Ms Gao Rongrong Recounts Her Suffering at a Hospital and How Her Relatives Were Stonewalled in Their Appeal on Her Behalf

Ever since May 7, 2004 when severe and continued electric shocking with batons disfigured Gao Rongrong's face, the departments concerned with her case have not made any comments. Her family members appealed according to the law, but the only reply they got was that her case had been taken over by the "special cases team." Her medical test results are not on file in the province and the case is now in the hands of the Central Government's "610 Office."

While Gao Rongrong was being treated at the No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with the Medical University, she was subjected to constant harassment by personnel from the Longshan Forced Labour Camp and the Shenyang City Judicial Bureau. The Longshan Forced Labour Camp police surrounded her all day long and often deliberately provoked her family members. Police officers slept on the sofa in the ward day and night. Two of the policemen who participated in tormenting and abusing Gao Rongrong, were assigned to guard her in hospital. On July 2, three people from Shenyang City's Political and Judiciary Committee even tried to pick off the dark scabs on her face, right in front of her family members.

The following is Gao Rongrong's account of how her family members were stonewalled in their appeals process after she was disfigured by electric shocking. It is also an account of the continued torment she suffered at the hands of the police while being treated in the hospital.

1. My family members have been stonewalled in their appeal on my behalf. None of the departments involved in the persecution against me perpetrated on May 7, 2004 have replied to any of our inquiries.

Shenyang City's Longshan Forced Labour Camp did not inform my family and tried to cover up the facts of what had happened to me. When my family eventually got to know the facts, they demanded that the head of the labour camp and other authority figures responsible for what happened deal with this case justly. But Li Fengshi put it off again and again, and did not reply to my family's questions for a whole month. Meanwhile, the camp people told lies to the public and reported to the Shenyang City Judicial Bureau that my facial injuries were caused by "a fall."

My family members appealed to the highest-placed department of the Longshan Forced Labour Camp and to Shenyang City's Judicial Bureau and demanded to have my injuries examined, to hold perpetrator Tang Yubao responsible, and to release me from the labour camp and compensate me for my injuries.

Shenyang City Judicial Bureau personnel did not make arrangements for any examination of my injuries, saying that they were investigating the case. They never came to talk to me, the victim of the case, for five months, while they were supposedly investigating the case. Instead, they exerted pressure on the medical staff that was treating my injuries through the hospital's Party committee. In fact, they continued to torment and abuse me while I was undergoing medical treatment, saying that they would never release me, even if I died.

In light of the fact that Shenyang City's Judicial Bureau was protecting the labour camp, my family members turned to appeal to Shenyang City's Prosecutor.

After pressurising them again and again, on July 1, 2004 prosecutor Liu Haibo and three other staff members from Shenyang City's Prosecuting Bureau and from Shenyang's Suburban Prosecuting Bureau came to the hospital to verify the appeal. They took notes and took photos of me.

On July 8, Shenyang City's Prosecutor asked the legal medical expert from the Prosecuting Bureau for Liaoning Province to examine my injuries and to take photos. The Prosecuting Bureau personnel were shocked to see my disfigured face.

It should have taken only one or two weeks for them to come up with a decision after the examination had revealed the cause of the injuries. However, they did not give us any information after stalling for a long time. When my family asked them again, the authorities in Shenyang City's Prosecuting Bureau told us that people from the Shenyang City Party Committee and the Shenyang City Political and Judicial Committee had formed a "special cases team" and as a result, Shenyang City's Prosecuting Bureau had no more interest in the case.

As early as July 1, when Shenyang City's Prosecuting Bureau personnel came to investigate the case, staff members Wang Hui and Liu Ge (both female) rushed to the hospital to find out what was happening. They came back to the ward again in the afternoon, telling me that someone had reported my case to them. They also took out my petition and photos of my facial injuries. I asked them, "Who reported this to you?" They did not answer and only said that they had to verify the report and take some notes. While taking notes, they showed no interest in the abuse and torment I suffered under this persecution, and they never asked if I had any requests. Instead, they asked me where the photos were taken, who took them, who took care of me every day, when my elder brother came back from Beijing, where he worked, and so on. (Note: Gao Rongrong's older brother works at the "Guangming Daily" in Beijing)

At 10:00 a.m. on July 2, the leader of the Shenyang City Political and Judicial Committee, and a man from Shenyang City's "610 Office" came to my ward, saying that the authorities in the city took this case very seriously. At just past 2:00 p.m. that same day, they came to my ward again, saying that the man surnamed Li was the head of Shenyang City's Political and Judicial Committee. The man asked me if my facial injuries hurt. Then he pressed on the scabs on my face and quickly peeled off one of the scabs. The torn-off piece did not fall off because it stuck to the thin dressing. When my family members stopped them, they quickly left.

At around 7 or 8 p.m., Liu Ge, Wang Hui and two others came back again and tried to talk to my older sister and take notes. My sister refused. They were very unhappy and said that the "special cases team" was very busy and they were on a very tight schedule. My sister still refused their request. They left afterwards.

In August, when my life was in danger, my family members went to Shenyang City's Political and Judicial Committee and Shenyang City's "610 Office" to demand a decision. They were told, "It has nothing to do with us."

So, my family members continued to appeal to the provincial government. For the first time, the head of the Inspection Section for Liaoning Prisons showed some warmth and said, "There will be a meeting in the afternoon with people from the provincial government and we'll have a discussion about your case. You'll hear from us in two months time."

However, when my family members went to ask him again, he started to make excuses. When my family members asked for the results of the injury examination, he refused to give them, saying that the written results could not be given to family members and could only be told verbally. But when my family members asked him if the results showed that the injuries were caused by electric shocks, he wouldn't say anything. When my family members challenged him and asked if people in the Longshan Forced Labour Camp made false statements in their report to the Shenyang City Judicial Bureau, he admitted it was true!

A month later we got a reply. The case was now with the "special cases team." The results of the injury examination were no longer held in the province, and the case was under direct administration of the Central Government's "610 Office."

I have suffered so much, but the legal departments have done nothing. They stonewalled the legal procedures and stopped my case from being processed. Jiang Zemin caused all of this, as he is the prime culprit in the persecution of Falun Gong. He forced his will on and enticed those lawless people to carry out violence against Falun Gong practitioners. I am only one of the many thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have suffered severe torment, abuse and torture under this persecution. Such crimes must not be allowed to continue! I will sue the Jiang faction and the "610" organization under his control for their persecution of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" and their unprecedented, cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

2. Some facts of the persecution I suffered at the hands of the police while I was being treated at the hospital

During the five months of hospitalization, I was in poor physical and mental condition. I was first sent to the Shenyang General Army Hospital the evening of May 7, and the next day I was sent to Shenyang's Public Security Hospital. I was transferred to the No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with the Medical University on May 18. My life was in danger for a while due to all of the persecution I had suffered.

On May 7, 2004 when I was sent to a hospital, I was very weak and could not stand anything cold. I was wearing cotton-padded trousers and a thick jumper plus a down vest, while many other people were only wearing a couple of thin shirts. My blood pressure at the time dropped to 40. I had been running a low-grade fever for a long time. My internal organs were very weak and I had pain in my liver and stomach. I felt nauseous and could not eat anything. I was extremely thin and was put on a month-long antibiotic IV. The doctors decided to stop it only out of fear that my health might be in danger if they continued with it.

After June, they had to switch to an IV of medication that would "regulate the heart" and provide nutrients. In addition, I was put on oxygen from time to time. I was monitored all the time and was on a daily intravenous drip. My hands were full of needle marks and my veins became hard and painful. When the weather got hotter, extremely itchy rashes and blisters appeared on my skin. Furthermore, the negligence of the police made my urinary catheter malfunction and I had to hold my bladder for 21 hours. As result of this I started to have blood in my urine, which led to a kidney infection. I had to use the catheter for a month before it was removed.

Because my intestines and stomach had become very weak, out of concern for possible intestinal obstruction, and having been lying on my back for a long time, I could only eat a very small amount of food and became extremely fragile. Doctors from various departments came to have a group consultation regarding my condition. They did not even dare to carry out some of the tests because I was suffering from severe muscular atrophy. The doctor from the orthopaedics department said, "If we perform surgery, it would be difficult for her skin to heal, not to mention everything else."

Police from Longshan Forced Labour Camp surrounded me all day long. They were often very rude and unreasonable to my family members. Male policemen took turns sleeping on the sofa in my ward. Two of the policemen who participated in my abuse and torment, were assigned to watch me. One can imagine the mental pressure I was under.

Staff from Longshan Labour Camp and Shenyang City Judicial Bureau often came to harass us, and they either tried to force me to have an operation or watch me, and at the same time they tried to shift responsibility onto my family members. All of this aggravated my condition. They appeared to focus on the injuries on my face very much, hoping that the evidence of their crimes would disappear soon, which led to the incident on July 2 when the personnel from Shenyang City Political and Judicial Committee tried to peel off the dark scabs on my face.

On July 1, they came to ask me questions and to take notes for a whole day. I felt very weak and tired. On July 2, personnel from the departments in question came one after another to "verify" the facts. I was very upset. During the morning of July 3, my stomach became distended and very hard. I had sharp pains in my abdomen area for the whole morning.

On August 9, 2004, under enormous mental torment and physical pain, I had difficulty eating any food, and for a while I was urinating blood and my life was in danger. My family members went to Shenyang City's Judicial Bureau to request my release. They refused and as usual only observed my condition. On August 26, they even played out a farce, with the police from the Longshan Forced Labour Camp rushing into the ward (ward 533) to take photos and forcing me to undergo treatment. I went in and out of a comatose state for nearly a month and suffered bladder incontinence. I could hardly move my body, and I was given life-sustaining nutrients intravenously. Now, those responsible were nowhere to be seen. My body showed symptoms similar to those that appeared in June.

A week before I managed to escape from the hospital, I was gradually able to eat something and had stopped the intravenous feeding. Since I was sent to the hospital and had become a bag of bones, weighing only around 30 kilograms, I was not able to sit up. My arms would shake if I raised them up and I had to relieve myself in bed. I would be out of breath when talking and was running a low-grade fever daily. I was unable to move my severely swollen left leg, which the doctor said was broken.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/11/9/88728.html