C.7 Letter from a Former Cancer Patient to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations
The Honorable Human Rights Committee of the Untied Nations:
My name is Zhang Lifang, a thirty-nine-year-old Chinese. I live at 96 Banchangxinli, Chongwen District, Beijing. I was a cancer patient. It is Falun Dafa that saved my life.
On July 22, 1999, the Chinese government declared Falun Dafa an illegal organization. Thereafter I was asked to go to the local police station to be questioned about my views on Falun Dafa. I said, "Falun Dafa are virtuous teachings." Just because there are Falun Dafa practitioners in my home, I was taken to the local police station and kept for one day and one night. On (August?)17th, I was sent to Chongwen Detention Center for one-month detention. In the detention center, I was forced to live with criminals. After Falun Dafa was announced as an "evil cult" in October 1999, I still strongly believed I was one of the greatest beneficiaries of Falun Dafa; I made my mind up that I was going to cultivate Falun Dafa until the end. Hearing my words, the policeman treated me as a diehard element and kept me in custody from that night. They searched my home and confiscated my property without any legal procedures.
I was put in custody for two days. From then on, I became a focal point for the police. Whenever there was any new "instruction" about Falun Dafa from the higher authorities, they visited me. Giving a healthy body to the people and improving the morality of humankind, Falun Dafa is of great benefit without any harm to families, the society and the country. The Appealing Office is the place set for people to speak out. Appealing is the personal right guaranteed by the Constitution. But nowadays the sign plate on the Appealing Office has been removed. Under such circumstances I went to the Tiananmen Square practicing on January 3, 2000. As a result, I was arrested and detained in Chongwen Detention Center for a month. During the duration of my detention, police told every practitioner they met that I had been sentenced to two years of labor, which disrupted my family's state of mind. I was taken into custody for the third time when a policeman questioned me in Tiananmen Square whether I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I answered him frankly that I am a practitioner because the cultivation is open and aboveboard. Consequently, I was taken into a police vehicle and put in custody in Changping County for thirty-eight days.
I appeal to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, in terms of the unfair decision regarding Falun Dafa made by the Chinese government, and urge the Chinese government to investigate Falun Dafa fairly and realistically as soon as possible, and restore innocence to Falun Dafa.
Zhang Lifang
Citizen of the People's Republic of China
April 14, 2000