The Brutal Persecution of Practitioners in the 7th Ward at the Women's Prison in Heilongjiang Province During the Summer of 2005

The guards of the 7th ward in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison cruelly persecute Falun Gong practitioners using all kinds of tactics. The criminal inmates, encouraged by the guards, also torture practitioners at will. Criminal inmate Yu Chunling at one time used a cotton-padded jacket to virtually suffocate practitioner Ms. Fu Guichun until she lost consciousness. The prison guard present did not say anything. Falun Gong practitioners in the prison had no guarantee for their personal safety.

The following are the crimes against practitioners committed by the guards of the 7th ward in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison in the summer of 2005.

On May 31, 2005, the practitioners illegally imprisoned in the 7th ward were savagely tortured for protesting with hunger strikes, refusing to wear the prison uniform and refusing to comply with report at head count. The guards and criminal inmates carried out the tortures.

On June 1, 2005, for refusing to wear the prison uniform and refusing to report at head count, practitioners Zhang Yanhua, Guan Fenglan and Shi Fengli were handcuffed to a water pipe in the washroom, located about 1.4 meters high. Criminal inmate Liu Yanping, encouraged by Kang Yazhen and Cui Yan, the team leaders of the 7th ward, and by guards Lin Jia and Wu Xuesong, was responsible. The practitioners had to remain standing. They were not allowed to sleep at night and were forbidden to change positions. After midnight, Guan Fenglan suddenly had a stomachache and went into convulsions. She had pain all over her body. The criminal inmate sent by the guards did not release her from the handcuffs and said if she did not agree to their conditions she would not be allowed to sleep. When practitioner Zhang Yanhua came back from the bathroom, she fell on the wet tile floor. She was extremely sleepy and tired. The criminal inmates insisted on pulling her up and said that she was not allowed to sleep, and that they were afraid the guards might observe them from the monitors.

On June 2, practitioners Wang Jinyue, Liu Hongxia, and Ba Lijiang were also handcuffed in the washroom for their refusing to wear the prison uniform and refusing to report to the headcount. They were not allowed to sleep. They had not eaten anything for eight meals. The police still wanted to handcuff them to the 1.4-meter-high water pipe. After the practitioners resisted with all their efforts they were finally handcuffed by only one hand to this water pipe. The practitioners were able to sit on small stools this way through the night, even though with difficulties.

On June 22, the practitioners who were detained in the washroom were moved to a vacant room. The evildoers handcuffed both of the practitioners' hands to the highest rung of a ladder leading to the top bunk bed. All the bed boards were removed and the practitioners were not allowed to sit down. Practitioners Zhang Yanhua and Wang Jinyue had badly swollen feet and legs from suffering long-term torture, but the guards would still not let them sleep. This lasted until July 1, ten days and nights. On July 2, under collective protest by the practitioners of the ward, the guards finally put back the bed-boards. Zhang Yanhua and Wang Jinyue were allowed to rest.

At about noon on July 6, prison guards Kang Yazhen, Cui Yan, Lin Jia, and Wu Xuesong called practitioner Zhang Yanhua to a room not equipped with monitoring devices. The guards then commanded criminal inmates Liu Yan, Zhang Mingmei, Wang Jianqiu and Liu Yanping to force practitioner Zhang Yanhua down onto the ground. They twisted Zhang Yanhua's arms behind her back and then handcuffed her hands to the highest point of the upper bunk bed, with her toes barely touching the ground. The handcuffs had to sustain her whole body weight. She hung for nearly one hour under extreme pain. Then, practitioners Wang Jinyue, Liu Hongxia, Meng Shuying, Wei Liping and Fu Guichun were hung one after another, suffering this extreme torture.

Because she protested this persecution against fellow practitioners, Ba Lijiang was locked in a small confinement cell on June 3 and suffered from brutal forced-feeding. Evildoer Li Jie added ten times the normal quantity of salt into the gruel. When Ba Lijiang was released from the small confinement cell she had been on a hunger strike for two months. They force-fed her three times a day through a tube. She spent every day in painful suffering. Ba Lijiang had previously suffered from serious heart disease and Cholecystitis and Hepatitis B. All these illness disappeared after she started practising Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/12/1/115551.html