A Former Prisoner Exposes Atrocities Taking Place in Heizuizi Prison

By a former criminal who has just started cultivation of Falun Dafa

I have just been released from the Heizuizi Female Prison, Chuangchuan City, Jilin Province, where I, as a criminal, was imprisoned with Falun Dafa practitioners for the past four years. I was influenced by the practitioners, and recently started to practise Falun Gong. The following account is what I witnessed in Heizuizi Prison.

Ms. Jing Fengyun, a Falun Gong practitioner, was about 60 years old. She came to the prison in September or October 2002. When she came in, the guards wanted to force her to write the so called "four statements"[1], so they made her stand for a long time and deprived her of sleep. The guards extended the torture to the whole squad of over fifty prisoners. No one in the squad was allowed to sleep. They had to work all day, and were not allowed to rest at night. After five or six days, prisoners couldn't take it--they blamed Ms. Jing, cursing her and beating her all the time. Ms. Jing endured it silently. Later other Falun Gong practitioners quietly told her to shout out if she was beaten again. Around 8pm that evening, she cried out "They are beating me!" Many practitioners went over. The squad closed the door, and it sounded like they stopped beating her. At around 1:00 or 2:00am, Jing Fengyun again shouted hoarsely with her last strength "They are beating me!"

Nearly everyone in the 3rd district (more than 150 people) woke up at the sound of her call. Some people got up and went to the toilet to find out what happened. I got up too. I saw Ms. Jing sitting in a corner outside the toilet. She hung her head and her eyes were closed. Someone pulled her up and would not allow her to sit, but she was not able to get up. I figured she didn't have the strength anymore after nearly a week of torture without eating, drinking or sleeping. I didn't know what kind of violent treatment she had suffered moments ago. Another prisoner named Ms. Liu Shumei was angry to see her sitting and kicked her. I couldn't bear to see this, so I held Liu and said, "How can you beat her like this?" Wang Airong, Chen Jing and a few other prisoners pushed me away, saying it was none of my business. I pushed them back. Bian Yanhua, a prisoner in my squad, dragged me back to my own room. After quite a while, guard Zhang Lu showed up.

The next day, Guard Chen Yan in charge of my squad came to me, claiming that I beat Chen Jing. I told her what happened, and sighed at nobody punishing the real assailants. Guard Chen expressed her sympathy and helplessness. However, Chief Zhu Xiaoyan didn't believe me. So Guard Chen told me to talk to Chief Zhu again, and I did. Chief Zhu and Guard Zhang Lu were both present when I explained to them, but they didn't listen to me at all. They just scolded me. I felt there was no way I could reason with them. That night, Ms. Jing Fengyun was moved to a big room on the 4th floor. There was a classroom next door, and nobody would be there in the evening. The prisoners in 3rd squad took turns beating Ms. Jing. After two nights, Ms. Jing couldn't tolerate it any more and wrote the "four statements". When Wang Qiuxiang came back from the 4th floor, she said, "I beat her until my wrists hurt. I kicked her until my ankles hurt."

Wang Li, another Falun Gong practitioner, was in her 30s. She was sentenced to eight or ten years. She came to the prison in October 2002 after Ms. Jing Fengyun. The guards forced the prisoner's uniform on her and tried to make her write the "four statements". She was directly moved to the 4th floor from the workshop at around 10pm that night. The guards called names of the prisoners in the 2nd squad and prisoners "volunteered" to go upstairs, where they directly began beating Ms. Wang Li. They seized her by the hair and pushed her to a blackboard. They pointed to the blackboard and asked her, "What kind of person are you? What do you do here?" They wanted her to read the prisoner's rules on the blackboard. [Wang Li refused to acknowledge that she was a criminal. She was sentenced to prison only because she practised Falun Gong, which is based on the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance".] Ms. Wang Li closed her eyes and said nothing. The prisoners pulled her hair and read to her from books that slandered Falun Dafa. They casually slandered Dafa amongst themselves, and beat her whenever they felt like it. Guard Chen Yan went upstairs, and I thought she would stop them from beating Ms. Wang. Instead, she immediately turned back and went downstairs when she saw what was taking place. After Guard Chen left, the prisoners beat Ms. Wang even more fiercely. A prisoner shouted to her, "Open your eyes and look at me. My name is Liu Shumei. I am beating you. What can you do about it? Ask anyone if they saw me beating you. Nobody did. Did you guys see me beating her? No!" Some of the other prisoners who beat Ms. Wang include Tian Hua, Han Liyun, Wang Qiuxiang, Gao Lei, Chai Shujie, and Yang Yuping.

Ms. Yang Mingfang, another Falun Gong practitioner in her 30s, was sentenced to four years in prison. In October 2003, seven or eight practitioners, were transferred to other districts from the 3rd district. Only Ms. Yang Mingfang and three or four other practitioners were left. Ms. Yang felt she wasn't living up to a practitioner's standards, and decided to stop wearing the prisoner's nametag. She refused to do the labour meant for criminals because she was not a criminal and refused to be treated like one. Nearly every other practitioner followed her and refused to wear the nametag and planned to stop doing the criminal labour. For more than a month, the guards tried everything to break her, but they all failed. Finally several guards, including Bian Yanhua and Gao Kun, took her to a solitary compartment and tortured her with the "dead person's bed" [2]. Her four limbs were stretched out and tied to the four corners of a cold metal bed. None of her joints could move at all. She was not allowed to get up to eat, drink, or go to the toilet. Ms. Yang Mingfang couldn't tolerate the torture and gave in against her will. She was never the same after that. She had a dull look in her eyes if anyone mentioned the "dead person's bed" to her. In January 2004, Ms. Dong Guiling, Ms. Xiang Xiaomin and a few other practitioners, were locked in solitary compartments for the second time. I don't know what became of them.

The above statements are what I witnessed in the Heizuizi Female Prison. They are all facts, except that I may be mistaken on some of the exact dates. I hope this will help everyone better understand what happens to practitioners who are illegally imprisoned in the female prisons.

[1] The so called "four statements" are four statements that Falun Gong practitioners are forced to write in the prison. In the statements, declaration is made that one 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 Dafa practitioners.

[2] Dead Person's Bed: The four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed. The practitioner cannot move at all. Neither is he allowed to get up to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. This treatment would last from several hours up to more than a dozen days. This type of cruel torture causes severe damage to the practitioner both mentally and physically.

[3] Big Hang Up: There are two forms in this torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is pulled.

[4] Punishment by forcing to stand for a long time: means that the victim has to stand, facing a wall all day long except for the time spent eating

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/27/70990.html