Disabled Practitioner Arrested a Third Time in Kunming City

Ms. Guo Ling, 52, a practitioner from Kunming City, Yunnan Province, disappeared after leaving her mother's home on the morning of January 15th, 2009. After an unsuccessful search, her family learned that she had been arrested and was being held in the Wuhua Detention Centre in Kunming. This is the third time that Ms. Guo has been detained in the past few years.

Ms. Guo had polio when she was a year old, and as a result, she had difficulty walking. But after she began practising Falun Gong in 1997, she experienced great improvements in both her physical and mental health. She became calmer and more considerate of others. After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, officers from the Wuhua District Police Department repeatedly threatened her and ransacked her home, trying to pressure her into giving up her belief in Falun Gong and its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They forced her to attend "transformation¹" sessions several times.

Because she refused to renounce her faith, the Wuhua police searched her home again in June 2001. They seized all her Falun Gong books, cassette player, and exercise tapes. They arrested her and jailed her for three months. She was then sentenced to two years of forced labour in the Yunnan Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. Because of her disability, the camp refused to admit her, and she had to serve her sentence outside the camp.

In April 2002, the Guandu District Police Department arrested her. An officer slapped her violently during the arrest, leaving her with a bruised face and a black eye. She was released that same night. In July, officers from the district police departments in both Panlong and Guandu ransacked her home. They arrested her and put her in the Second Jail in Kunming City. After she had been jailed for eight months, the Songming County Court tried her and sentenced her to seven years in the Yunnan Second Provincial Prison.

Ms. Guo was persecuted severely in prison. Despite the severe disability in her legs, they forced her to walk several miles each day to perform forced labour. During the years she spent in prison, the guards appointed inmates to monitor her around the clock. She was not permitted to speak to anyone, and someone had to watch her even when she used the restroom. She was put in solitary confinement many times and brutally persecuted. When she went on a hunger strike for 56 days to protest her inhumane treatment, the guards directed inmates to tie her up and force-feed her.

Ms. Guo's mother, who was in her seventies, cried every day. After almost six years had passed, her daughter finally came home, and she thought that they could be together for the Chinese New Year. But Ms. Guo was arrested yet again, allegedly for using currency with a message about Falun Gong written on it. In the week following her disappearance, her family members queried the police but learned nothing of her whereabouts. The police finally informed them that Ms. Guo had been arrested by the Daguan Police in Kunming City.

Ms. Guo's mother has suffered several heart attacks. While the entire country was joyfully celebrating the New Year, Ms. Guo's family was in deep sorrow.

Daguan Police Station in Yunnan Province: 86-871-5340784, 86-871-5321779
Station chief's last name is Liu, badge number 012523

Note

1. "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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/1/29/194442.html