Falun Dafa Practitioner Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng, 42, Dies as a Result of Torture in Jiamusi City

Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng was a Falun Dafa practitioner in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. She was arrested three times and suffered much persecution and torture. While imprisoned in Jiamusi City Forced Labour Camp, she was handcuffed with her arms behind her back and forced to do slave labour. Several doctors and guards also forcibly drew blood from her. Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng was released after three years and one week of imprisonment. However, she never recovered from the abuse she suffered in detention, and passed away on September 13th, 2006.

Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng, 42 years old, was a graduate of Jiamusi City Normal College and was a teacher at the Youyi Sugar Factory-Affiliated School. When the persecution against Falun Gong started on July 20th, 1999, the Education Bureau expelled her from work under the guise of a layoff.

Ms. Zhang was "illegally imprisoned¹" in 2000. She developed scabies all over her body that itched profusely, and the pain was unbearable. Later, the scabies developed into scabs that oozed pus. She could not wear any clothing and could not take care of herself. She suffered under this pain for several months.

In April 2002, when Zhang Xiaogeng was again imprisoned at Jiamusi City Detention Centre, she went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards instructed several male prisoners to force-feed her. They handcuffed her on the floor with all four limbs stretched out. A thick plastic tube was inserted through her mouth down to her stomach. They force-fed her cold, salty (high density salt water) corn starch paste. Ms. Zhang vomited and suffered terrible pain. She was handcuffed on the floor for a long time and was not released even when she needed to use the toilet.

After one-and-a-half months in the detention centre, Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng was sentenced to three years of forced labour. She suffered more brutal persecution in Jiamusi Labour Camp.

Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng refused to do the slave labour at the labour camp in 2000. Guard Guo Zhenwei and another guard beat her with police batons for more than twenty minutes. They turned up the radio volume in the hallway to cover up the noises from the beating. Ms. Zhang was bruised all over her body and had to be bedridden for two weeks after the abuse. Her buttocks turned completely black.

One morning guard Sun Limin tried to forced Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng and Ms. Ma Cuihong to work. They both refused, saying they had not committed any crime and therefore were not criminals and should not be subjected to forced labour. Soon two male guards arrived and began beating the two women with police batons. Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng questioned guard Zhang Xiaodan: "We did not commit any crime! How can you publicly beat us?" The police answered, "This is the law." Several female guards kicked Ms. Zhang and Ms. Ma with their leather boots, yelling, "We will stop only when you work." After the beating, a tall, big guard pointed his police baton at Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng's face and said, "You look pretty! Smile at me, otherwise I will beat you again!"

On November 1st, 2002, the labour camp attempted to force all practitioners to undergo brainwashing and write statements denouncing Falun Dafa. Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng refused. Guards Li Xiujin and Zhang Xiaodan knocked her down to the floor and twisted one of her hands up from behind her back, then they pulled her other hand up over her shoulder and used a small set of handcuffs to handcuff both hands behind her back. She was unable to move her hands. The handcuffs cut deeply into her flesh. Two hours later when the guards opened the cuffs, her hands had lost any sensation and were swollen and purple. Ms. Zhang's hands were numb for three or four months afterwards and there was still a lump on her right wrist when she passed away in 2006.

Ms. Zhang suffered from the brutal torture of this "back handcuffing" several times. On May 7th, 2003, thirteen days after she went on a hunger strike, she was extremely week and thin; yet, guard Hong Wei beat her with a police baton for more than two hours and handcuffed her arms behind her back, to force her give up her hunger strike. Another time when Ms. Zhang was back-handcuffed and the cuffs were cutting deeply into the flesh, she was in so much pain that she could hardly breathe and thought she would die. This torture lasted as long as three to four hours.

Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng also suffered other abuses in the labour camp, such as being forbidden to sleep for a long time, being forced to sit on a hard small stool for a long time, and forced to do slave labour.

After three years of brutal persecution in the labour camp, on her release in 2005, Zhang Xiaogeng was extremely weak. She often felt dizzy and coughed a lot. Ms. Zhang's health deteriorated quickly after May 2006. She lost consciousness in August and passed away on September 13th, 2006.

Note

1. Illegally arrested: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practising the exercises or distributing flyers. For a more complete discussion of the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong, please refer to the article "The Ban on Falun Gong—A Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law". (Variation: "illegally sentenced")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/9/19/138162.html