Kaifeng City Practitioner Li Xiaocui Describes the Persecution She Experienced

I'm Li Xiaocui, a female Falun Dafa practitioner from Kaifeng City, Henan Province. I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa three times and was unjustly arrested each time. On May 12, 2000, I was detained in a Detention Centre. On the morning of June 14, 2000, a female and male police officer brutally tortured me. They chained my feet and cuffed my hands behind my back. While chaining my feet, they used two one-foot long wrenches to tighten the chains. As a result, the shinbone in my left leg was broken. In addition, they caused wounds, bruises, swelling, and bleeding all over my lower legs. They cuffed my hands behind me for thirteen hours and chained my feet for five days.

In December 2000, I began to feel severe pain in my feet, as if stuck with needles. Later, the sensation spread to both legs. In the past three years, it has become more and more severe, and it is still very painful. One time, the Political Instructor led ten people to forcibly press me to the ground and force-feed me. They inserted a rubber tube through my nostril. The pipe blocked my windpipe, and I almost suffocated to death.

On June 16, 2000, I was sent to a brainwashing programme run by the "610 Office" in Kaifeng City. Because I defended the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and resisted the brainwashing, I was sent to a Detention Centre that noon. In the evening, a policewoman chained my feet as well as those of other Dafa practitioners. Later, they used a new method of torture--threading the handcuffs through the foot chains. In this way, practitioners could not straighten up from the waist; it was very painful. In addition, they humiliated and swore at practitioners. They deprived us of sleep for five days and five nights. If we closed our eyes, they immediately applied a caustic ointment to our eyes.

Because I was determined in Falun Dafa, they eventually sentenced me to three years of forced labour. On August 31, 2001, I was sent to Henan Province Women's Labour Camp located in Zhengzhou City, where they humiliated and tortured me. They beat me and swore at me, used force-feeding, handcuffing, hanging up with ropes, and slave labour. (95% of practitioners detained there had been hung up by ropes.) On the coldest days in winter, they opened the windows and forced us to stand for a very long time. My feet and legs became numb and swollen. Still, they forced me to stand for three days and three nights. Several times they forced me to stand until 3:00 a.m. Since I refused to give up Falun Gong they extended my detention by eight months. I survived and was released on January 11, 2004.

Over four years of brutal torture has caused both my feet and legs to become chronically numb, swollen, and painful. Although I was not killed by the abuses, I am disabled and unable to work. My husband, terrified by my arrest and detention, died three years ago due to mental anguish. Now I only have a lonely daughter at home, who is suffering from the harm inflicted on our family.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/8/20/82173.html