Huge Sums of Money Extorted from Female Dafa Practitioner and Agonising Torture Inflicted by Fushun City Officials

I'm a woman from the countryside, and I started practising Falun Dafa in 1998. I have spiritually benefited a great deal from cultivation in Falun Gong, and my stubborn illnesses have also disappeared.

On July 20, 1999, the persecution of Dafa started. I went to Beijing to appeal as the law permits. I was arrested at the railway station and sent to a detention centre, where I was beaten, denied the use of the toilet, and verbally abused. Five days later, after extorting a huge sum of 3,500 Yuan* from my family, they sent me to the township for further persecution. They forced me to attend brainwashing classes. I was not released until they forced my family to hand in the deed for our house as collateral.

In December 2000 I went to Beijing to appeal a second time. I was again illegally arrested in Beijing and sent back to my hometown, where I was detained. While in the detention centre I started a hunger strike to protest. The police force-fed me by inserting a tube into my stomach. I adhered to my belief firmly. They sentenced me to three years at the Wujiabao Forced Labour Camp in Fushun City, where I suffered even more brutal persecution. I was deprived of sleep throughout the night on the first day of my arrival. I was also forced to bend over, with my arms spread out or to squat, and this continued through the day. I started a hunger strike to protest. The next evening, when the division leader saw that I remained steadfast, he started to beat me until I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, my mouth was bleeding badly. Even today the scars on my lips are still plainly visible.

One night in January 2001, the guard forced me to write a "guarantee statement. **" When I refused, he started to shock me with electric batons, causing unbearable pain. Then he asked six or seven people who had been "transformed" to beat me, bashing my head against the floor. After the beating they asked me to stand up. I said to them, although pysically devastated from their attack, "I'm only practising Falun Gong. Have I violated any laws of the state?" They had no reply. After a long while one said, "I know you are a good person." I went on to say, "I have regained good health after I took up Falun Gong practice. Let me use a figure of speech. Your mother gave birth to you. Could you turn around and curse your mother?" The guard went silent and eventually said, "So you are not going to write even one word?" I replied firmly, "Not even one word." After 20-odd days of a hunger strike before the Spring Festival, I was sent back home.

Around a month after the Spring Festival, they sent me back to the labour camp again for further persecution. I started another hunger strike to protest. The No.1 Team is under very tight control. Because I was firm with my belief, they sent me to the No.1 Team. The guard for the team is called Shi Qingyun, who often beat me. Forty-odd days into my hunger strike I was beaten by five or six guards.

In April 2001, the persecution intensified and they took turns torturing us. One day I was taken to the No.5 Team, where more than 20 people beat me. They kept beating me for the whole morning until I passed out, and then carried me back to the No. 4 team. When I regained consciousness, every bone in my body ached terribly, yet it was lunchtime, so they started to force-feed me.

I refused to cooperate with them, so the team leader Wu Wei started to slap me in the face. As soon as he stopped, he ordered someone to take me out to the exercise yard. Having been on a hunger strike for so long, plus the torture and beatings, I was very weak and walked very slowly. Wu Wei kicked me from behind and I swayed, almost falling to the ground. He then came up and kicked me hard, and I fell down to the ground. He continued to kick me very hard on my head and body until I lost consciousness, blood streaming from my nose. Many people were present when this was happening. Someone came over and tried to carry me inside. Wu Wei yelled that nobody was allowed to carry me inside and ordered people to drag me down to the exercise yard. When the guards saw that I was still steadfast, the next day they called out two people from each team, twelve all together, and forced me into a storeroom. There they used wooden planks from a bed to hit the back of my hands and also my palms. As a result of continuous brutal beatings, my head became misshapen and my hands badly swollen. Still I refused to be transformed.

After more than 50 days of brutal and agonising persecution I became extremely weak and my body was a shadow of its former self. For fear of being held accountable, they released me, but not before they forced my family to pay the labour camp an extortionate sum of 10,000 Yuan.

* Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

** "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Gong practitioners.

Chinese version available a http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/9/30/58186.html