A Former Prison Guard's Story (Part 3)

By Jilin City Practitioner Ms. Wang Shuzhen

Part 1:http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/28/52898.html
Part 2:http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/5/53160.html

Facing violence and persecution, I passed through the crisis clear-headedly and reasonably thanks to my firm belief in Falun Dafa. On Oct. 18, 2000 I was illegally jailed in Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, where I suffered more brutal psychological and physical persecution. It was said that more than 2000 Falun Dafa practitioners were detained there at that time.

At first, another 60-year-old Dafa practitioner and I were detained in the newly vacated dorm. We were segregated and not allowed to talk. The dorm was neat and tidy, spacious and bright, completely changed from its former gloom and terror. From the guards to the director, all wore amiable and smiling faces and always said we could ask for their help if we had any needs. We did not need to work and were given 4 meals each day. They claimed that we were weak, so they provided meat in every meal, sometimes even with chicken and fried fish. There was also fixed brainwashing programming or "news" broadcasts for us to watch, set up by the labour camp. I mistakenly thought that all 2000 detained Falun Dafa practitioners were treated this way and that the state had spent so much manpower and material resources.

At that time Yu De, the director of Jilin Province Prison Administration Bureau, brought me Bureau Secretary Xu's greetings and books. Yu De said in the presence of camp director Fan and guard Zang Ping: "I told you in the name of Secretary Xu that you weren't fired from your government job since no paperwork was done. You did not commit any crimes, and only made some mistakes. After your release, you will still be a good policewoman."

I misinterpreted officials' feigned "concern" for me as genuine, when in fact it was simply contrived to help them achieve their own corrupt ends, lining their own pockets while following orders from Jiang's crooked faction. In this way I walked along a wrong path for some time and was a shameful "helper" in my work unit and a propaganda weapon used by the evildoers.

After becoming a "helper", I was detained in the newly founded Division 7 of the forced labour camp. The former false "kind and positive" atmosphere disappeared. The so-called "education and help", and "kind" guards had been a complete deception. I was illegally detained with many practitioners. We lived in a damp, dark and dirty old building. The guards carried electric batons all day. They would shock practitioners who persisted in practicing their belief, and made them stand even at night. The guards shocked steadfast practitioners on the neck. As a result, their skin was burned and their necks were swollen as thick as their heads. The guards used the tactic of besieging practitioners day and night and depriving them of sleep. As long as there was another day that the practitioners refused to give up Falun Gong, the sentence for the criminal inmates assigned to monitor them would be extended for 1 day. In this way the guards incited the criminals to hate practitioners, and consequently they often savagely beat the practitioners at night.

The wrongdoers also created family disputes, employed a policy of implication and profit in order to coerce others to commit crimes. Under the secret orders "murdering them is allowed and if they are killed it is counted as suicide", frightening tragedies were often heard or seen. Some practitioners were persecuted to mental collapse during one night and ran around naked, some would rather die than give in, some were not able to bear the persecution so as a last resort they sadly hit themselves against the radiator, and some protested by hunger striking. In the forced labour camp, it often happened that Falun Dafa practitioners were killed or wounded. The shocking bloody events were enough to make one bristle with anger. The persecution is already extreme. However, in the propaganda TV programme Falun Dafa practitioners were deprecated and defamed with hypocritical and disgusting lies.

Facing the cruelly persecuted practitioners and doing slave labour while being deprived of sleep, I was in a living hell. To make money and destroy my will, the bad people often made me join other brigades to do overtime after I had finished all the work in my own brigade, or arranged for me to learn some manual labor skills from cellmates with scabies. In the name of "catching up on back orders", we were forced to husk soybeans with less than 3 hours sleep for 15 consecutive days. We began to work at 5 a.m. and finished at 11 p.m. After work we were forced to write all kinds of "thought reports."

We worked for 18 hours at a time husking seeds in a dark and damp room. The dust from sieving the beans irritated us to coughing and breathlessness. Our noses and faces were covered with black dust, even our mucous would be black and muddy. Since there was too much dust, we had to leave the windows wide open, even in winter, leaving the skin of our hands cracked and our fingers worn and bleeding. As a result the soybeans were often stained with blood. We had to finish husking 90 kilograms (198 lbs.) of soybeans every day. This left our eyes red, swollen and teary.

I recall March 8, 2001. As of then we had worked day and night for 3 successive days. At 7:30 a.m. another 74 tons of soybeans arrived in two carloads. In addition, 22 tons of husked soybeans needed to be loaded. So we needed to load or unload a total of 96 tons before lunch. We were exhausted, but forced to labor under the guards' yelling. At the beginning, more than 30 of us carried 45-kilogram bags of husked soybeans from the third floor to the ground floor to load the cart. Then we carried 65-kilogram bags of raw seeds up to the third floor, without any rest in between. Some of us were teenagers and others were older folks over 50. Some were fatigued to the point of vomiting up breakfast, some strained their lower backs and were not able to exert their strength, and some could not carry a bag alone, so they had to share one bag with others. The cold-hearted guards yelled at everyone.

Even the boss who brought in the big loads of soybeans could not bear the sight. So he tried to give a hand to hoist the bags, all the while arguing with the camp director: "Everyone has sisters: how can you be so inhuman?" The boss had his workers come with the carts to help, saying that since he pays the workers, he can have them help. But the director refused. Later, the boss threatened to cancel the contract with the forced labour camp, and only then did the guards allow the workers to help out.

Every 2 hours that day, I loaded and unloaded around 16 times. The maximum was 17 times. Each time I climbed up to third floor then went down to first floor it was like climbing over a big mountain. By the 10th time going upstairs, the 65-kilograms bags overloaded me (my height is 154cm (5'2"), and I weigh is 45 kilograms (99 lbs.). I could not straighten my back and my legs were aching and limp, sweat streamed down my body with and I was very thirsty, my heart seemed as though it would jump out of my chest. When I got to the second floor, I felt a reeking of blood in my throat surging out, as if I was going to vomit blood.

Good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be punished with evil. The truth will endure forever. Under 5 years of brutal persecution by the Jiang Zemin regime, Falun Dafa practitioners have not given in. We have become more clear-headed, rational and steadfast. Falun Dafa has spread to more than 60 countries, and has received over 1200 awards. Jiang is being sued for "crimes against humanity, genocide, and torture" in more than 10 countries. The Tiananmen Square staged immolation was branded by international organizations as a murder case set up to frame Falun Gong.

Jiang's faction replaced law with power. They declared some people guilty and then cooked up legislation to "justify" it. They ignored the constitution and violated human rights by applying torture before trial. It set up the "610 office", a terrorist organization by all accounts, which disregards both the constitution and the law to persecute good citizens. It changed the people's government into a persecution machine, coercing people who are unwilling to participate in the persecution - from officials to civic employees to common people - to abandon their conscience and cooperate in slandering and persecuting innocent and kind Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang blocked all means for people to express their ideas, and so they had to go to Tiananmen Square to appeal, yet these kind, peaceful people are being persecuted so brutally. It is absolutely against the law and heavenly principles alike. Falun Dafa practitioners are not violating any laws and regulations. What we have done is to exercise our citizens' rights as granted by the constitution, and doing our duty as citizens.

During my detention in the detention centre and the forced labour camp, I was fired 4 times with different excuses. The first time I was fired it was on the police regulations item 22. But actually, according to the regulations, it is not allowed to fire someone during his/her forced labor sentence. The second time, my work unit claimed I was fired before I went to Beijing. But that is contrary to the facts since my police ID and entry ID were effective until October 2001. The third time, the excuse was that I had been absent from work for 15 days. But in fact I went to Beijing on my vacation time. When I was illegally detained, nobody took my place, so my husband did my job in my stead. In addition, my family members took care of the pump station for one month in my stead. My work unit did not pay for that. The fourth time, I was fired with the excuse that I was not qualified to be a policewoman. So, I was given a set amount of time within which to switch jobs.

The law enforcement office violated the law while enforcing the law. How can the dignity of the law be maintained? In all of China's vastness, is there no place for people to speak out to uphold their human rights? The public security offices, procuratorates, judiciary offices, and the army all became tools for lawless officials to persecute good people. I tried to do entrepreneurial work, but was unable to get a license without paperwork from my previous work unit. After 2 years of my release from the forced labor camp, the Changchun Street office in Chuanying District, Jilin City still held my 2000 yuan bail fee and confiscated 2000 yuan as a "fee for bringing me back from Beijing". The lawless personnel went to Beijing to arrest Falun Dafa practitioners, and still shamelessly extorted them for "travel expenses". This roguish action is even worse than bandits.

Lies can never cover up the heinous truth, and the perpetrators cannot escape severe punishment by blocking news and destroying criminal evidence. The facts will be revealed to the world. For the persecution I have suffered, I will seek justice for all the legal rights of which I was deprived. I call on all just people to lend a hand to help to stop the atrocities and uphold justice. I also call for the release of all detained Falun Dafa practitioners. When the evil has all been rooted out, then sincerity, kindness and justice will return to the world.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/15/83747.html