A Former Female Prison Guard's Story (Part 2)

Part 1:

Witnessing the Bloody Suppression in Tiananmen Square

On October 1st, 2000, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square I witnessed public security policemen, troops and anti-riot policemen openly carrying out violence against Falun Dafa practitioners, who lead their lives according to "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance."

It was around 8:20 a.m. when the crowd formed and became vocal. I saw some foreigners shouting "Falun Gong," so I tried to squeeze into the crowd. At the time, a young man dashed out from the square and shouted, "Everyone who is kindhearted and every Chinese with a conscience should step out and help them..." Before he even finished his sentence, five or six plainclothes policemen overtook him, knocking him down to the ground. Before hitting the ground, his eyes, nose and mouth were already bleeding.

While being knocked down, the young man struggled to take off his jacket to reveal the yellow T-shirt he wore inside. On the back of the T-shirt were the three large words "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." I rushed toward the perpetrators, saying, "Do not hit him. He is a good man." Then a plainclothes policeman yelled at me, "We are on duty plainclothes officers. Stay away!" I said, "I'm also an officer. An officer is supposed to stop criminals and protect the innocent. It is wrong to hit innocent people like this." At the time, I was also in regular clothes. I shielded the injured practitioner with my body. The policemen then dragged the practitioner by his feet to the center of the square, with the practitioner's head scraping along the ground, leaving a bloody trail as they dragged him along.

By that time the dense crowd had dispersed, and what remained in the square were the sounds of cursing from policemen and screams of pain from the Falun Dafa practitioners, mixed together with the sounds of "Falun Dafa is good" and "Falun Dafa is a righteous way." Had I not seen this with my own eyes, I would not have believed it.

As one outcry after another emerged, the Falun Dafa practitioners who had been knocked down to the ground were dragged from wherever they fell to the center of the square. At that time, I saw the entire Tiananmen Square surrounded by three groups of personnel: public security policemen wearing their new uniforms formed the outer circle, the military troops were in the middle, and the anti-riot policemen with helmets and nightsticks were in the inner circle. They acted as if they had trained for this situation. They struck the practitioners' heads, and almost every blow was strong enough to knock a practitioner down. At the time, some Falun Dafa practitioners were shouting, "Falun Dafa is good," some practiced the Falun Gong exercises and others unfolded banners. Every one was struck down, knocked unconscious and dragged by their feet to the center of the square.

I followed them to the very center of the square. I also saw a policeman holding down a female Falun Dafa practitioner, who was shouting, "Falun Dafa is good." The policeman, who was wearing a pair of black boots, violently kicked the practitioner in the face. The woman's face was bleeding and one of her eyes popped out from its socket. She screamed in horror and tried to put her eye back with her hands, yet she was still cursed at by the policeman and dragged to the center of the square.

I saw a heap of bodies forming at the center of the square. The policemen carried a Falun Dafa practitioner by his arms and legs, and threw him onto the pile of bodies as if they were tossing luggage around. This practitioner happened to land on a female practitioner. She was carrying a baby in her arms, and at her side was a four or five year old boy who was trying to hold onto her leg and crying out, "Mama! Mama!" The female practitioner and I desperately tried to pull out the small child, who had been thrown into the pile. The "thud" of the bodies landing on the pile continued. I palpitated with anxiety and fear at every successive horrible scene; my mind was completely blank. We quickly pulled the little baby out. The baby's eyes were closed and made no sounds at all. At that time we did not even have time to check if the baby was alive. The mother just held the baby in her arms.

The policemen then carried Falun Dafa practitioners from the pile of bodies and threw them into two military canvas-top trucks. As soon as a truck was filled with practitioners, they drove away, and we had no idea where the truck was going. That was when I realized the cruel reality. I tried my best to shout out loud, "Protect the injured Falun Dafa practitioners! Don't let the evil take them away." A policeman pointed his nightstick at me and said, "You. Kneel down!" I also pointed at him, "I did not commit any crime, why should I kneel down? You are the ones who are committing crimes. Sooner or later you will receive karmic retribution."

I don't know if it was because the policeman could not reach me or because he was simply struck by his conscience. He lifted his nightstick and gaped at me, and then he dropped his nightstick and turned back to run after other Falun Dafa practitioners. I linked my arms with other Falun Dafa practitioners who had struggled to get up, and arm in arm we made a circle to surround the injured practitioners. Meanwhile, the practitioners who were still conscious shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is a righteous way." Hundreds of us shouted out loud together, shaking heaven and earth. The policemen were kept outside of the circle, and they violently kicked at our backs and legs, but we simply refused to unclasp our arms. Even if a practitioner was knocked down, his or her arms still held fast to the other practitioners' arms. A foreigner took some pictures, but a gang of policemen quickly knocked the camera to the ground, removed the film and arrested the foreigner. Soon after, many buses followed by carload after carload of military policemen arrived. We were forced into the buses, and we lost track of the remaining injured Falun Dafa practitioners. The bloody incident lasted just over 40 minutes.

We were taken to a Beijing suburb. A driver was supposed to pay a toll when he crossed a certain bridge. I heard someone outside say, "Nineteen buses." We exited the bus and assembled in front of two empty buildings in the suburb. A roster was taken of the male and female practitioners. During their conversation, I overheard the policemen say there were about 2,600 male practitioners and about 2,800 female practitioners. At around 2:30 a.m. that night, practitioners were still being arrested and brought in, and many of them were families who were arrested together. Many female practitioners held their children in their arms. Whenever a group of people came in, we would stand up and applaud. The oldest was over eighty years old and the youngest was only a couple of months old. That night we were dispatched to different locations and interrogated separately. We were sent to different police stations and detention centers in Beijing, where they verified our ID's. The ones who were steadfast were sent to forced labor camps.

Here I'm exposing the truth about the incident that CCTV characterized as, "a small group of Falun Gong practitioners rioted in Tiananmen Square."

4. From a Detention Center in Beijing to a Forced Labor Camp in Jilin City

Because we did not want to implicate our supervisors from our work units or our family members, most of the Falun Dafa practitioners resolutely refused to give the police our names or addresses. On the second night, the police singled me out, put me in a jeep and sent me to a detention center in a Beijing suburb. At the time, there was dense fog, so I could not see, nor was I told where I was being taken. After I arrived at the detention center, the police locked me in a cell with six other Falun Dafa practitioners who had previously been taken there. We sat on the icy cold cement floor. They did not give us food, nor did they allow us to use the restroom. The second night they used the criminal inmates to search our bodies, and they found my ID, which indicated that I was a police officer. They refused to acknowledge this and referred to me as "number 13 Falun Dafa practitioner" instead.

In order to protest the persecution, I went on a hunger strike, refusing food and water. They put me under 24-hour camera surveillance, with the police using criminal inmates to watch me. During the day, they made me mop floors, and they took turns interrogating me. The person who was responsible for interrogating and watching me was a tall male inmate. The first night when he questioned me, he said to me, "Ma'am, I know you are a cop. I have no issue touching a prostitute or a drug addict, but I don't dare to touch you. I know that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. I still have a little bit of conscience left." I said, "Thanks. Good will be rewarded with good and evil will be rewarded with evil. Your good thought towards Falun Dafa will result in good things for you in the future."

When I first arrived at the detention center, an inmate who committed fraud told me about the situation in this detention center. In the beginning, the inmates were especially cruel to Falun Dafa practitioners. Later, after being moved by the practitioners' conduct, they slowly resolved the conflicts and their minds were touched by Falun Dafa's principles. From the bottom of their hearts they repented for the crimes they had committed. They asked me to write the Fa-principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" in their toothpaste cases and soapboxes, and everyday they recited them and tried to follow them. At night, when I was forced to stand still for long periods of time, I taught them how to do the exercises in the restroom. Our environment became harmonious and peaceful. On the seventh night, when they notified me that I was going back to Jilin City, we hugged and encouraged each other while in tears.

In this detention center in Beijing, I lived through the tribulation of a hunger strike without food and water for seven days. I experienced the supernormal effects of the Buddha Law. The Beijing police confiscated all the money I had with me, which was more than six hundred yuan, and cut my ID card to pieces. They threw my keys and belt into a furnace, and confiscated the nice clothes and shoes I was wearing. On the seventh day, I was sent back to Jilin City and detained at the 1st Detention Center.

The Jilin City Detention Center put me and another Falun Dafa practitioner, along with 15 felons, in one room. Among them were pimps, a murderer, gun smugglers, thugs who committed aggravated assault, and so on. One of the inmates had tuberculosis and was already coughing up blood. She had a high fever that would not go down and she kept coughing up blood. The seventeen of us were packed into a small room of only a dozen square meters in size, where we ate, drank, and relieved ourselves. We were not allowed to open a door or window for seventeen days. The tuberculosis patient continued to cough up bloody phlegm, and the air was filled with the stench of sweat and dirt. Meanwhile, in the outside corridor where the police walked in and out, disinfectant was sprayed three times a day.

During that time, the inmates would not let the tuberculosis patient sleep on the bed. They forced her to sleep on the floor and would not let her use any of the eating utensils. Another Falun Dafa practitioner and I brought her water, washed her dishes, and folded her sheets for her. Afterward, I began coughing like a tuberculosis patient, and they said I also had tuberculosis. They asked me to take medicine, which I refused. I told them that I went to Beijing to inform people about hte truth and to stand up for Falun Dafa. I firmly believe in Teacher and Falun Dafa. I overcame the tuberculosis attack and again experienced the extraordinary miracle of the Buddha Law.

The detention center did not let my family or colleagues visit me. They only told my family to deposit money, send in materials and blankets, and they denied them visitation rights. The police only told my family members that I remained stubborn and refused to be "transformed." I have six sisters, being the third of seven children. Everyday someone from my family was outside waiting for any information about me. In the detention center, I often heard my fifth sister crying out, "Wang Shuzhen." There were also letters from my husband and son encouraging me to undergo "transformation." I understood that the so-called 'transformation" meant giving up the practice of Falun Dafa and betraying my conscience. Every second in the detention center, I was constantly making choices between good and evil.

On the 17th day, the police told me to pack and go home. I left the wool sweater and pants that my family had sent me for the other inmates. Wearing only thin clothes, I was secretly taken to the Changchun City Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, where I served two years of a forced labour term. As I passed through the detention center's gate, I saw my sisters and brother-in-laws. My family knew nothing about my transfer and was still waiting outside. Sitting in the police car and watching my family becoming smaller and smaller through the rearview window, I was heartbroken. I thought about the pain that my innocent family members had been enduring as a result of the persecution.

In the statements the police took from me at the detention center and forced labor camp, I always spoke about my experience of being persecuted in Tiananmen Square. The people who took down my statements never truly recorded what I said during the interrogation. Because there was no evidence that I had broken the law, the police took things out of context and fabricated charges. They dared not write down the facts and tried to get me to consider their "difficulties." They said that because they had to support their families, if they wrote down the truth they would lose their jobs. There was no justice in the judicial system. The nation's laws and citizens' human rights were trampled. I refused to sign my name in some statements and wrote down "not guilty" in others. (To be continued.)