Two Women in Bangbu City Sent to Forced Labour Camp for Explaining the Facts of Falun Gong to a Taxi Driver

Ms. Wang Ping and Ms. Duan Genhua in Bangbu City, Anhui Province, were detained at the local police station and sent to a forced labour camp simply for talking to a taxi driver about Falun Gong.

Around 8:30 a.m. on January 13th, 2009, Ms. Duan Genhua from Bangbu City and Ms. Wang Ping from Wuhe County took a taxi to their friend's home. On the way they spoke about Falun Gong to the driver. After they got out of the taxi, the driver reported the conversation to the police station. Just as the women were sitting down at their friend's house, the police arrived. The women were taken to the Weixi Road Police Station.

At the station, both of them refused to report their names. A young policeman slapped Ms. Duan Genhua's face and then admitted that "police are violent." Afterwards, they were questioned separately. During the questioning, a policeman surnamed Li was foul-mouthed until late at night.

Later, Ms. Duan Genhua was held in a detention centre. After a week she was transferred to the Second Detention Centre. During that time she went on a hunger strike to protest her detention. Ms. Wang Ping was held in the Second Detention Centre. She protested her detention by refusing to do forced labour or wear the prison clothing. When the allotted break outside the cell was over, she refused to return to her cell. She was handcuffed by guard Xia. About ten days later, Ms. Wang was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour, while Ms. Duan Genhua received one year and three months. Both have since been transferred to the Women's Forced Labour Camp of Anhui Province.

Because neither woman passed the physical exam, the forced labour lamp would not admit them. Nevertheless, the policemen involved did everything possible to get them admitted into the camp. Later Ms. Duan was admitted, but camp officials steadfastly denied entry to Ms. Wang. The police then took Ms. Wang to Bangbu Detention Centre, which also refused to keep her.

After spending a long day which had turned into night, the police verbally abused Ms. Wang for "causing them trouble." They then tied her to a telephone pole "so that a wolf would eat her," admitted a policewoman. Later, Ms. Wang was once again taken to the Second Detention Centre. The detention centre still refused to hold her. The police had to get help from a friend to hold her in the centre. Even so, the centre would take her for the night only and told the police to remove her from the centre the next day. Because the next day was the Chinese Lunar New Year, however, no one was interested in taking care of Ms. Wang. After a month, her sentence was changed to "detention/probation." She was released from prison and came home.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/12/13/214341.html