Yoko Kaneko Recalls Her 548 Day Abduction By the Followers of Jiang Zemin and His Regime (Part 2)

The Tiantanghe Hospital is the designated hospital for the Dispatch Section of Beijing's Female Forced Labour Camp. Most of the detainees there who aren't drug users are Falun Gong practitioners. Many of these drug users are suffering from contagious diseases such as AIDS, liver diseases or pulmonary tuberculosis. However, all detainees must live together, as the contagious ones are not isolated. The conditions are very bad and the police tightly monitor Falun Gong practitioners. They do not allow practitioners to talk with each other, and are monitored by drug-using criminals.

On the morning of my second day in the hospital I went to use the toilet. I was not yet done when I heard a loud noise down the hall. Then someone walked into the toilet and urged me to go back to my cell. On my way back, I saw two people dragging an elderly woman, about 60 years old, without pants on. The hospital's brick floor has many indentations in them and was very rough. They dragged the elderly woman by the arms, with her lower body on the floor. She was bleeding, but they still dragged her into the bathroom. They then pushed me into my room. Later I learned that the elderly woman was also a Falun Gong practitioner. She had severe heart disease and could not take care of herself; however, the police still did not let her leave. I stayed at the Tiantanghe Hospital for a week. Though I did not recover, they sent me back to the Female Forced Labour Camp again.

The authorities in the labour camp attempted to brainwash me. At that time my blood pressure was still very high and my heart was weak. When I walked I needed someone to support me. Every night they forbade me to sleep until very late and woke me up very early in the morning. I could not withstand this. I remember one day, Li Jirong, the head of a division who was elected as a representative to the 16th Party Congress due to her "achievements" in persecuting Falun Gong, told me, "Don't think this is just a labour camp. Our labour camp also has a death quota! Don't forget that you are still a Chinese citizen, so you still have to follow the laws of China. You are no different from anyone else."

The brainwashing sessions Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to were very cruel. Wardens did not allow practitioners to sleep for a long time. Some practitioners were granted only 1-2 hours sleep a day, some were not permitted to sleep for 24 hours, and other practitioners were not allowed to sleep for over 20 days. During the daytime they had some collabourators [former Falun Gong practitioners who turned against Dafa as a result of brainwashing and torture] take turns to instill their false, vicious doctrines until midnight. Then, wardens ordered drug users to monitor us to keep us from sleeping. These drug users would do whatever they desired to torture Falun Gong practitioners during those hours.

You would often hear pitiful screams late at night. Some practitioners could not endure the torment any longer and were abused to the point of a mental breakdown. Wardens, though, would find a new topic, saying "Look! They turn into mental cases from Falun Gong practice, but are still determined toward Falun Gong while not giving up. If they kept on practising, they would be insane or dead." Thus, wardens increased their justification to torture Falun Gong practitioners to death.

My blood pressure became higher and higher in this environment. Later I lost my vision. So they again sent me back to the Tiantanghe Hospital, where my diastolic blood pressure was found to be 130 mmHg, which was already higher then a normal person's systolic level. Of course, my systolic pressure was extremely high. They also checked my eyes and found serious problems. Because the Tiantanghe Hospital lacks medical equipment as well as expertise, they sent me to Daxing County's Hospital for a checkup. Doctors examined my eyes and said the capillaries in the bottom part of my right eye were necrotic, and the necrosis took place at least one or two months earlier. After I went back the Tiantanghe Hospital, I told the police in the hospital that I expected her to report the truth about my eye condition to related officials, and I hoped the situation would not get worse. If it could not be treated in China, I wanted to go back to Japan for hospitalisation.

A week later, police took me to the Tongren Hospital, which was one of the best hospitals specialising in eye diseases. They requested an expert to give me a thorough checkup. Afterwards, the expert said the capillaries in my eye had healed themselves; they had totally recovered and no longer were a problem. Actually, they had talked with the expert beforehand and just deceived me into believing I was getting correct, first-hand information.

Going back to the Tiantanghe Hospital, I raised my doubts to the police. I asked how my eyes could recover without any treatment within a week and I still had no vision. I asked for the diagnosis certificate. I told them that I would walk out of here one day, and I would have my eyes thoroughly examined. If an independent diagnosis could not corroborate the expert's diagnosis at the Tongren Hospital, I would demand to be held responsible.

They did not give me the diagnosis certificate. My eyes did not recover, and I suffered excruciating pain due to intensive light stimulation during the three eye checkups in a short time period. I dared not open my eyes and was afraid of light. If I opened my eyes, I would have a headache as well as pain in the eyes. Even now my eyes are still sensitive to light.

I was hospitalised for about three months. In the new year of 2003, I was sent back to the labour camp again. Wardens put me into the First Team and forced me to work. At that time there were about a dozen people in a team. Most of them were Falun Gong practitioners. The practitioners told the wardens, "She can't open her eyes, so she can't work." The work in the labour camp was supervised by the drug users. The wardens made use of all of them to abuse Falun Gong practitioners. The head of the team was responsible for me. Wardens called her over and ordered her to make me work. As all the other practitioners did not want me to work, and she was not able to carry out her directives. Since the First Team is the most important one, the wardens monitored us closely. When they saw me not working and with my eyes closed, a police officer named Sun Mingyue called me over and forced me to do the work. I said I dared not open my eyes. She said, "You have to do your work by using your touch." I replied, "This kind of work is difficult to do even with the eyes open. How could I do it by touch?" She still insisted that I do the work. Besides the work, we have to do the so-called "study" as well as writing down our thoughts. Though I could not open my eyes, Zhang Shuxian, who was in charge of our team, forced me to write down my thoughts. I said I could not see, so I was unable to write. But she told me to write with my eyes closed.

Someone was always watching in the First Team during the daytime. I was not allowed to talk with other practitioners. At night a drug user sat on my bed and watched me. I could barely go to sleep. Faced with these conditions, my blood pressure was climbing. In April 2003, they suddenly locked me in a cell with several drug users, claiming this was necessary because I was not in good health and needed care. Actually, wardens wanted to put me under tight surveillance. They did not allow me any contact with other Falun Gong practitioners. Whenever I moved, a drug user would watch me. But they no longer forced me to work and did not force me to participate in heavy labour. One day team leader Li Jirong called me over "to have a talk." The general idea was that "we did not persecute you, but took care of you." Then she threatened me," After you go back Japan, don't forget that your relatives, mother, siblings and friends are still in China. Do not forget this."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/12/19/62877.html