I Was Forced to Abort My Five Month Pregnancy While Detained in a Labour Camp

My name is Liu Zhiping. I'm 32 years old and work at the Transportation Hotel for the Chuxiongzhou Transportation Corporation in Yunnan Province. Because I appealed for Falun Gong, in early 2000 I was sentenced to forced labour and sent to the Women's Forced Labour Camp in Yunnan Province. In August 2000 I was forced to abort my five month pregnancy so that they could continue to detain and persecute me. Following are details:

I started practising Falun Gong in August 1997. The persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999. Since then, the leaders in my work unit kept telling me to give up the practice and to criticise Falun Gong. When they failed to persuade me after several conversations with me, I was told to stop working and to report to the headquarters' Youth League Committee for a one-month education session.

Just a week before the 2000 Spring Holiday, more than ten of us practitioners decided to go to Beijing to appeal. When we were on the train to Beijing, a fellow practitioner heard the news from a train radio that a railway staff got sick and urgently needed to see a doctor. Out of a doctor's professional ethics, this practitioner volunteered to treat the patient and kindly talked about the miraculous effects of Falun Gong. At that time, a secret, official order had been distributed to all local government branches, that any individual or groups would be rewarded if they reported Falun Gong practitioners who were travelling to Beijing to appeal.

While the train staff celebrated they would get a bonus for the incident, the more than ten of us were forced to get off the train and were held at Changsha City' Detention Centre. Later we were transferred to the Chuxiongzhou Detention Centre. After being detained for one month, one practitioner was sentenced to jail; two others were sentenced to forced labour and the rest of us continued being detained for a total of 58 days. Some of the practitioners and their work units were fined heavily, as much as almost 10,000 Yuan per person. After all attempts to appeal to no any high authority were in vain, we started a hunger strike. Five days later we were released home but under house watch.

On April 25th, Ma Xuewu from the Political and Security Section led several police officers to pull me to a police car and took me to the station. I was handcuffed to a rail along the hallway. Later, three more practitioners were arrested and sent in. One of them was over 70 years old. We were not allowed to talk about the truth and were handcuffed to the rails for twenty-four hours. With the exception of the elderly practitioner, the rest of us were sent to the detention centre again. On May 2nd I was secretly sent to the Women's Forced Labour Camp in Yunnan Province for two years of forced labour. No one knew my sentence and my whereabouts. I was pregnant when I was arrested in April, but the labour camp didn't know it.

On the second day in the labour camp, I was brutally beaten by the head of No.2 Division, Ma for doing the Falun Dafa exercises and then was further punished, to stand under the direct sunlight for long hours during the following three days. I was ordered to move when the sunlight moved, so that I was never in the shade. Two prisoners were designated as "personal cangues" (1) to supervise me. I was not allowed to talk to other practitioners or other inmates. They assigned me to the farm team, to do heavy labour such as picking beans, digging dirt or carrying excrement in buckets on a shoulder pole.

In June, after daily heavy work, before going to bed, they would send someone to ask me whether I still insisted on practising Falun Gong. I said yes. They would punish all inmates with me in the cell to stand for long hours without sleep. Those inmates would scold and insult me after being implicated. Later I was punished by having to run for long hours around the courtyard until early morning when all the lights in the cells were turned off. If I said no to practising Falun Dafa, I would be allowed to have a good sleep. At that time I was already three months pregnant. Although working during the daytime and forced to run at night, I still didn't yield to such coercion. They became more vicious after one week passed. One day after running till 2:00 A.M., I started to do the Falun Dafa exercises. Prison guard Yin incited two drug offenders to beat me brutally. Afraid of others knowing their evildoing, they put me in a cell alone. I was handcuffed to the bunk bed rails. My body was forced and stretched out like a cross. I started a hunger strike to protest. Since then they gradually reduced their physical torture.

My sister was then detained at the No.2 Division. She heard some drug offenders talk about me and was so sad and cried. She informed the labour camp about my pregnancy. A few days later, the labour camp authorities informed my family and sent me to a hospital for a camp-ordered abortion. With righteous thoughts, the medicine didn't take effect. In August 2000 I was five months pregnant. Many prison guards told me that I qualified to be bailed out for medical treatment. Later I heard a leader had said viciously, "Without her reforming, there is no way for her to get out of here."

I was again sent to a hospital and injected with the abortion medicine. I lost the baby. After I came back from the hospital, the labour camp changed the "personal cangues" and my sister was sent to stay with me in the same cell. I was forced to read the articles that framed Falun Gong. At first I refused to read them, but my mind was twisted from brainwashing and I did a really bad thing.

Thanks to Teacher's great compassion I was able return to Falun Dafa and cultivate diligently again. I now see hope. Many people are learning the truth, and their desire to become good people is gradually awakened. More people are beginning to practise. In spite of being cruelly persecuted and being misunderstood, practitioners still go to many different places to clarify the truth, to tell the principle of retribution [good is rewarded with good and evil brings its own consequences] and to tell people, "Falun Dafa is great."

Editor's note: The author's "solemn declaration" will also be published.

Note: (1) Personal Cangues: cangue, the name of an instrument of torture, is now used to indicate the person who was designated to supervise the behaviour of practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/25/85014.html