Inside Zhuzhou (Baimalong) Women's Forced Labour Camp in Hunan Province, the persecutors tortured me with several of the torture methods at their disposal: "Five Horses Splitting the Body," "Up in the Air," "Modelling in the Air," etc. They were part of the so-called: "Educate and Save," "Re-Educate and Re-Save" and "Ideological Education Like Spring Showers and Breezes" programmes initiated by the purportedly lenient policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
I started to practise Falun Gong in January 23, 1999. Simply because I believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," I have faced continuous persecution for the past five years, since the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999. In November 1999, the authorities in my workplace dismissed me from my position, stopped my salary, and detained me in an office for two weeks; during this time they attempted to brainwash me. At the end of 2000, after I wrote to them to tell them the truth about Falun Dafa and expose the persecution, telling them about my own cultivation experiences and feelings, these persecutors punished me by forcing me to sign-in and sign-out at work. They also dismissed me from my position as Team Leader of the Mathematics Teaching Team. At that time, I was teaching eight classes, which meant twenty-four sessions a week. The compensation for such a heavy workload was about 10,000 yuan (1). Yet, just because I practised Falun Gong, the persecutors in my workplace withheld the money and failed me in the year-end evaluation.
On February 28, 2001, the persecutors arrested me and sent to into a "Legal System Study Session" (a brainwashing session) in Furong District, Changsha City. I was detained in the brainwashing centre, and 4,500 yuan per month was extorted from me (my workplace also had the same amount extorted from them). My salary was withheld once more during this detention.
Under the influence of the slanderous brainwashing materials and various pressures, I was confused and gave in to their demands to write a renunciation of Falun Gong, which I greatly regretted afterwards. The managers of my work unit used my case as their "success story" to show off to others. In an attempt to rectify my mistake, I wrote a statement declaring that the Guarantee Statement (2) I had written was null and void. I submitted my declaration directly to the highest levels managers at my school. On September 13, 2001, people from both the school's security office and Wulipai Police Station ransacked my home and detained me for fifteen days under the fabricated charge of "Disturbing Social Order." When I was released, the persecutors again sent me to the Furong District Brainwashing Centre. They detained me in a room equipped with a toilet (about 200 square feet) and had someone constantly monitor me. I was only allowed to go out when I was buying food. Threats and pressure were also applied regarding various aspects of my life. After I was detained there for ten months, my school transferred me to the Zhuzhou Women's Forced Labour Camp Brainwashing Centre for another month of incarceration. After that, I was transferred back to the Furong District Brainwashing Centre. Two months later, the persecutors sent me once more to the Zhuzhou Women's Forced Labour Camp. They sentenced me to a one-year term without going through any legal procedures.
From November 5, 2002 to January 31, 2004, I led an inhuman life inside the forced labour camp. Practitioners detained in this labour camp were put in three groups: Group 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3. Group 7-1 is the "Brainwashing and Reforming" group, in which the collaborators (3) try to brainwash the practitioners. Group 7-2 detains practitioners who remain firm in their beliefs after going through the brainwashing in Group 7-1. The persecutors force the practitioners in Group 7-2 to obey all rules and regulations of the labour camp and forbid them from practising the Falun Gong exercises. With any disobedience at all, practitioners from Group 7-2 are sent to Group 7-3, which is also known as the "Strictly Controlled Group." In Group 7-3, persecutors torture the practitioners brutally with various methods and try to force them to write Guarantee Statements.
On the third day after I arrived at the labour camp, the persecutors forbade me to sleep (I was in Group 7-1). During the daytime, collaborators would try to brainwash me; during the night, other inmates monitored me, not even allowing me to blink my eyes. If I did blink my eyes, they would pour a mentholated liquid medicine over my face. I was forced to stand or sit all night long each night. After fourteen days of that, I was allowed to sleep for two hours per night. After being deprived of sleep for such a long time, sleeping for only two hours made me feel horrible. I was tortured like this for eighteen days. The guards of the labour camp link the sentences of the inmates monitoring the Falun Dafa practitioners to the results of how well those they are responsible for "reformed." In order to gain earlier releases, those inmates subjected the practitioners to cruel torture.
Eventually, I was sent to the "Strictly Controlled Group" three different times. The first time was in mid-March 2003. Because I refused to admit I was a criminal and therefore refused to participate in the labour, my persecutors forced me to stand facing a wall from 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. each day, during which time I was only allowed a five-minute break to eat my meals. I was tortured like this for 8 days. Next, the "Strictly Controlled Group" persecutors handcuffed me and hung me by the handcuffs for six days and six nights. Sometimes the handcuffs cut into my wrists, and only my toes touched the floor. They also forced me to stand absolutely straight for several days and nights -- they called this "Modelling." The persecutors also put small stools between my arms and my waist.
The second time was on June 24, 2003. Because I had not given in during the previous torture sessions, the guards went wild this time. First they tortured me with two electric batons for an entire day. While one recharged, they would use the other one to shock me. Next, they hung me up by handcuffs attached to my wrists and forced me into different positions.
In "Five Horses Splitting the body," I was forced to stand on a stool while three or four persecutors put handcuffs on my wrists and stretched my arms straight out in opposite directions, and then attached the handcuffs to something to keep them there. Then they would take the stool out from under my feet. Because my entire body weight was rested on my outstretched arms and wrists, the handcuffs pulled so hard that they cut into my wrists, causing them to bleed. This really did feel like "Five Horses Splitting the Body."
In "Hanging in the Air," they secured my upper arms and then pulled me up into the air so that all of my body's weight pulled against my upper arms and shoulders. This caused horrible pain across the chest.
In "Modelling in the Air," they held my wrists with handcuffs and then put my feet on two legs of an upturned stool. The tips of the stool's legs were tiny, and when my entire body weight pressed my feet against them, falling totally onto these two small round leg-bottoms, it caused excruciating pain to the soles of my feet. Even after two stools were broken by doing this, I still did not give in to the torture.
I was handcuffed and hung up in every one of these positions for between half a day and a day at a time, being released only for five to ten minutes while eating. The handcuffs were not removed even when I used the restroom. While I was being subjected to these tortures, the persecutors played audio and videotapes of programmes slandering Falun Dafa. During that period, I was allowed to sleep for only three or four hours.
This torture lasted for forty days. By the end of it, I could neither move my arms nor take care of myself. During the hot summer weather, I was unable to wash myself or brush my teeth for more than ten days. Knowing that they could no longer torture my arms and hands, the persecutors moved to targeting my legs and feet. They forced me to kneel on the ground and then used torture methods directed at my legs and feet.
Because I knew that they had gone too far, I began a hunger strike, refusing all food and water. For the first four days of my hunger strike, they continued to punish me as before. After four days, they turned to force-feeding. Three or four people would push me to the floor (sometimes there would be a mat on the floor, sometimes it would be bare). They held my hands and feet, pinched my nose and pried open my mouth so that they could force-feed me through a tube. Within a few days, my nose and mouth were badly injured. My hunger strike lasted for about six months; from August 4, 2003 to January 31, 2004, when I was released.
Because I was not allowed to take showers or brush my teeth during the heat of summer for more than forty days, and also because of the poor hygienic conditions there, my body became covered with blisters, which came out layer after layer for over six months. Some people said these sores were scabies; they were extremely itchy, and pus oozing from them often stuck to my clothes. My term was due to end on December 14, 2003, but on December 16, 2003, I was sent back to the "Strictly Controlled Group," where I was detained for forty-five more days before my release.
On January 31, 2004, when I was finally released, some people from my school took me back to a brainwashing centre, where three people monitored me around the clock. Other people would come to brainwash me at different times. I was detained and tortured like that for six months. In July and August of 2004, I was forced to do physical labour in an experimental garden while three people monitored me. In September 2004, I went back to my own work, but I was still being monitored.
I went through various forms of torture during the past five years. For more than three of these years I completely lost all my freedom; during this time my salary was completely cut off. The persecutors used a multitude of torture methods on me while they had me in the forced labour camp. These tortures were forced on me under the so-called: "Educate and Save," "Re-Educate and Re-Save" and "Ideological Education like the Spring Showers and Breezes" programmes of the CCP. The tortures go against all fundamental moral values and the very conscience of human beings and the laws that govern us.
In the most difficult days, I had only one thought in my mind. It was this: In this world and this cosmos, if I cannot have righteous thoughts and speak the truth, I would rather disappear into the cosmos. Truth and gods do exist. With my righteous belief in Falun Dafa I survived, much to everyone's surprise at the labour camp.
Note:
(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
(2) "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.
(3) "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/26/98131.html
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