The Inhumane "War Against Steadfast Practitioners" in the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre

One evening in December 2000, police came to my house and asked me to go with them for a quick talk. Nine months later, I finally returned home, after police had extorted over 10,000 Yuan (1) from me. They detained me simply because I cultivate Falun Gong and believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance."

At the end of June 2002, police came to the detention centre and took me to the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre, where they said I would stay for two-years. When we arrived, I was rejected after a physical examination. The assistant director of the police station told my husband to pay 4,000 Yuan to get me out on medical parole. My husband requested a receipt if they wanted the money. They would not provide a receipt so they did not get the money. They concealed the record of my physical examination and obtained another detention warrant from the police bureau. I clarified the truth to the assistant director. He said: "It is no use saying anything. I merely carry out orders from higher authorities. I have to do it even if the orders are wrong. I don't believe in retribution." He was later arrested for drug trafficking.

In July 2002, I was again sent to a forced labour camp. On the way there, a division head of the forced labour camp said: "Nowadays, we don't care about your physical condition. Whether you're sick or not, as long as you're alive, you will be admitted." Twenty of us were sent to the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Immediately after we arrived, they forced us to sit on stools for fifteen hours a day. The police applied "tight control" to us around the clock. Because we persisted in our cultivation, and refused "transformation," [being forced to renounce one's belief in Falun Gong] we were often forced to stand until midnight. Police assigned inmates to watch us. Those inmates colluded with prison guards to brutally persecute us, and often fabricated incidents and lies to frame us. They were rewarded with reduced jail terms if they "performed well" in persecuting us.

On November 12, 2002, the forced labour camp held a so-called meeting on "waging war against steadfast practitioners," calling for the use of forceful "transformation." The assistant director with last name of Chen made a speech, calling for all inmates to follow her orders and cooperate with her plans. She promised those who performed well would have their prison terms cut in half. Terror quickly spread throughout the labour camp. Directors, instructors, and squadron leaders issued orders, and inmates executed the orders with a vengeance. Basements, offices of directors, instructors, and leaders, lounges, storage rooms, and many other places were turned into torture chambers. Several torture instruments were often used simultaneously, including cuffs, electric batons, metal chairs, and metal rings. Tortures such as forced squat, cuffing to a metal frame, cuffing to a radiator, cuffing to a pillar, cuffing to bed frame, cuffing to metal chair, and sitting on metal chair in a solitary cell were used. Over one hundred practitioners were brought to different torture chambers. The leader, Li Quanming, from the second squadron instructed an inmate to unevenly cut our hair off, and derided us as ghosts with dishevelled hair. Led by squadron leader Zhang Yushu, over a dozen male and female prison guards formed a gang to take turns beating Falun Dafa practitioners. Practitioners' eyes and mouths were sealed with tape to prevent them from seeing and speaking. The weather was very cold, but the persecutors stripped practitioners down to their underwear, while they wore warm clothes. Then, they opened all the windows to let the freezing air chill the thinly dressed practitioners, and dunked practitioners in cold water to soak their undergarments, then poured cold water on them to make them completely wet. Practitioner's bodies were also sprayed with a chemical that caused a hot, numb, and burning feeling. Practitioners were given only two meals a day, a few meagre teaspoons of soup. The rest of the mealtime, they were force-fed highly concentrated salt water every 20 minutes. This was done by pulling the hair back, forcing the mouth open, and pouring the salt water in. Practitioners were not allowed to drink any water. If they needed to use the bathroom, they had to do it in front of many men and women and would be ridiculed and scolded. The inmates who beat Falun Gong practitioners were provided with good meals of delicious food. The inmates were praised and encouraged: After three days of attacking Falun Gong practitioners, inmates got one month reduction in their prison terms.

Criminal offender Ma Yufang incessantly tortured practitioners, pulling their hair, smacking their ears, punching, kicking, and pouring cold water over them. She even put her hands into the pants of female practitioners, twisted their genital area, and pulled their pubic hair. She and a male policeman with the last name of Zhang laughed when they heard the practitioners' screams. A practitioner from Daqing with the last name of Wang was tortured by inmates with all kinds of torture instruments. One of her front teeth was kicked out. A practitioner from Muling with the last name of Zhou was shocked with an electric baton and subjected to other brutal tortures for over ten hours, and her genital area was shocked so brutally that she urinated blood for many days. Practitioner Jiang Rongzhen, 44, from Jixi, died from the torture. To conceal the death-from-torture information, practitioners who knew of the incidents were kept under tight surveillance and prohibited from contacting other people. Jiang Rongzhen's family was told that she "died of a heart attack." A practitioner from Bamiantong with the last name of Song was tortured until she spit blood. She suffered life-threatening high fever and frequent unconsciousness, and the perpetrators feared she might die in the labour camp. So they told her family to pay 3,000 Yuan for her release, claiming that she had tuberculosis and was on medical parole. A practitioner from Jixi was shocked with an electric baton and subjected to other torture so brutal that this practitioner's legs became weak and she had difficulty walking, and her back became numb from the electric shock. The squadron leader took her to the hospital for examination. She was diagnosed with degenerative nerve injury in the soft tissue of her back. The doctor asked the leader what crime she had committed and why she was tortured so brutally. The squadron leader dared not reveal the truth, and told him that she did not obey management control. A practitioner from Ningan was held in solitary confinement for nine days and was often made to squat for extended periods for resisting the high pressure of "transformation" and for writing a proclamation promising to persistently cultivate Falun Dafa. She was forced to squat for 18 hours a day, from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., for seven months. A practitioner asked the squadron leader Zhao Wei, "Why do you do these kinds of completely irrational things? We did not commit any crime. Aren't you harming people?" The leader Zhao Wei said: "We have to do it because of this uniform. If I am asked to kill people, I will do it." These people are being used to kill others. After three days and nights of incessantly brutal torture, most Falun Dafa practitioners are seriously injured. It is shockingly cruel.

I had been cuffed in three different places in the prison. The perpetrators sprayed my hand and arm with a chemical that caused a numb and hot feeling. Then two criminal offenders cuffed my hands onto a broad metal frame. One criminal offender stepped on the cuffs on my wrists while she placed her hands on the shoulders of the other offender. First she stamped her feet, and then she jumped violently, while demanding that I accept the brainwashing. I said no, and she jumped even harder. She instructed another criminal offender to pull my hair and slap my face. When her hand began to hurt, she took off her shoe and hit my face with her shoe until she became very tired. At noon, the squadron leader and instructors came to ask me if I accepted transformation. I said: "I do not accept transformation!" Instructor Dai Wangdan said: "Won't be transformed? Carry her to the special cell. I want to at least scrape a layer of skin from her, if not her life." They then cuffed me to a metal ring on the floor and instructed criminal offenders to pour cold water over me, and dunked me into cold water. While criminal offenders trampled my feet, the instructors started to shock me with an electric baton. After a while, they added another baton and shocked me with two electric batons simultaneously, one on my upper body and one on my lower body. They continued to shock me in attempt to force me to accept transformation. I refused, so they increased the voltage. My body jerked and jumped to sitting position due to the shocking. Because my hands were cuffed to the metal rings on the floor, I was violently pulled back down to the concrete floor. My head hit on the floor several times, causing me to lose consciousness. They kicked me, cursed me, and poured cold water over me. They shocked me again when I came to. After three hours of continuous shocking, a male instructor with the last name of Shi said maliciously: "She has tolerance for the shocking. Take off her shoes and shock the bottom of her feet. It is more powerful." They started to shock the underside of my feet in attempt to force me to accept transformation. When I refused, they placed the electric baton along all five toes and shocked them simultaneously while shocking my chest with the other baton. After a while, the instructor said: "Turn over her legs. Shock the muscles behind the knees. After four hours of this continuous, brutal torture, they even started to shock my genital area, using such despicable means to force me to accept transformation.

On New Year's Day 2003, over twenty people from the political and legal committee, "610 Office," (2) police bureau, and sub-bureaus from the city where I live, came to the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Center. They brought camcorders and cameras with them. They claimed that they came to see the Falun Gong practitioners, but actually were trying to fabricate false achievements in transforming Falun Gong practitioners. Prison guard Sun Yanxiu threatened me: "Today, the leaders from your region are coming to see you. When they come you should say what you are allowed to say and don't say anything you shouldn't say. If you say something that you shouldn't say (implying revealing the death of practitioners from torture) you can forget about ever going back home. I will send you directly to prison." Since the "War against steadfast Falun Gong practitioners" began, whenever higher authorities, delegations, or visitors came, they would shut the Falun Gong practitioners who knew the depth of this cruel persecution into secret places until the higher authorities or delegations had left. Coercion cannot change people's hearts! In this evil situation, we only became more determined toward Dafa! Many practitioners wrote solemn statements to void their declarations made under forced "transformation." When all the statements were handed in, the perpetrators were shocked, and took further action. They cuffed some of these practitioners and tried to force them to rescind their statements. More practitioners were injured, crippled, and paralysed from torture. A practitioner with the last name of He from Hegang was cuffed to radiator behind her back for many days. Her legs were severely injured and she became unable to walk. She lost the ability to take care of herself. A practitioner from Daqing with the last name of Xing was cuffed behind her back to a metal chair and forced to squat for many days. Her legs became numb, making it difficult to walk, but she was still detained. When criminal offenders tortured her, they put their hand into her pants and twisted the flesh on her inner thighs, leaving many dark bruises.

In November 2003, another Falun Dafa practitioner in the second squadron died from brutal beating. Her name is not known.

In February 2004, an 18-year-old under-graduate student practitioner from Hulan with the last name of Zhang, was sent to the drug rehabilitation center, where she was tortured for over forty days in an attempt to force her to accept transformation. On November 23, 2003, I was again subjected to brutal torture because I persisted in my cultivation, refused to accept education by hard labour, and refused to write a "diary of reformation." The weather was very cold, but they stripped off my sweater, cuffed me from behind to the metal chair in solitary confinement for over fifteen days, and threatened to extend my jail term. I steadfastly objected to all the persecution that has been forced upon me.

Notes:

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

(2) "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at target=blank>http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/25/77942.html