The Suffering of Falun Gong Practitioner Ms Zhu Xianzhi from Henan Province

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhu Xianzhi is from Yanshi City, Henan Province. Ms. Zhu was sentenced to a seven-year jail term on March 1st 2005. She started a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was brutally force-fed through a tube, causing her tremendous suffering and a 4 cm hole in her lungs. At present, Zhu Xianzhi is still detained in Huaxia Hotel, Yanshi City. Her weight has dropped from over 50 kg to a little over 30 kg. She has difficulty breathing and is on the verge of death.

Ms Zhu Xianzhi is 45 years old. Because she believes in "Truthfulness- Compassion--Tolerance" and practises Falun Gong, she was sent to a brainwashing class many times by the 610 Office (1). She was also sent to a forced labour camp. On January 20th 2003, she was released from the forced labour camp.

On March 6th 2003, Zhu Xianzhi was arrested from her home and sent to a brainwashing class by the Yanshi City 610 Office. The following people were involved in her arrest: Han Guoqing, the head of the municipal 610 Office, Zhang Baomin, a police officer from the political security section of the city's police department, Ma Xianwu, the head of the town 610 Office, two staff members from the General Administration Office and police officers from the town police station. Zhu Xianzhi escaped and became homeless.

On September 28th 2004, when she was on her way home from work, Zhu Xianzhi was arrested by plain-clothed police and sent to the Heizhuang Detention Centre in Zhengzhou City. During her two weeks of detention, Zhu Xianzhi sustained a hunger strike. Finally she was sent back to the Yanshi Detention Centre.

1. Leather whips, shackles and handcuffs

On October 12th 2004, when Zhu Xianzhi was sent to the Yanshi Detention Centre, she was immediately put in big shackles and some specially made handcuffs (made of a flat steel bar that forms a circle to fit the wrist and is then locked by twisting a steel wire pin). The cuffs prevented her hands from moving at all.

On the afternoon that she was first sent to the cell, the guard, Zhu Guizhi, gathered all the inmates together and told them that no one was allowed to talk to Ms. Zhu, not to have pity for her, and that if she talked to others, they should beat or kick her.

At some point, Zhu Xianzhi's family sent her a warm bed cover, but until then, she only wore a light shirt and a pair of light trousers. In addition, because she was on a hunger strike, she was put into shackles and handcuffs that were chained together, which made her unable to move her four limbs. She was only able to sit, freezing, with her whole body trembling. On the night of October 13th Zhu Xianzhi was unable to sleep at all due to the cold. She told the patrol people about her situation but they did not help her. On October 15th four male inmates carried Zhu Xianzhi to the open field inside the detention centre and held her to the ground. They lashed her six times with a leather whip. The next day, she was whipped five more times. Every time after she was whipped, under the watch of the inmate Shi Yina, she would be forced to stand up straight, and was not allowed to sit or lean against a wall. Because of being on a hunger strike, wearing shackles and handcuffs, and being freezing cold, Zhu Xianzhi was trembling and unable to stand stable. Even in such a situation, she was still forced to do two night shifts like that.

Around 8 a.m. on October 18th the political head Xu gathered all the people for a meeting and claimed that Zhu Xianzhi did not follow the prison rules and refused to do counting when being called. He ordered four prisoners to carry Zhu Xianzhi outside and give her ten whippings. The next day when the policewoman, Zhu Guizhi, found out that Zhu Xianzhi still refused to do counting when being called, she ordered another six whippings.

Zhu Xianzhi was forced to wear handcuffs and shackles from the time she was sent to the detention centre. Half a month later, the torture had caused her four limbs to be numb. She also suffered from a fever and extreme pain. She couldn't sleep at night and was still forced to do two night shifts.

Zhu Xianzhi started to resume eating because of her poor health condition. Then they forced her to work and do night shifts. She had to get up at 6 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. or midnight. Because of her poor health condition, Zhu fainted several times and felt pain on her lower back, feet, hands and arms. She had several fevers, coughed and experienced dizziness. The head of the detention centre, Guan Jinxiang, said to her: "You are sick and can't work. Many others are sick as well. What are we to do if they all refuse to work? We have a rule that if one can't work, one has to wear shackles." Therefore, on December 13th Zhu Xianzhi was put in shackles weighing over 5 kg.

One week later, Zhu Xianzhi's condition worsened, and she asked that the shackles be removed. Guan Jinxiang asked her whether she wanted to work. She said she was unable to. Guan immediately turned around and left. Half a month later, Zhu Xianzhi felt dizzy and vomited, and her cough became worse. She asked that the shackles be removed. Guan asked her again whether she would work. Zhu Xianzhi said, "My health is so poor. I am indeed unable to work." Guan said, "Then keep wearing them," and left. Zhu Xianzhi's condition worsened day-by-day. She was not able to walk straight and kept falling down. She had difficulty going to the toilet. Her feet were swelling. They finally removed the shackles from her.

2. Brutal force-feeding

Because of the persecution, Zhu Xianzhi's body was out of balance. She felt oppression in her chest and had intense pain in her head. She couldn't eat for consecutive days, so they started force-feeding her again, once a day. On the first day, they filled her with flour soup. Later they filled her with very salty flour soup, which made her vomit, and feel dizzy and weak. Two times after being force-fed, Zhu Xianzhi had to go to the toilet from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. with diarrhoea. She also started to vomit blood. Every time when she was force-fed, four or five people plus a doctor were involved. They would hold her down to the ground in the open field outside. One held her legs; one held her feet; one held her arms; and one covered her mouth with a wet towel. They would fill her with salty flour soup from two half-full troughs that are approximately 20 cm in diameter. Zhu would convulse on the ground and would choke out almost everything. They kept doing this, and even used an inflated air bag, which made Zhu feel as though her heart and lungs were going to explode. Only after spitting out the food did she feel better. The force-feeding would last ten to twenty minutes. Afterwards, they would leave and Zhu would be vomiting and having diarrhoea. The next day they would perform the same procedure again. Zhu Xianzhi kept vomiting blood and coughing for three or four nights afterwards. Later, they gave her infusions, which lasted about three days, until they couldn't inject the needle into her body any longer.

Since then, Zhu Xianzhi would cough every night and was unable to sleep. She asked for a medical examination and it was refused. The thugs forced her to work every day. The head of the detention centre and police would scold her if she refused to work. They would assign the work to others in the same cell if she could not work, which triggered the inmates to bully and scold her. These evil people would not allow her to close her eyes or cough. When she closed her eyes, they would throw something on her head. Zhu Xianzhi suffered such maltreatment every day until she was sentenced and sent to the Xinxiang Women Prison on March 24th 2005. She was diagnosed with severe infectious pulmonary tuberculosis and had a 4 cm hole in her lungs which was caused by the forced-feeding.

3. Illegally sentenced to jail

Zhu Xianzhi was extremely weak due to the persecution in the Yanshi Detention Centre. However, the Yansi Detention Centre not only refused to give her a medical examination but also rushed the court to sentence her.

On March 1st 2005, the court held a hearing. There was neither evidence nor a witness to support the so-called crimes claimed by the prosecutor. Zhu Xianzhi didn't acknowledge any of the charges. Even the defendant lawyer said that there was not enough evidence to convict her. However, the Xanshi People's Court sentenced her on March 2nd 2005, to seven years in jail.

4. Force-feeding medicine

On March 24th 2005, when Zhu Xianzhi was sent to Xinxiang City for a physical exam, she was found to have infectious pulmonary tuberculosis. The detention centre was told to take her back immediately, but they did not pick her up until March 27th. Zhu Xianzhi was held for another 10 days in the detention centre. Her condition worsened daily. She kept coughing up saliva and phlegm, day and night, unceasingly. She was unable to sleep and had difficulty breathing. She was on the verge of death. Her weight dropped from over 50 kg to a little over 30 kg.

The Yanshi Detention Centre refused to send her home. On April 8th Zhu Xianzhi was sent to the Huaxia Hotel where many brainwashing classes were held. The hotel had television monitors even in the toilet, and every day there were 14 to 15 people guarding her around-the-clock. Ms. Zhu's room would be locked tightly at night with a stick against the door.

Zhu Xianzhi protested being put in this hotel. They forcefully pulled her up to the third floor. Zhu yelled out loudly, "Falun Dafa is good!" (At that time, Zhu's throat was swelled so much that she almost couldn't speak). The director of the Politics and Law Committee, Zhang Qinghua, promptly pushed her into the room. He slammed her against the wall and tried to stop her from yelling out because he was afraid that others might hear. He said, "Why don't you hit the wall and kill yourself?" Because it was midnight and they were afraid of being heard, they let her go.

On the second and third days, the authorities force-fed medicine into Ms. Zhu with the intention of improving her health slightly and returning her to jail. The cost for the medicine was between 200 to 300 yuan (2) per day. The hotel room was 50 yuan per day. The total cost for 15 people's accommodation and food would be over 1000 yuan per day.

Note:

(1) "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

(2) "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/2005/8/13/108312.html