610 Office Orders Arrest of Nine Falun Gong Practitioners in Hunan Province

At about 5:00 p.m. on April 28th, 2011, several officers from the Jinpenling Police Station in Changsha City broke into the home of Miss Xiong Xiaolan in Tianxin District. They indiscriminately arrested Professor Gao Desi, a retired professor from the Hunan Institute of Finance, Hunan University, and seven other guests, by force and without due process. They were taken to the Jinpenling Police Station. At 11:00 p.m., under orders from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), they were taken to the “black prison,” which operates outside the rule of law. The 610 Office calls it “the base.”

Brainwashing Inside the “Black Prison”

The official name of the “black prison” is Changsha City Legal, Education, and Training Centre. It is located in the northern suburb of Changsha City, and was established in November 2002. For the last eight years, it has been detaining citizens who appealed to the authorities for their rights and several hundred Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted most severely. Apart from being deprived of their freedom, they are subjected to brainwashing and various physical and mental abuse. The prison authorities use these means in attempt to force practitioners to give up their beliefs. The “black prison,” in fact, is specially designed as a brainwashing centre targeting Falun Gong practitioners.

The nine Falun Gong practitioners are being held in a ten square-metre room with a toilet. The 610 Office personnel and assigned guards closely monitor the practitioners at all hours. They are not allowed to go out of their room even during meals or to have a visitor. They are forbidden from doing any exercises. Their rooms are on the third floor, facing north. They can only see the desolate grass field and a small hill through a crack in the iron barrier on the window.

In the isolated environment, the practitioners are without any personal freedom. They face intimidation and brainwashing all day long. They are forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong's founder and listen to the various “rules.” The prison personnel attempt to force them to write a guarantee statement and statements slandering Falun Gong and its founder. The practitioners are threatened with solitary confinement or being sent to prison or labour camp if they refused to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

In addition, the prison personnel use every opportunity to deliberately discredit and belittle practitioners by claiming Falun Gong practitioners oppose society, government, family, and are selfish, paranoid, and have no consideration for their families and so on. They have told practitioners hypocritically that they need to extricate themselves as soon as possible in order to lead normal lives. They deliberately try to cajole them into renouncing their faith. Under such high pressure, some practitioners have written guarantee statements against their will, but deeply regretted doing so afterward. They are also often unable to expel the shadow of being imprisoned for a long period of time. In fact, the brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners is in succession with the persecution of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) aim is to force people to abandon their independent cognition and personality and succumb to the CCP's rule.

Kind and Good People Arrested

Ms. Xiong Xiaolan, 60, is a retired worker from the Hunan Province Hydraulic Machinery Factory. When Ms. Xiong Xiaolan was in her thirties, her husband died in a tragic accident. She carried the burden of raising their children alone. In 1996, Ms. Xiong Xiaolan obtained a copy of the Falun Gong, book Zhuan Falun, which was ranked in the top-ten best-selling books by the “Beijing Youth Daily.” The author, Mr. Li Hongzhi, explains profound theories in simple terms to help people improve their minds. She suddenly saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Afterward, her spirit was revived and her body became healthy. Her relatives and friends all said that she was like a new person. In July 1999, the CCP began its brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Later, in order to justify its crackdown of the practice it created many lies to slander Falun Gong. Ms. Xiong Xiaolan did not yield to the pressure and adhered to her belief.

Mr. Gao Desi, about seventy years old, was an associate professor of the Department of Economics of the College of Hunan Finance and Economics, Hunan University. Mr. Gao Desi is an honest, intellectual and versatile scholar. His colleagues, friends, and students consider him a good man. After practising Falun Gong in 1996, he benefited in many ways from the principles of Falun Gong, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. But the CCP's persecution had not spared the university campuses. In April 2001, public security personnel arrested Mr. Gao and sentenced him to seven years in prison. He regained his freedom after he went through seven years of inhuman torture in the Wangling Prison in You County, Hunan Province.

Like many practitioners, Mr. Huang Yonghui, Mr. Cai Xinou, Ms. He Minnuo were all recognized by their neighbors as good people, yet the police arrested them. Those who heard about what happened deeply resented the rogue acts of the CCP authorities.

Calling for Conscience and Justice

The Thirty-Fifth Article of China's Constitution states, “Citizens have the freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, of procession and demonstration;” the Thirty-Sixth Article states, “Citizens have the freedom of religious belief;” the Thirty-Seventh Article states, “Personal freedom of citizens cannot be violated and unless approved by the People's Procurator, any citizen cannot be arrested; unlawful detention or deprivation or restriction by other means of personal freedom of citizens is prohibited; it is unlawful to search the citizen's body;” the Thirty-Ninth Article states, “Citizens residence cannot be infringed upon. It is prohibited to unlawfully search or intrude into citizens homes.”

Falun Gong practitioners have committed no crime by adhering to their belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Meeting together to share their experiences and understanding of the Falun Gong teachings is not harmful to any person or to society. On the contrary, the conduct of Changsha City Changsha Jinpenling Police Station and the 610 Office is illegal and a serious violation of the citizens' legal rights, and deserves condemnation. Good receiving reward and evil provoking retribution is a principle of heaven. We sternly admonish all the personnel who have been involved in the persecution of Falun Gong to immediately and unconditionally release all practitioners. We call for all the good people at home and abroad to lend their support in stopping the CCP's persecution, and in rescuing these nine Falun Gong practitioners.

Personnel involved in the persecution:
Yang Haijun, director of the Jinpenling Police Station, Tianxin District: 86-731-85227655 (Office), 86-13637318318 (Mobile)
Meng Zheng, policeman: 86-13787317015 (Mobile)
Song (female), deputy director, Tianxin District 610 Office
Zhang, deputy director, Tianxin District 610 Office: 86-731-85898206 (Office)
Yang, party secretary, Tianxin District 610 Office: 86-13787312105(Mobile)
Deng Pengyu, party secretary, Tianxin District Political and Law Committee. Office: 86-731-85898206/85898202
Wu Zhibin, director, Changsha City 610 Office: 86-731-88667548 (Office), 86-731-85070065 (home), 86-13307310607 (Mobile)
Wu Kaiming, director, the Legal Education and Training Centre in Changsha City (Laodaohe Black Prison): 86-731-88667549 (Office), 86-731-85133270 (home), 86-13319578855/13308408731 (Mobile)
Jiang Pengzhou, captain, Tianxin District Public Security Bureau, Changsha City: 86-731-85895078 (Office), 86-13908476677(Mobile)
Deng Zhiyou, section chief, Legal Affairs Section, Tianxin District Public Security Bureau. Responsible for implementing the detention of Falun Gong practitioners and reporting arrest. 86-731-85895070 (Office), 86-731-85816840 (Home), 86-13874991810(Mobile)
Hu Zhiguo, director, Tianxin District Public Security Branch Bureau: 86-731-85895009
Wu Jun, deputy director, Tianxin District Public Security Bureau, in charge of State Security Brigade and Legal Affairs Section. 86-731-85895007
Chen Niuniu, community director, Dongguashan Tianxin District: 86-13549683447 (Mobile)
Zhang Jingyi, party secretary: 86-13875914786 (Mobile)
Xu Huaizhi, Comprehensive Management staff: 86-13637419684 (Mobile)
Zhou Tiegang, captain, State Security of Changsha Public Security Bureau: 86-731-82587519
Li Jiede, party secretary and director, Changsha Public Security Bureau: 86-731-82587899 (Office), 86-15007312666 (Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/5/4/240102.html