tired and in pain, carrying two barrels of water which weighed almost 100 lbs., across my shoulder."

"My name is Zhang Peng. I am a 29 years old, male, living in Hunan Province and I was a lecturer in the Electric Engineering Department, Nanhua University. In February of 2001 I was abducted in Changsha City. I was tortured, coerced and framed. On November 2, 2001, they convened a "court session" for Ding Shikun, Li Xuexian and me. On the 9th, a so-called "court verdict" sentenced me to ten years; Ding Shikun was given a nine- year sentence and Li Xuexian was given seven years because we refused to give up practising Falun Dafa.

"On July 2, 2002, people from the Police Department in Haozhou City, broke into my office. They took me to the Longhua Hotel and tried to force me to confess that it was illegal to talk about Falun Gong and the persecution to others. They continued to persecute my family and me for 6 days and finally sentenced me to 5 years in prison. My husband was terrified and shocked. Even though it has been a year now, he is still badly traumatized. My daughter was traumatized mentally and physically. She cried the whole day after she got home and often woke up from nightmares."

"On March 20, 2002, I was walking on the street when officials from the District Political and Judiciary Committee grabbed my mobile phone from me and threw me into a police van. They took me to a Police Station, where they handcuffed me for at least four hours and then sent me to Bozhou City Custody Centre for months of detention. On June 12 of that year, they sent me again to the custody centre. I have been continuously held since then, suffering terrible brutalities"

"When I returned home on February 18, 2004, there were many policemen there. They confiscated many Dafa truth-clarification materials. Then, they forcefully took me to a Police Station in Qinhuangdao City. Police sergeant Wang said "It's time. Take out the rope." An officer gave him a piece of thin, green plastic rope. He said, "This rope is covered with many practitioners' blood." Two policemen constantly hit my arms. Wang yelled, "Tell me where you got the materials!" I replied, "I picked them up somewhere. I don't know anyone." The other policemen stopped hitting me. Wang called out, "Release her."

At the front of the parade was a Falun Gong practitioner carrying a sign that bore the large-sized Chinese character for “Mourning.” It was solemn and heartrending . As I watched the female practitioners attired in long, snow-white dresses, holding photos of the Falun Gong practitioners that had been tortured to death by the police in China, tears welled up in my eyes. All the people in the pictures were beaming with a glow of kindness. You could tell that they were not only innocent and law-abiding civilians, but also honest and trustworthy people.

My name is Lu Yanna, and I am a Falun Gong practitioner. Because my husband Diao Xihui and I persisted in our belief in Truthfulness - Compassion - Tolerance, appealed according to the law and clarified the facts of Falun Gong, we have suffered from persecution. Now, we are imprisoned illegally and have lost our personal freedom, so I am unable to take care of my less than one-month daughter, Shanshan, in person and have been forced to hand over Shanshan to my husband's mother for foster care.

"My name is Liu Liang and I live in Jiaozhou City. I started practising Falun Dafa in 1997, when I was fifteen years old. Since I began following the principles of Falun Dafa, my teachers, parents and my classmates recognized me as a good student, a good son, and a good classmate. At the end of July 1999, I went to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing. I was sent to the Changping Detention Centre. I was burned by a policeman with a lit cigarette on my wrist, which left three marks."

My name is Chen Teng, and I am 16 years old. I live in Weifang City, Shandong Province. My family was broken up simply because they remained determined to practise Falun Gong, the practice which brought us such happiness. My grandma, who was an outstanding teacher and my aunt who was also a teacher both died as a result of the persecution. My mum, Sun Xiaomei was arrested many times and now is in detention again. As for myself, I can't go to school any more and I was forced to leave my home when I was 12 years old.

She was unable to lie down day or night and could only lean against something for a moment. Even in this condition, the local police still came to harass her. I feel all these facts must be documented to let the world know. Someone who had been healthy in body and spirit, a good and kind soul, had been persecuted to such a deplorable condition, and only because she practiced Falun Dafa. This is the truth that will expose the lies told to the world.

Many people in Yupin County of Guizhou Province know Mr. Zhao Youde. The changes he showed after beginning Falun Dafa practice are so touching that the officers in the police station also admire him. When Jiang's regime began persecuting Falun Gong, Zhao Youde was illegally arrested and has been cruelly persecuted by Jiang's regime. He was locked up and told he would be detained for eight years. Zhao Youde's parents died one after the other, grieving over such wrongs, and having nowhere to appeal for their son's innocence.

"Toward the end of 2002 in Masanjia's Second Women's Camp, the police were forcing Falun Dafa practitioners to renounce their belief, while horror could be felt everywhere. The police carried handcuffs and ropes with them. The authorities were going wild. I now stay on the first floor. This is the floor where the tortures take place. Observing the unwavering Dafa practitioners being persecuted until their last, weak breaths and until they are mentally unstable is horrifying to watch"

"My name is Wen Huiying. I'm a retired worker from the Taoyuan County Shipping Company in Changde City, Hunan Province. Because I believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, I was unjustly and brutally persecuted by Jiang's regime. I have been arrested and detained many times since the persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999. Twice I was sentenced to a forced labour camp. Now I am homeless and have to move from one place to another in order to escape the persecution. At home, I have an eighty-year-old father-in-law who needs my care. My husband has several dislocated vertebrae and has problems taking care of himself. My son is working out of town and my family needs my care. But I'm forced to drift from one place to another and cannot return home."

"In August of 2001, because of printing Dafa banners, I was arrested by the police and brought to the Yangpu Detention Centre. In order to isolate Dafa practitioners from each other, each prison cell only holds one practitioner while the rest of the inmates are criminals who have committed various crimes. Each cell measures less than 16 square meters [approximately 160 square feet]; excluding the pit-type lavatory, the area for sitting and sleeping is very small. With more than twenty inmates detained in a cell, fights broke out every day; very often we would be awakened in the middle of the night by the noise of fighting and shouting due to someone's loud snoring or arguments from inmates trying to get more sleeping space."

"On the night of April 29, 2004, I went to Hong Kong via China Airlines to attend a Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference legally permitted by the Hong Kong government. I was issued an entry permit by the Hong Kong government a week prior to my trip. However, when I entered customs, I was immediately escorted by the airport police to a small room and searched. I asked them in surprise, "Will it always be like this to enter Hong Kong in the future?" They replied, "This is just a routine inspection." I asked again, "Which Hong Kong law have I breached for you to treat me like this?" They answered, "Sorry, we are just conducting a routine inspection.""

"One practitioner who was interrogated during the daytime on the second day was a girl about 20 years old. After she came back from interrogation, her clothes were messed up and her hair was dishevelled. She seemed to have changed into another person, and she was seriously hurt physically and mentally. I asked another practitioner what had happened to the girl, and she said, "The police took off all of her clothes and forced her to sit in the snow for 2-3 hours. The most evil thing was that the policemen ordered drug-addicts and prostitutes to burn her private parts with lit cigarettes..." This practitioner was overcome with grief and could not continue to describe the torture that happened to the young girl."

In Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, there is a 60-year-old grandmother who has had money extorted from her, who has been illegally imprisoned, persecuted, and harassed just because her family practises Falun Gong. Her son was sent to a forced labour camp, and she was left to look after her two young grandsons. With no one to help her, she went to various governmental departments every day to ask for help, but she was met with only verbal abuse and sarcasm.

"My name is Chen Xiuling, and I am 54 years old. I was a marketing director in Heilongjiang Province. My daughter Chen Ying, who is listed as the first among practitioners who were killed during the persecution, used to practise Falun Dafa with me. She was a good child. I was also arrested and sentenced to three years at Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp. Now I am still suffering a lot. Because of the persecution, I now have many illnesses all over my body."

"I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in Xinjin County, Sichuan Province. In November 2000 I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa and was illegally sentenced to three years in prison by the authorities in Xinjin, and sent to the Miaoxi Prison in Yaan, Jianyang City, Sichuan Province. In the prison, we suffered all sorts of tortures and humiliation. None of our rights as human beings were respected."

My family was previously very happy. But then the claws of the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners reached my family and would let go. My father previously was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage and blood vessel abnormality, and he died when I was in grade four. He left my mother and me alone, and my mother was very sad.

"In the Police Hospital, the police tried to force me to give up my belief. They handcuffed me to a bed. The handcuffs were so tight that my wrists bled. They not only inserted a tube through my nose into my stomach for force-feeding but also used a catheter so that I would not go to the toilet. At that time, I was menstruating. They put me on a plastic sheet with my lower body naked and exposed. When I was finally released from the bed, the skin on my entire back was in a state of putrefaction."

"I am a female Falun Gong practitioner, and I am 52 years old this year. Since I started to practise Falun Gong I was arrested seven times, and I lost two family members in those two years. Because my son and I were arrested at the same time, my mother fell ill due to excessive worry. After we were arrested, my husband suffered from cerebral hemorrhage, so no one was left to take care of my mother. Later my father also passed away while I was imprisoned.

" I was deceived into going to the Wanjia Hospital, where I was held for a total of four months and five days and suffered inhuman torture. Since the day I was arrested, I had refused to eat and drink in order to protest the illegal detention. The police sent me to the hospital where I was forcefully injected with a drug that disrupted my mental faculties. Officer Wang said to me, "So you're not eating. OK, this is how we deal with you: force-feed! We don't care if you die from force-feeding. You know that many people have died from force-feeding. But they die in vain. No one cares!" "

It is very risky for me to write this letter, and I am not writing for my personal gain. I wish to let you understand the truth about the persecution. After this tribulation of being in the labour camp, I went back to my workplace. I saw the fear of my supervisors of being implicated. Also, my colleagues cursed me, which hurt me deeply. I see the twisted hearts of the people who are deceived by the lies. These lies only hurt those who believe in them. There are also many people who know the evil of this persecution. They appear to be very apathetic. Nowadays, some Chinese really do not understand people who insist on defending the truth with their lives.

Since the Jiang regime first began the suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, they have abused their power by mobilising their propaganda machine to slander and defame Falun Dafa. They have utilised judicial systems, army troops and all other dictatorial resources to persecute Falun Gong. On that July 20, we went to the Appeals Office in Dalian City to make an appeal for Falun Dafa. On July 21, various police personnel, such as Dalian policemen, anti-riot police and military police, all began beating us. They used electric batons and wooden nightsticks to violently beat all practitioners, regardless of whether they were young, old, male or female.

When I was in the 4th Division of the Gaoyang Labour Camp, I was forced into slave labour. Each day we got up before sunrise. Thirty people were responsible for 800 mu (130 acres) of cornfields. The guards carried sticks. If we slowed down in our work even a little bit, we would be struck by a large stick. We harvested the corn by hand. The work was so gruelling that our hands bled. Due to the suffering from the effects of the long-term persecution, my body became very weak, yet I still had to endure highly intensive physical labour. I lost more than 65 lbs. in three months. They did not allow us to take a rest at all. There are no human rights or laws here.

Zhao said they had the word from the higher authorities: "Death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide." We were not allowed to eat on a regular schedule, and only had 10 minutes for each meal. We had to eat in a squatting or kneeling position. At one point they fed us for many days in a row with small potatoes that were bitter and tart, causing us to throw up right after we ate.

My family came to visit. Upon seeing me, they were all shocked. I had been very healthy and in good condition when I was taken from home. But now I was tortured and my health debilitated to such a degree. My family went to see the leaders. They met the chief He Qiang and requested that I receive medical treatment. But the camp authorities refused to release me. My family then went to the prosecutor residing in the labour camp. I told him the fact that I was handcuffed and forced to lay flat on my back for a month.

When the Public Security Bureau once again came to my home to arrest me, even the old gatekeeper said, "What did she do? She did not even go out. Why did you take her away?" But they detained me at Anlu City Detention Centre. I protested vehemently against the persecution that I had suffered during the past few years. On March 4, I was sent home. But the director of the local 610 Office announced that if they catch me again, I would have to serve a prison term and that it did not matter if I died.

There was another female practitioner who refused the injection of unknown drugs. The police then shackled all four of her limbs to a bed. She bit at the needle and wouldn't let go. The police then tried hard to open her mouth, but they failed. Later the police used handcuffs to pry open her teeth, causing three of her teeth to break. She had blood all over her mouth.

I questioned the detention centre police as to why they opposed the law and regulations of the Chinese Constitution and tormented me with such a torture instrument that so gravely insults human dignity and impairs physical health. The police to my surprise ridiculed me, "So? Do you have a problem with it? Law? What is the law? Jiang Zemin is the law! We will do what Jiang Zemin says! If you have a problem you can talk to Jiang Zemin. Do you dare? We'll kill you!"

One day in June of 2000 Wang Jianfeng and many others broke into my home and threatened me, "We have new orders from Jiang. We thought everything was ok after holding the brainwashing class. But we have received orders via telephone from above that we must detain you until you are transformed."... Seeing that I still would not give in, they said: "She obviously will not give in." They then tried to force me to curse at a picture of Teacher. They beat me with wooden clubs until they shattered two of them. They said to me, "We have orders from Jiang Zemin -- it is not a crime to kill Falun Gong practitioners."

I was taken back to Fuxin and held at the detention centre there. The police at the detention centre told me, "You should just die here. This is the territory of Jiang Zemin."...One day, Wang Dazhu inserted a tube into my stomach and pumped in hard liquor and beer. He said, "You Falun Gong people don't drink alcohol, right? We are forcing you to drink alcohol. The head of the labour camp approved it."

Because of my age, it was not easy for me to find a job. Thus, I had a lot of tribulations and have not been able to pay back my debt up to now. My children were seriously damaged by this incident. My younger daughter felt anxious all the time. In addition, the lies and hate-inciting propaganda on the TV, as well as the sneering from our neighbours and other people who didn't know the truth, all made my children unable to thrive, and it seemed to them that I had done some disgraceful things.

"If you write a promise letter (to give up Dafa cultivation) and pay 5,000 Yuan, we will send you home instead of the detention centre." I refused. Frustrated, they went to my husband's work place, my child's school and my parents' house to tell lies and threatened them. They told them that I would receive jail sentences. When my sick father heard that, he was so shocked that his physical condition worsened and he became bed ridden. My husband could not bear their constant harassment and paid them 2,000 Yuan, thinking that they would release me. But the police still sent me to a detention centre for 15 days.

Some of the policemen who knew the truth about Falun Dafa brought me some daily necessities, while other policemen smoked in my hospital room. A nurse nicknamed Xiao Xiu asked them not to smoke cigarettes in the hospital ward, but they refused to stop smoking. They replied matter-of-factly, "We are here to watch her, not to provide medical care. It is none of our business if she dies."...Then Wang Zhongren threatened me, trying to make my family pay him 30,000 yuan within three days. He said, "Otherwise, I will put an ad on the newspaper and sell you as a mail-order bride for 30,000 yuan."

Our agricultural machinery and other personal belongings were taken away. My son held on to his favorite sheep and begged them to let him keep it, but they took it from him anyway. They saw a suitcase and a neighbour said, "Don't take the suitcase. There's money in it." When they heard the word "money" they took the suitcase with them right away. The crowd reprimanded them for behaving like gangsters. Because my home was stripped clean, my son was forced to leave school because he could no longer afford the school fees.

Upon hearing the shocking news of Meng Xiao being tortured to death, I could not stop crying. I could still remember her smile and voice vividly....After the persecution of Falun Gong began, she bravely withstood the pressure coming at her from family, work, and others around her, and was determined never to give up the practice. I will never forget her firm belief in Falun Dafa and her courage in facing the evildoers.... Because of the persecution, that young life had been taken away. I could not stop crying in front of the computer.

I was also shocked with an electric baton, burned with a cigarette, my hands were beaten with a bamboo strips, I was beaten and kicked, and so forth. The police spoke viciously, "No practitioner who hasn't confessed under these devices and means can walk out of here." This just goes to show how cruel their torture methods are.....The Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp is just like a hell on earth. Every day we were beaten, forced to do hard work, deprived of sleep and not allowed to go to the toilet.