The Brutal Beatings and Torture I Experienced in Dabei Female Prison

My name is Zhang Wei. I was unjustly sentenced and sent to the Dabei Women's Prison in Shenyang City just because I practise Falun Gong. In the prison, I was subjected to unbelievable physical and mental torment. The prison has become the tool of a brutal dictatorship.

During my prison term, the brigade leader ordered two of the criminal offenders to torture me in order to force my "transformation" [turning me away from Falun Gong]. In the bitter cold winter, this inmate stripped off all my outer clothes, leaving me only with my underclothes. They forced me to remain sitting on a small stool, designed like a torture device that was 6 to 7 cm long by 4 cm wide, without a break. After a few days of sitting on the stool, my buttocks started to bleed. They also forced me into a squatting position for prolonged periods of time and only allowed me a few hours of sleep a day. They forced me wear shoes printed with words slandering Falun Gong and our Teacher. When I refused to wear these shoes, they knocked me down, forcibly put the shoes on me and tied them such that I could not undo the knots. They ridiculed me in front of the other inmates and abused me with curse words and indecent gestures. They hung a white piece of cardboard with words insulting Falun Gong and me from my chest and back. When I tore it down, they sewed a piece of white cloth with slanderous words on the cardboard and forced me to wear it for several days.

Since I refused to be 'transformed,' the prison guards deliberately punished other inmates to make them hate me, expecting that they would put additional emotional pressure on me. The other inmates often dragged me to a small room to punch me, kick me, knock my head against the wall and pull me by my hair. Some bricks fell out of the wall because of this and the hair they tore from my scalp covered the ground. I felt dizzy from all the bumps to my head. They tried various other methods to torture me. They hit my joints with the sharp edges of a small stool. It was so painful that tears gushed out. Even the inmates who were torturing me complained that they had become very tired.

They forced me to watch videotapes slandering Falun Gong, trying to "transform" me. I was required to write a report after watching those videotapes. I took the opportunity to tell them the facts about Falun Gong and to expose the lies contained in the videotapes. Unfortunately, they had been so deeply poisoned by the propaganda that they disregarded my warning and even shouted at me angrily.

One night, some thugs took me to the small room again and brought along two inmates who didn't hesitate to beat others cruelly. They were holding an electric cord as thick as a thumb made of copper wire wrapped in rubber. They stripped off my clothes and started beating me. I was beaten until I was rolling on the floor and I could no longer breathe regularly. Eventually, one of the inmates hid the wire, fearing they would continue beating me.

The next morning, my body ached so much that I could not move. The guards forced me to sit on the small stool and asked a homicide offender to pull out my hair in clumps. She yanked my hair so violently that it caused my body to rock forward and backward. She rubbed my back even though it was full of bruises. While she was doing this, she claimed that she was drawing the fever out of me and that she was trying to make me comfortable. Every one of her moves caused me excruciating pain. When they realized that I still would not give up, she poked me on my back with a pen and she eventually just knelt on my back and kneaded it with her hands and knees. She weighed over 140 lb. I was crying from the pain and a few of the other inmates of the workshop were in tears of sympathy. They begged me to hurry up and write a "Guarantee Statement" because they feared that I would lose my life because of the torture.

In northern China, the cold December winds penetrate to the bones. One night, some of the criminal inmates and other thugs poured cold water over my head and my feet. My thin clothes were drenched. Then, they pushed me down the stairs and outside the gate, where they made me stand in the chilling wind. The other inmates were wearing thick cotton overalls but still felt cold and went to find shelter from the wind, jumping up and down to keep warm. My own underwear turned into an icy sheet. When they touched my clothes, they crackled. When they saw that I was not much affected, they became angry, grabbed my hair, slammed my head violently against a metal door and then punched me and kicked me. I could no longer stand upright because of the beating and being frozen. They grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up.

Gazing into the cold and dark sky, I felt numb, completely empty, and slow. I could not recall anything. The thugs dragged me upstairs. I wanted to walk but could not. I had to let them drag me to the small room upstairs to warm myself a little bit. Again, they poured water over me. They held me upright by the collar of my clothes, poured water into them and pushed me downstairs into the freezing cold again. Later they did not allow me to use water or toilet paper for over 20 days. I was dirty beyond description. In this way, they tormented me physically and mentally until I was hospitalized.

Another brutal torture they used was to deprive me of sleep for many days. Although I had not slept normally for a very long time before, they did not allow me to close my eyes for 13 consecutive days. I had to stand upright for 24 hours a day. The two inmates who were assigned to watch me took turns sleeping. During the cold nights, the inmates wore thick cotton overalls, covered their legs with thick cotton blankets, held a warm water bag in their hands, and were still feeling cold. In contrast, I stood there in my underwear, sleepy, cold, and hungry. In addition, they beat me now and then. Sometimes, when they saw me falling asleep, they would pour cold water over my face or pull my hair and push my head into the toilet.

For several days, they tied my feet together and I fell down many times. Eventually, a kind-hearted inmate warned them that if they kept me tied like that I would fall down and die, whereupon they untied my feet. Towards the end of that period, even the two inmates who were assigned to watch me were worn out.

My mind became more and more confused during the course of these tortures. I had moments of disorientation and not knowing who I was. Whatever I saw looked misshapen and the smooth ground appeared to be full of bumps. When I moved my head just a little, sparks flew in front of my eyes. I no longer felt pain when the other inmates slapped me. My surroundings looked distorted to me. I often had strong delusions. During the night, my reflection was visible on the windowpanes and I could only remember who I was when I saw myself in the glass. The extreme torment brought me to the brink of mental collapse.

My legs were swollen so badly that I could no longer bend them and I had to stand when I used the bathroom. During the last two days, the inmates took two-hour shifts holding me up, fearing that I might fall down. One inmate was very angry with me. Although she knew that I had difficulty walking, she forced me to walk back and forth in the corridor. Finally, I could no longer walk. When I took off my shoes to look at my feet I saw that the arches and soles were swollen so badly that they cracked and bled. During the last night of this torture, on a Sunday, I suddenly felt unbearable pain in my stomach and chest. I vomited profusely and the fluid covered a large area on the floor. Due to the pleading of other inmates, the two villains reluctantly allowed me to take a break. I thought to myself, if I were not a Falun Gong practitioner, I would have surely gone insane or died during the 13 days when I did not sleep or sit down at all.

All Falun Dafa practitioners are kind people and have not done anything wrong. Why do they treat us kind Falun Dafa practitioners so brutally?

The next day, a Monday, my parents came to see me. Since I had been sent to prison unjustly, my parents had come and tried to see me many times. On these occasions, they waited for a long time outside Dabei Prison, hoping to see me but the prison authority refused them. At some point, they did allow my parents to see me, in the hopes that my parents would persuade me to change my mind [and renounce Falun Gong]. Right before my parents were allowed to visit me, two inmates made me wear a sweater with a high collar. They were afraid that my parents would see my broken collarbones and the wounds on my neck, which showed because of the beatings. They also made me wear a cotton jacket and pants. When I saw my parents, I felt terribly sad. Within a short time period, their hair had turned completely grey and they looked hopeless and frail. They had aged beyond their years. My mother tightly clasped my hand and noticed the bruises on my cheeks and the rows of small wounds I got from the beatings with brushes. She also saw how slowly I moved and that I could not keep my back straight. When she tried to talk to me, I was able to say only a little. My mother became so scared that she embraced me and cried loudly. My old father was also choked up with sobs.

My parents talked to the leader of the prison brigade. They told them that my life was at risk and strongly requested that I be checked into a hospital. After their visit, a few of the brigade leaders took me to a hospital immediately. The examination showed that I had injuries all over my body. The guards who took me to the hospital told me that I would die because of organ failure and that if I accepted "transformation," I could be immediately released.

After I was taken back from the hospital, I was directly sent to the prison hospital. At night I carefully took off my clothes. My legs were swollen badly and looked inflamed. They looked black from the knees to the ankles. My arms were also covered with blue and purple spots. Slowly and carefully, holding on to the bed rails, I lowered myself on the bed. I felt pain all over my body and I dared not breathe deeply. I could not lie on my back due to the pain and had to find a position that I could tolerate by lying sideways.

The above is my personal experience in Dabei prison. It was merely a small sample of the suffering which countless Falun Dafa practitioners are subjected to in China.

Chinese version available at target=blank>http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/5/83428.html