Ms. Yao Shilan from Tianjin City Tortured to Disability in Tianjin Women's Prison

Ms. Yao Shilan from Tianjin City has been enduring persecution at the hands of agents from the Wuqing District 610 Office¹, Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Dagang City, and Tianjin City Women's Prison. On April 4th, 2007, Dajianchang Police Station and Wuqing Domestic Security Division personnel arrested her again. She was placed in a detention centre and in Tianjin Women's Prison, where she was injected with unidentified drugs. Ms. Yao went home on November 23rd, 2007. Currently, she is still extremely weak and unable to take care of herself.

The following is Ms. Yao's account of the persecution she has suffered:

I am a 58-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Dajianchang Township in the Wuqing District, Tianjin. I started to practise Falun Gong in 1999. Our cultivation environment was destroyed on July 20th, 1999, when the persecution began. I have suffered from ongoing persecution. Fellow practitioners could not contact each other, and we are all under surveillance and followed.

In 2000, I was imprisoned in Dabanqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp. Giving in to the policemen's threats and fearing that they would intensify the torture, I wrote the repentance statement (to give up practising Falun Gong) against my better judgement. From then on I was regretful that I had betrayed Falun Gong and felt very guilty. I eventually returned to Falun Gong and wrote a "solemn statement" stating that anything I had said or done against Dafa was done under pressure and was null and void. I decided that I would use everything I had to make up for the loss to Dafa and to cleanse the stain on my cultivation path.

In 2003, while I was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong in Xixiaoliang, someone reported me to the local police. Several people brutally beat me. My mouth was full of blood. The abusive officials lied, saying they would take me home. When we arrived at my residence, they ransacked it and took my copies of Falun Gong books. The police also beat me again. Then they locked me up in Wuqing Detention Centre. I started a protest hunger strike. Geng Suo, doctor Cheng, and Li Yanli (female) were the one most responsible for persecuting me. After 17 to 18 days, I was released because they were hatching another plot. My physical condition improved a little at home. One morning, several people from Dajianchang Police Station came to my home. They told me a lie and ordered me to follow them. They actually took me to the Dabanqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin and gave me a document that stated I was sentenced to two years of forced labour. I told them I refused to accept it and tore it into pieces. Then I went on another hunger strike.

Many of the guards in Dabanqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp are vicious. In addition, there are many collaborators and prisoners who are kept there especially to torture Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to be "reformed²." They frequently beat practitioners. Some collaborators poured hot water on practitioners. The prison guards normally do not torture practitioners themselves. They often stay in the background and watch the prisoners and collaborators³ torture practitioners.

I was forced to do hard labour in the camp. Regardless of my age or physical condition, I had to carry large bags of beans. After I was on the hunger strike for two weeks, I still had to carry bags of beans upstairs. The bags weighed about 100 lbs each. Some people said, "Falun Gong is truly good! Even though she has been on a hunger strike for two weeks, she can still carry those huge bags." Later on I realised that I should not cooperate with the vicious guards and I started to resist: I refused to wear the prison uniform, answer roll calls, or do hard labour. The labour camp head asked me why I did not work. I replied, "I am not here to work for you!" Hearing that, he left. That night I was forbidden to sleep until 12:00 a.m. instead of the normal 11:00 p.m. I had this one thought: "You cannot make me cooperate with your persecution!

My hunger strike lasted 110 days. The prison guards force-fed me. Prior to each daily force-feeding session, they allowed the others to leave the room but had the serious drug addicts stay. The addicts would use a foot-long screwdriver to pry my mouth open. Several times, they were unable to open my mouth. They broke my teeth and made my gums bleed. They could not force-feed me. Then they took me to the hospital so that I could be force fed through a nasal tube. Soon they realised that it was really true, that I could not be "reformed." Therefore, they extended my sentence. I had only recently left Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp, a living hell on earth.

On March 15th, 2006, Liu Shumin, Li Guangdong, and Cai Delu reported me while I was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) village Party secretary Li Chengyue and Public Security officer Huang Shouqing brought a gang of hooligans from the Dajianchang Public Security Office and from the Wuqing Domestic Security Division. They broke into my residence by climbing through a window and confiscated Falun Gong books. They arrested me and locked me in Wuqing Detention Centre. I went on a hunger strike for 45 days. Fearing that I might die, they let my family post bail to have me released for medical treatment, so that they would not be held responsible in case I died.

On the afternoon of April 4th, 2007, village security officer Huang Shouqing again brought a gang of policemen and broke into my home. They arrested me once more and held me in Wuqing Detention Centre. Policeman Li Haicheng wanted to sentence me for a few years, so I was transferred to the Tianjin #1 Detention Centre. Once again I held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The detention centre guards then urged several prisoners to beat me. A few days later, they lied to me again and said they would send me home. Instead, they transferred me the next day to Tianjin Women's Prison.

The head of that prison's 5th Ward is surnamed Shi. The other head's surname is Yin. One of the team leaders is Liu Rui, and the doctor's surname is Li. During my eight months of imprisonment there, the prison guards used all kinds of methods to torture me, attempting to "reform" me. They first arranged four people to monitor me. Their names were Liu Dan, Li Hongying, Liu Xu, and Du Fangqin. Li Yunxia followed me everywhere. She once grabbed a practitioner's hand to force the practitioner to apply a fingerprint on a document to show that the practitioner was "reformed." She recorded everything I did and then reported to the head. I refused to cooperate with them.

For eight months (intermittently) I conducted a protest hunger strike. The prison guards tied me up on a bed and handcuffed me. They then pried my mouth and teeth open with a special tool. After that, they inserted a piece of force-feeding equipment into my mouth and poured salt water into it. They kept the apparatus in my mouth for 10 days. Then they changed to another one. When they first poured salt water into my mouth, I shouted, "They are pouring salt water into my mouth!" After that, they force-fed me through a nasal tube to increase the torture.

Approximately seven months later they said that I had to be hospitalised because, according to them, I was sick. They hooked me up to receive IV infusions and administered unknown drugs for more than twelve days. I developed a high fever and passed out. The doctor said that I was too weak, so they force-fed me through my nose. After that they gave me oxygen for two days. Following that I was unable to speak and frequently fainted. The doctor asked me, "Do you want to go home?" I was unconscious at the time they forced me to apply my fingerprint on a document. They even videotaped it, probably to prove that if I died they would not be responsible.

I came home on November 23rd, 2007. Currently, I am still weak and unable to take care of myself.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

3. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/1/7/169767.html