Ms Zhang Shufen From Heilongjiang Province Recalls Her Detention and Torture Experiences

1. After my first arrest, police verbally abused me and extorted a "fine"

At the end of November 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. I wanted to say "Falun Dafa is good" on Tiananmen Square. However, Zhao Yuhe and police officer Ren Shuangku, both from the commune where I lived, arrested me at Tiananmen Square. They deceived me by saying they would send me home. In fact, they sent me to a detention centre. More than ten days later my family came to see me. The guard told me a cadre from the commune issued a guarantee for me and told me to sign my name on a paper. After I signed it, I realized it was not the right thing to do. The next day I told the female guard, "I shouldn't have signed my name! I solemnly declare that my signature is null!" She verbally abused me in response. On the third day, the cadre who had issued the guarantee came to take me back home. The commune held a meeting to criticise the cadre for helping me, and he was forced to make a self-criticism statement at the meeting. Later he told me that I had been fined 1,000 yuan (1) and that he had paid the fine for me temporarily.

2. During my second arrest I suffered ruthless torture, such as being hung up and exposed to freezing temperatures, as well as loosing money due to extortion

One day in 2000, the local police station demanded that I turn in Teacher Li's articles. Because I refused to turn them in, the head of the police station, Zhong Linyi, ordered my arrest and detainment. At the detention centre I suffered the torture of being hung-up. They also beat me and other practitioners savagely. During chilly days, they forced us to stand outside bare-footed and poured cold water on us. They also verbally abused us. Two months later after I was released, my daughter told me, "The detention centre extorted 2,000 yuan from us to release you. All the money we borrowed had to be returned with interest."

3. On the third arrest my home was searched; I was forced to kneel down in front of youths and suffered cruel beating

In July of 2000 I had just returned home after a few months in a detention centre. The police drove to my home and searched it without showing any ID. I was arrested again and sent to a detention centre.

In the detention centre I was interrogated three times consecutively. The interrogators wanted to know where the Falun Dafa leaflets that they had confiscated from my home came from. I refused to answer. They beat and kicked me. I was ordered to kneel down. I refused, so they kicked me down and threatened me, "If you don't tell us, we will force you to be like this every day." I stood up. They forcefully pushed me down while beating and verbally abusing me. They also said, "Your daughter is going to get married; don't you want to help with her wedding? If you tell us, we will let you go!" I told them, "I would tell nothing even if I knew everything. If I tell you, one more innocent person will be persecuted." They said, "Do you study Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance? If you don't tell us, you failed on truthfulness." I replied, "If I were honest with you, you would use this as an excuse to persecute a kind person."

They also ordered the doctor to inject me and other practitioners with an unknown substance. We refused: why should we healthy people take injections? The head of the detention centre pulled us down from the bed and kicked us with their leather shoes.

In the commune police station they opened my private letters. I said that I would sue them. The head of the police station, Zhong Linyi said, "Who will you sue? I am the law. I am in control. This is what you deserve for practising Falun Gong."

4. During the fourth arrest I could not spend the Chinese New Year at home

On February 5, 2002, my husband had only been home from the detention centre for one month. He was black and blue all over his body from the beatings he suffered. His hands were swollen and black. Several policemen stayed inside our house and would not leave. They asked me, "Do you plan to go to Beijing?" I said, "I don't have money left after my child's wedding. There is no plan currently. Moreover, the Spring Festival is coming." Ren Shuangku said, "Will you go later?" I replied, "If the persecution continues, I may go."

In the morning my husband took the bus to a relatives' home to borrow money for the Chinese New Year. Ren Shuangku called the police station. Shortly after that they came and took my son, my son's classmates, and me to the police station. I saw my husband there as well. They detained us all.

On February 8, they arrested more than three hundred people in three days. There were 91 Dafa practitioners in our cell. We shouted, "Let us go back home! Falun Dafa is innocent! Li Hongzhi is innocent! Falun Dafa practitioners are innocent!" We shouted all morning, which scared the detention centre officials. They even called the anti-riot team who were equipped with guns, who patrolled back and forth in the hallway.

That afternoon during roll call, 83 practitioners were unlawfully sent to a forced labour camp. I was locked up in the detention centre for over four months. They demanded over two thousand Yuan for a boarding fee, which I couldn't afford to pay. The detention centre head sent people to my hometown to investigate my financial situation, and found out I indeed had no money. They verbally abused me when they returned.

At last we were released. The township government wanted to confiscate the land assigned to my family and would not allow us to grow crops on it any more. I said, "If you don't let us grow crops, our whole family will go to Beijing." They said, "We said this just to frighten you. We hope you will continue to cultivate your land and do your job well."

5. On the fifth arrest, ongoing suffering could not affect my determination to cultivate

On April 20, 2002, officers from the local police station and the village head, Dong Fushan, illegally searched my home. Later Wu Baowang and I were sent to a detention centre. On the third day we were ordered to give our fingerprints. I was not a criminal, why should I give them my fingerprint? They pulled and pushed me to take the fingerprint. I made a firm fist. Two of them used their all strengths in an attempt to open my hand, but failed. The head of the detention centre ordered the prison doctor to inject my hand. Shortly after, the anti-riot team was called in and four people stood on each side. I told them the truth. The next day I realized that my hands were swollen because the jailors squeezed them so harshly.

On the 25th day of detention, Wu Baowang died from roughly administered force-feeding in the detention centre. They used highly concentrated salt water to brutally force-feed Wu Baowang. The feeding tube broke his digestive tract and the salt water flooded out, which caused his death. The detention centre officials, though, informed his family that he died from a brain haemorrhage.

6. Hell on earth -Harbin Women's Prison

On July 4, 2003, I was sent to solitary confinement. There was only very thin noodle soup twice a day to eat. I was forced to sit with both legs stretched straight in front of me for a long time, and was not permitted to change positions. In the evening I could not get to sleep under the cold weather because of not having a quilt. I felt dizzy whenever I stood up due to the lack of food.

On July 31, 2003, prisoner Qu Guixian told me division leader wanted to talk to me, but before I could enter his office, six people holding handcuffs in their hands jumped on me and began torturing me. They handcuffed my hands behind my back, with one hand over my shoulder and the other hand against my lower back. Jailed criminals held an electrical baton to torture me. They pushed me down onto the floor, sometimes with my face up, sometimes with my face down. They kicked and ruthlessly beat me. Wu Liqun was tall and sturdy. She beat me with her fist and kicked me; she even deliberately kicked me toward chairs and the table, causing my body to hit blunt edges harshly. I was kicked back and forth between them like a ball. She even used an apron to cover my head by tying my neck and pulling the apron backward to tighten the tie. She used four layers of tape to cover my mouth. After she rested for a while she continued to beat me. While beating me she said, "This is precisely hell on earth."

The beating lasted from 1:00 p.m. to about 4:00 p.m. Wang Botao also wrote the word "criminal" on my clothes, even on the vest. Wu Liqun used an electrical baton to shock my back. I was black and blue all over. Even the handcuffs chafed the bone. For several months I could not extend my arm backwards. It hurt severely, even just combing my hair.

One day in August 2003, the division head Cui said to me, "Your Mum came. Do you want to see her?" I said, "Yes." She said, "If you want to see her, you must admit that you are a criminal." I said, "I am not a criminal. Why do you ask me to lie?" Cui said, "If you don't admit it you will not be allowed to see your mom." Mum was not able to see me. On the way home she got severe blisters all over her mouth. She fell into bed as soon as she arrived home. Since then, she never got up. She died from the grief. Her mouth and her eyes were open when she died.

Once I wrote a letter to my daughter. When the division head Cui discovered this, she took away the letter, notebook and pen. I asked for them back twice, but she said that she had destroyed them. I said, "The Chinese New Year is coming. I want to write a letter to my daughter. Who does not have children? The notebook and pen are all borrowed." Cui replied, "Bad luck for them if they lent to you; none of you are allowed to write letters."

On March 10, 2004, fifteen practitioners detained on the fifth floor were subjected to excruciating torture methods. We were hung up with two hands cuffed behind the back and attached to the highest point of the upper bunk bed without the feet touching the ground. I went unconscious from the torture, however after I regained consciousness they continued to hang me up. The prisoner Wang Yunyun said, "If you go unconscious again we will pour cold water on you." The staff person Zhou Ying said, "That is what we do to persecute you!"

On May 15, 2004, I was hung up again. The division head Cui also put more than 30 practitioners into a ten-square-meter room and forced them to sit from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The responsible persons in the Harbin Women's Prison:

Heads: Xu Longjiang, Liu Zhiqiang
Communist Party Commissioner: Chu Xiuhua (female), 86-451-86684001-3003

Address:
Heilongjiang Women's Prison
No. 389 Xuefu Street, Nangang District, Harbin City
Helongjiang Province, P.R. China, Zipcode: 150069

Telephone Operator: 86-451-86684001, 86-451-86668488 (after being connected, you may reach a staff person by mentioning his/her name or position.)

Friday is the visiting day for the head of the prison, from 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M.

Phone: 86-451-86684002 ext. 3009, 86-451-86694053

Harbin City Binjiang District Procuratorate: 86-451-82359148

Liaison Office for Harbin City Binjiang District Procuratorate in the women's prison: telephone number 86-451-86663178

Heilongjiang Province Prison Administration Bureau:

Address: No. 79 Hanguang Street, Nangang District, Harbin City 150080
Phone: 86-451-6335924

Every Wednesday is the visiting day for the bureau head: 86-451-86316442, 86342238, 86342139

Note:

(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/5/18/102105.html