Ms. Lou Yan, a determined Falun Gong practitioner from the Tiexi District, Anshan City, Liaoning Province, was detained ten times. She was sent to a mental hospital and forcibly injected with drugs. She was tortured to disability and to the brink of death many times. Later, the perpetrators sent the disabled Ms. Lou to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison (former Dabei Prison) at Shenyang City for a five-year term. Ms. Lou was tortured to the brink of death in the prison. To avoid responsibility in case she died in prison, the prison allowed her to serve the rest of her term outside of prison, on the condition that she seek medical treatment. When she had barely recovered, two policemen from Songsantai Police Station came to her home. They requested her to go to the police station to "have a talk." On the way back home from the police station, several people arrested Ms. Lou and brought her to Dabei Prison. The Elderly and Disabled Team detained her. Ms. Lou went on a hunger strike to protest this persecution. The persecutors tortured her to death using extremely cruel force-feeding methods. The exact date of Ms. Lou's death is unclear, but it was some time during the first half of 2004. After Ms. Lou's death was exposed, the police pushed all the responsibility for her death on to the prisoners.
Ms. Lou Yan wrote this account of the nine times she was persecuted before her death
I am a practitioner from Anshan City, Liaoning Province. Before I started practising Falun Gong in 1997, I had several diseases. On the day I learned Falun Dafa, I just casually browsed through the book Zhuan Falun, but a miracle happened to me. All my diseases were gone. After I took the path of cultivation, my mind and heart kept improving.
After April 25, 1999, Jiang Zemin started the persecution of Falun Gong. I spoke the truth, saying, "Falun Dafa is good," and I have been tortured and persecuted many times by Jiang's regime ever since.
1. Detained for appealing in Beijing and tortured to unconsciousness while on a hunger strike
On October 25, 1999, I was detained in Beijing for appealing for the right to practise Falun Gong. I was detained in the Anshan Third Detention Centre for three days. On October 27, I was transferred to the Anshan Women's Ziqiang School, where I was detained for another 15 days. I went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal treatment since I did not violate any law. My protest brought me more maltreatment. I was not allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises or recite any of the contents of Falun Dafa books.
In the Anshan Third Detention Centre, the police tied us to very high windows and whipped us with lengths (6-cm) of plastic tubing. In the Anshan Women's Ziqiang School, we were forced to do military drills every day and count numbers. If my voice was too soft, I could be forced to count over 100 times. We were ordered to shout out the number, then quickly squat down and put our hands on our heads. At that time, I had been on a hunger strike for several days. The longer I was on the hunger strike, the harder the persecution was on me. My body was very weak and I was starving. Regardless, the police forced me to keep walking in army stride until they were satisfied. Sometimes I was forced to prepare wooden blocks or collect cabbages from the field. Sometimes I was ordered to wash other prisoners' pants.
During my hunger strike, many policemen tied me up. They used an iron instrument to force open my mouth, breaking off a piece of my front tooth. They put lots of salt in the "food" along with some unknown substance. When the "food" got into my stomach, it caused painful cramping and vomiting. They forcibly kept me in a standing position with my hands cuffed behind my back. The inmates were ordered to watch me and cover my nose and mouth with their hands. I nearly suffocated.When they took their hands away, I vomited uncontrollably, emptying my stomach along with some blood. Two days later I was force-fed again. I lost consciousness after that and was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.
I was released 15 days later, but the persecutors never stopped coming to my home to harass me. I was often forced to "have a talk" at the city police department. Every such "talk" took a whole day. They prohibited me from leaving the city. If I had to leave the city, I had to first report to the local police station. I could leave the city only with their permission.
2. During my second detention, I lost consciousness after being force-fed with alcohol and drugs
On December 26, 1999, I went to visit a friend in Ciyutuo Town, Liaozhong County of Shenyang. The local Ciyutuo Police Department forcefully took my husband and me to the police department. My husband is not a practitioner, but was locked in a car. He was allowed to go back home at night. They sent me to the Fifth Asylum of Shenyang.
They told me on the second day that I would be detained for 15 days without any legal procedure or document. I went on a hunger strike to protest their illegal action. They force-fed me on the fourth and sixth days of my detention. The food for the force-feeding contained lots of salt, alcohol and unknown drugs. I lost consciousness from the force-feeding. I was released on the sixth day of my detention.
Once I was home, the local police station put me under close house monitoring 24 hours a day. My health was very poor from the torture, so I was unable to go to the police station. I could not leave my house. My elderly mother was over 90 years old and needed my care. The police denied my request to go care for my mother. I called the authorities and firmly refused to cooperate with them. They then took away the staff that was monitoring me.
3. They tortured me using "Tying the Ropes;" I was shocked with eight electric batons
Several practitioners used some of our savings to buy a printer to better spread the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution to people. We planned to use it for making "truth-clarification materials"to help people understand the innocence of the practitioners and the brutality of the persecution. One practitioner was arrested. They tortured him and made him tell them my name. On October 29, 2000, around 2:00 a.m. the police suddenly broke into my home to search for the printer, but they found nothing. My husband and I were taken to the Anshan City Police Department. The persecutors beat me, trying to find out the whereabouts of the printer. I refused to cooperate with them. They tortured me by adapting the "Typing the Ropes." (1) They tied my hands behind my back and hung me up. They pulled my arms so hard that my hands touched my ears from behind. They beat me at the same time and demanded that I give them the information they wanted. When they let me down, they forced me to squat and pushed my head under my legs.
I was in such excruciating pain that I lost consciousness. I woke up lying in the emergency room at Anshan City First Hospital. Sometimes my mind was clear and sometimes I was doped up. While I was unconscious, the police ordered a doctor, with the surname Leng, to shock me with electricity. They tied a piece of 1-inch wet steel on my waist, and then shocked both of my legs with seven to eight electric batons. I woke up in extreme pain and my legs felt as if many needles were piercing them.
The electric shock caused my body to jump over one foot high off the table. After they stopped, my whole body collapsed in exhaustion. The two layers of sweaters I wore were soaked with sweat. My tongue was bitten and bleeding. At that moment, my son's girlfriend (who was 18 years old) was taking care me. The poor girl was so shocked and scared by the scene that she cried uncontrollably. The persecutors lied to her, saying that they were just doing electroshock therapy on me.
Zhang Chengguo, head of the politic and security department of Ganshan District of Anshan City, threatened my husband every day. He told my husband, "If she still refuses to tell us the information, we will send her to a mental hospital and drive her insane. Then, let's see how she makes a living." He told me the same thing.
4. Tortured in a mental hospital
Several days later, some persecutors tried to extort money from my husband, but he had no money to give to them. Then the public security bureau sent me to Kangning Centre in Anshan City (a mental hospital) at Tangjiafang Town. The persecutors told the doctors what they wanted done and then left. The doctors forcibly injected me with drugs and forced me to ingest drugs, as well. When I tried to resist, they used cloth rope to tie my hands and legs to the four posts of the metal bed.
When the doctors came to check on me, I often said to their director, "Don't treat me this way. I am not a patient. I practise Falun Gong and am a good person. You are doctors whose duty is to help people. You cannot treat a normal person like me as if I were a mental patient. Don't help those persecutors do evil things." The director responded, "It will do you good to take some drugs." I asked her what the good was. She said, "After taking the drugs, a murderer would not kill other people. So does a person practising Falun Gong dare to practise Falun Gong again? It is to 'purify your heart.'"
When I resisted, the persecutors viciously threatened me. "If you don't take the pills now, then I will get several tough male patients to forcefully inject you and make you take the pills. You have to take the pills either way." After I ate the pills, they checked my mouth to make sure I swallowed them.
A month later, policeman Kang Kai from the City 610 Office came to see me in the mental hospital. He asked me whether I knew where I was. I said, "I know where I am right now. I don't have a mental illness. Why send me to the mental hospital?" He said, "Tell me the machine's whereabouts. Then it will be clear that you are not a mental patient. Otherwise, you are and have to live here." Then he left. I don't know what he did to pressure the director. The director brought my son and told me that I have to take more pills. I refused to listen. The director then wouldn't let my son go, who was placed under a great deal of pressure.
5. My family members were persecuted because I escaped from the mental hospital
Time was passing in the mental hospital. I was on the verge of a breakdown. I was constantly in deep fear and anxiety. I often felt there was a person talking to me. When I closed my eyes, there would be images of people talking to me appearing right in front of me. I could not take it any longer. If I had not learned Falun Gong and if my main consciousness had not become so strong, I wouldn't have been able to survive the torture. I was determined that I would not take their persecution any longer. I had a very strong thought in my mind. I must leave this place, expose their evildoings to the people outside and let the public know how viciously they persecuted the Falun Gong practitioners.
I started to look for any possible chance to escape from the mental hospital. One day the chance came. It was dangerous, but I had to do it. I jumped out of the building. The moment I fell on the ground, my spine was suddenly compressed. In addition, my left ankle was broken. I was unable to stand up, nor could I walk. I kept crawling and in my heart I kept calling for our Teacher to help me. A miracle happened. I successfully crawled over a two-meter-high wall and got out of the mental hospital. I made my way over three mountains. On the way, a kindhearted family with a predestined relationship helped me reunite with my fellow practitioners.
The 610 Office not only tortured me both mentally and physically, but also locked my family up in the mental hospital behind iron bars and windows. The perpetrators starved my family members and put them under 24-hour surveillance. Sometimes they gave them no food for a day. My family was not allowed to buy food from the cafeteria downstairs.
The police put pressure on my husband. They ordered him to report my whereabouts as soon as he knew. My husband looked for me everywhere. When he eventually found me, he was astonished to see how severely I was wounded during my escape from the mental hospital. He was so hurt that he could not bear to leave me alone. I said to him, "Jiang and his followers are extremely dangerous. Don't stay here with me. I don't want to see you being persecuted because of me." He refused and insisted on taking care of me. At that time, I was incapable of moving and I had been unable to speak for many days.
I kept studying the Fa. After half a month, I could turn my body on the bed. A month later, I could stand up and take care of myself. My husband witnessed my recovery and said, "In the past, when someone mentioned to me how wonderful Falun Dafa was, I might not have believed him. But now I can see this miracle right in front of my eyes. I must also learn Falun Gong." So my husband began to cultivate Falun Dafa. He read the book of Zhuan Falun for twenty days. Before he finished the book, he wrote, "Falun Dafa is Good" on a piece of cloth. He hung the banner on the outside of his living complex. Unfortunately, the police got him and detained him for half a month. In an attempt to force him to reveal my whereabouts, the police beat him for a whole day and night. Then they sentenced him to two years of forced labour.
Under the brutal persecution, my husband was forced to reveal my whereabouts. I was again arrested. On February 6, 2001, the police department at Ciyutuo Town, Liaozhong County of Shenyang City took me to the detention centre. They confiscated the machine for making truth-clarification materials, took away my fellow practitioners' 4,800 yuan in cash and my 3,900 yuan cash that was given to me by my friends and relatives for living expenses.
The perpetrators deprived me of sleep for three days and nights. Using the excuse of looking for information, they tortured me both mentally and physically. After I was detained on February 6, 2001, the Songsan Police Station confiscated our truck for over one month. My two sons, who were 19 years old and 9 years old respectively, and my 19-year-old daughter-in-law had no money for food. They had to wander the streets and beg for food. A friend borrowed 5,000 yuan and paid it to the police station to get the truck back for us. My husband was still detained. The perpetrators attempted to drive my children out of our house. The three children were crying and begging them. Someone pleaded with them, so the perpetrators finally allowed my children to live in our house.
My health had not fully recovered from the last time I jumped out of the mental hospital. The detention centre prohibited me from doing the Falun Gong exercises. I was totally paralysed due to the torture in the detention centre. I kept vomiting. The police feared that I might die in the prison, so they released me on March 29, 2001. I was detained for 53 days that time.
6. Facing detention with righteous thoughts
Soon after I was released, I went on a Beijing-to-Anshan bus trip. When the bus arrived at a rural station near Beijing, the police started to follow me. The driver and the police worked together to watch me. I called for Teacher to help me. Eventually, I successfully escaped from the bus.
On September 26, 2001, I was reported to the police when I was clarifying the truth in public. The Anshan City Police Station sent me to the Anshan City Third Asylum. I went on a hunger strike for six days. They were afraid I would die there when they saw me vomiting blood, so they released me.
On January 29, 2002, I went to visit a fellow practitioner in Fuxin. I did not know there were police in the practitioner's home, so I was arrested and sent to Fuxin's local police station. That night when they sent me to a detention centre, my health condition did not meet the detention centre's criteria. I was transferred to a hospital. I walked out of the hospital with righteous thoughts.
7. I was tortured to the brink of death during my eighth detention
On February 2, 2002, the Songsan Police Station of Anshan City arrested me and sent me to the Anshan City First Detention Centre. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. They force-fed me many times. They tied up my feet and hands together, forcing me into a very painful position. I needed the help of others to turn on the bed and use the bathroom. My ankles and wrists were rubbed raw. Every tiny movement caused me intense pain.
The weather was 10 degrees Celsius below zero. The perpetrators stripped off my cotton pants and only left a thin layer of pants on me. I could only lie on the freezing cold wood bed. The police told the inmates, "If she refuses to eat, no one in this cell can buy goods or watch TV." The inmates took out their anger by swearing at, kicking and beating me.
On the 7th day, I lost consciousness. The detention centre asked the local police station to take me back to avoid my dying at the detention centre. Instead of sending me home, the police station sent me to a forced labour camp. Seeing my health condition, the labour camp refused to take me without the results of a physical exam. The police had to drive me to a hospital. On the way, I woke up. The three policemen Yuan Hongbao, Fu Meng, Liu Jun and Judicial Assistant Sun Hai knew that the forced labour camp would not take me if they saw the results of my physical exam from the hospital, so the four decided to get a doctor to make up the result. They would be able to send me to the forced labour camp with a fabricated physical exam result.
Policeman Liu Jun called and got the principle doctor Li Xingzhong from the Surgery Department of Anshan City Second Hospital. Li Xingzhong noticed that I was in a very dangerous health situation. He asked them, "Wouldn't she die if she were sent to the forced labour camp?" The policeman Yuan Hongbao and Fu Meng said, "One or two practitioners dead is nothing. It would be much easier to throw her from the car or leave her to freeze to death outside. After all, Jiang Zemin already said, 'death from beating is counted as suicide.'"
They sent me to the forced labour camp again. They sentenced me to three years of forced labour without any legal process and without my knowledge. Practitioners were not allowed to look at or talk to each other in the labour camp. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Many times the perpetrators tightly held my hands, feet, body and head to force-feed me. Sometimes, when I refused to cooperate with them, they used so much violence to force my mouth open that I was severely injured. The cuts got infected later on. Even after one year, there is still dead flesh near my mouth.
I was force-fed many times. During one of the most vicious force-feedings, I was nearly tortured to death. They pried open my mouth, inserted a pair of wood chopsticks and a pair of metal chopsticks to hold my mouth open, and then quickly poured in the "food" in large amounts. They covered my nose, and inserted paper tissues and a towel in my mouth. I was unable to breathe and nearly suffocated to death. I felt my eyes bulging out. I called to our Teacher to help. A miracle happened. I bit the chopsticks into pieces, including the metal ones.
I did not eat anything or drink water for fourteen days. I was at the brink of death. The perpetrators tried to give me intravenous infusions, fearing that I would die in the labour camp, but it did not work. The labour camp allowed my husband to have several days off and brought him to take care of me. My condition deteriorated every day, so the labour camp had to release me.
I wanted to expose their evildoings to the pubic, and that made them extremely nervous. They tried to silence me by taking my husband back to the forced labour camp for interrogation and torture. They used a torture called the "Big Hang Up" (2) on him. After a few months, his hands were still not recovered. They lied to others, saying that it was my husband who got onto the Falun Gong website or the person who went online was a Falun Gong practitioner. In April, the higher authorities sent out a list of practitioners to be released. My husband's name was on the list, but the Anshan Public Security Bureau at Ganshan Branch refused to release him.
8. Call for support and attention to the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and their families
In March 2002, the CCP central government held two annual meetings: The National People's Congress (NPC) and The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The perpetrators caused me to be homeless. On June 8, 2000, the Liaoyang City Police Station arrested me again. I did not cooperate with the perpetrators. On the second night, I escaped. I have been detained nine times since April 25, 1999, and my house has been ransacked many times. My oldest son and my daughter-in-law are 20 years old now. My youngest son is 10 years old and my granddaughter is just a few months old. These children have suffered a lot. The perpetrators placed a lot of pressure on them. I am still unable to go back home and my children are in a very difficult situation. They don't have enough food. They have to go to friends and relatives' homes to get food. I plead to kindhearted people: please help my husband and our four children.
I call for international organisations to pay attention to Falun Gong practitioners and their families. Urge Jiang Zemin and his regime to stop persecuting Falun Gong. What awaits Jiang Zemin and those perpetrators are punishment by law. It is a principle that good will be rewarded with good, while evil meets with karmic retribution.
Notes:
(1) Tying the Ropes: A thin rope is used to tightly encircle the neck and the rope is wrapped around the practitioner's arms. Then the police use all the force they can muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, cutting into the flesh and making it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of the bladder. In many cases the rope was tightened to the point of breaking the practitioner's arm.
(2). The Big Hang Up: With both hands cuffed behind the back and only the toes touching the ground, the practitioner is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames or the door frame.
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