Persecution Records from Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp and Beijing Women's Prison (Part 2)

Part 1: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/1/13/68942.html

I began to practise Falun Dafa in 1998 and was arrested in 2003 for distributing Falun Gong VCDs exposing the persecution. I am recounting below how I was arrested and detained without due process or legal cause.

1. Being Arrested

One day in the spring of 2003, we heard a loud sound. At the same time, the door of our residence was kicked open and glass broke from the force of the kick. Several police officers pushed my fellow practitioner to the ground, put handcuffs on him and slid a black cover over his head. My hands were also cuffed behind my back, and my head was covered in the same way.

The police did not leave, but waited for quite a long time in the small courtyard. They apparently intended to arrest other practitioners who might drop by, but they were not successful. They put us into the police car and took us to the Haidian local police station. They illegally searched our bodies, requested us to "roll on a big board" and put black ink all over our hands. We refused. The police roared, "Then experience the iron chair." They violently pushed us to a pair of iron chairs with backrests. The iron chairs were off the ground, and one had to step on a rectangular footplate to sit on the chair. In front of the iron chair, there was a long iron board like a small table, with iron axes underneath the iron board, which could be moved around the iron board. Police turned the iron board aside, made us sit on the chair and then turned the board towards our chests. The police had a big iron lock to lock the long board and iron chair together, so the person sat tightly in the chair, without being able to move. The police then cuffed our arms behind the iron chair. With the black cover on our heads, we could barely breathe. After a while, our chests felt painful, due to the tightness of the handcuffs. It was very difficult to endure.

Late at night on the second day, several police officers interrogated me without anyone else present. They used promises and threats in their attempts to obtain information. They wanted to know the names of other practitioners. They threatened that if I did not tell, I would be sentenced to more than five years of imprisonment. I did not relent. After torturing me for an entire night, they threw me into a cell. The prison conditions were very bad. There were over 20 prisoners divided into three rows. We were forced to sit on the floor during the daytime, unable to move, and we slept on the floor at night. Police monitored us constantly through a camera. As soon as there was any movement or talking, we received physical punishment - the prisoners in the entire cell had to sit without moving until midnight.

During those days, I was continuously interrogated. I came to understand that police had already monitored and tailed us for about six months. Therefore, several practitioners were arrested one after another. We were detained in different cells and could see each other, but were not allowed to talk. During interrogation, the rooms were next to each other. Sometimes we could hear the interrogators shouting a female practitioner's name and threatening her.

One night, the staff officially declared us arrested. That night, I was the first to be interrogated. It was very quiet in the other rooms. Then after a while, rapid footsteps made people feel nervous. I heard the loud cry of the practitioner who was arrested at the same time as I. He said he was responsible and it had nothing to do with me. Then I heard the sounds of beating. I asked, "Why are you beating people?" The interrogator stared at me and then walked out to stop the beating. I turned around and saw a police officer in uniform who was wearing leather shoes and cruelly stepping on the young university student's face. The practitioner's face was squashed against the ground.

At the sentencing, according to procedure, we were subjected to interrogation and trial procedures. It was winter. During this time, we often were moved to other cells and detained with criminal inmates. I met many prisoners, who often told me, "You practitioners are so good! We had no idea when we were free. We often heard the media attacking you. It was terrible. But in here, we found out that you are very good. When you realized that we wore thin clothes in the cold, you took off your overcoats and gave them to us. You helped us turn over clothes for drying on the heater at night. The TV programmes often frame you with incidents of murder and arson. Those lies are really cold-blooded!"

Later, many practitioners were sentenced, one after another. Sentences ranged from five to eleven years. All the practitioners appealed their sentences, and none acknowledged the persecution. Their powerful defence during the trials shocked the evildoers. Once almost ten practitioners appealed at the same time in court. They spoke righteously, terrified the people in the courtroom, and the message was spread to the labour camps.

2. Being Imprisoned

Another practitioner and I were sentenced by the court. We appealed, but our original sentence was not rescinded.

On a cold morning, I was cuffed and sent to the Beijing Women's Prison.

After a body search, where I was stripped of all my clothes, I was taken to a cell. Two people were assigned to monitor me. During the night, they took turns sleeping, but deprived me of sleep. They tried to force me to write a renunciation of Falun Dafa, but I refused. Therefore, they did not let me close my eyes. During the day, they asked me non-stop to give up the practice. They could not make a dent in my firmness, but it became a form of persecution. I was observed through the camera around the clock. One of my monitors was cruel to me all day long. She did not stop cursing. The other one seemed to be nice, and even cooked me some food in the morning. However, after a few days, the prisoner who cooked for me brought several books slandering Dafa. She wanted me to read books that taught evildoers how to "transform¹" others. The books said that when two people do transformation work, one plays the good, while the other plays the bad role. It outlined many tricks of how to abuse practitioners. It emphasised refusing reporters' interviews and visits.

If you don't "transform" in the prison, all your rights are taken away. During the day, all of the prisoners worked in the workshop. At night, they took turns harassing me. To force me to renounce my belief, the guards used the "implication method." They also stopped work for the entire group so that they could attack me together.

One day a practitioner was brought to our team. The guards isolated her in a room and ordered several prisoners to torment her in turn. Her already skinny body became even thinner. She became very emaciated. Still, they did not stop persecuting her.

One day at noon, a frenzied atmosphere permeated the cells. The guards gathered all cell leaders for an urgent task. They cruelly beat a practitioner. Guards locked all of the prison gates. Soon, the prisoners in each cell knew that this newly arrived practitioner had suffered brutal torture all day long. Those vicious prisoners who beat her were actually exempt from working and their terms were reduced.

There was one practitioner from Haidian that told us about her family's plight. Nearly the entire family practised Falun Gong. Four of her sisters and two younger brothers were tortured to death. Her younger sister died from being hung up and tortured in the forced labour camp. Her mother was arrested and then taken to a labour camp. Her daughter had no one to take care of her. She was taken away by the 610 Office² and not allowed to see her mother.

A practitioner named Zizi was deprived of sleep for several months.

The leader of the guards issued an order. Practitioners were not allowed to speak to each other, and even a smile drew their anger. Moreover, whenever steadfast practitioners tried to talk, the guards deducted a work mark, equating to one month of labour, from the cell head's record. Such a deduction affects the yearly review that determines the reduction of prison terms. The prisoners feared that marks would be deducted, so they monitored practitioners movements continuously. This policy created a suffocating environment for the practitioners.

Under such pressure, I began to write articles to tell prisoners the facts. It did not take long for the guards to hear about it. At around 10:00 p.m. one night, the head of the guards rushed into my cell, shouting my name, "We will deal with you tonight!" The head of the guards demanded that I say I was wrong, but I refused.

The head of the guards ordered many prisoners to torment me if I refused to say that I was wrong, and the prisoners who had worked the entire day would not be allowed to sleep.

In the beginning, the prisoners did not let me sit, took turn beating me, and kept me from using the toilet. After midnight, one prisoner rushed at me, began to cruelly beat me and grabbed my throat. Then all of the prisoners attacked me at once, violently beat me, pulled my hair, slapped my face, and hit me wherever they could. The beating lasted for a very long time. One prisoner beat me down to the ground and then ruthlessly stomped on my knee. I don't remember how long it went on, but my kneecap was dislocated. My mouth bled from the beating.

Suddenly, another prisoner held me and cried, and told the others not to treat me like that. The prisoners carried me out to see the head guard. I told the guards that prisoners tortured me. I was told I was dreaming. They refused to bandage my injuries, deprived me of sleep at night, and made me copy the "bylaws" of the prison. I still had to work during the day, although I had already written the "transformation statement." I performed slave labour and was only given a hard steamed bun and a few pickles to eat. Later, the prison doctor quietly told me, "The guards delayed treatment for your leg. You should be in bed without moving with such an injury. Then, a plaster cast should be put on the leg. Yet, they made you go to the workshop, go up and down the stairs, and walk so far."

Afterwards, a scan showed that the cartilage in my leg, as well as the ligaments, were damaged. The doctor said that when it becomes this serious, they have to operate. After I was injured, I hopped on one leg for a long time, and I could not bend that leg. It was difficult to use the toilet. My leg was very swollen all the way up to the thigh, and I could only walk very slowly.

At the end of 2004, the practitioners from one team in our prison made their "solemn declarations," and declared that the brainwashing "transformation" in the labor camp was null and void. Very soon, practitioners in our team also handed in "solemn declarations," one after another. The head of the guards was scared to see us when we gave her our declaration. She was very scared and said, "I do not want it! I won't read it! Don't give it to me!" She refused to accept them over and over again.

Soon after, guards asked practitioners in our team to write the three statements³ to renounce our belief again. I refused to write it. The head guard called me to her office, beat me in the middle of the night, and instructed young guards to stand in formation. She then ordered me to write the three statements. When I refused, a group of guards rushed over, grabbed my hands and arms, held them down and tried to force me to write the statement. I struggled with all my strength, but there were so many people holding my hand to write the statement. I struggled and repeatedly shouted, "Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is good!"

The guards held down my arms and hands for two days continuously, until I could no longer move them! Although I still do not know what they have written for me, but I think it would be slandering and defaming Dafa. After they finished writing, they wet my finger with ink, and applied it to the paper. Even the cell heads and prisoners who had helped police to persecute me could not bear it.

The head of the guards prepared another round of persecution. She planned to use my hand that had no feeling to write words slandering Teacher Li and Dafa. I said to the prisoner sent by the guards, "If anybody forces me to write again, I will immediately go on hunger strike, even if I starve to death."

Soon the camera monitored me around the clock. The guards did not dare to commit any indiscretion. After this, in order to prevent other practitioners in our prison team from helping me, the head guard colluded with prison officials to transfer the practitioners in our team. On that day, the prison gate was locked, I could only see them packing up luggage through the window.

After the Chinese New Year, a new official came to my prison team. She told me her thoughts when she monitored me, "All these years, the higher authorities asked us to 'reform' practitioners. After many years, I realized that we should educate and save people, yet we are persecuting you. You are actually very outstanding. We found that once you give up the practice, it is as if your spirit is destroyed. Therefore, some kind police officers on our team do not want to 'transform' you. But because they did not cooperate with the requests from officials, they were transferred to other teams without Falun Gong practitioners. Those who remained are all vicious."

This is the situation in Beijing Women's Prison, and all over the country. One time a cell head who had persecuted me said that she once witnessed many police cruelly torturing one practitioner. She was so shocked at the time, and she told me that she had seen with her own eyes a practitioner suffering broken bones at the hands of policemen.

This is the persecution I have experienced. Detained Falun Gong practitioners all over China are facing inhuman and brutal suffering.

We strongly demand that the Chinese authorities stop this unprecedented persecution, clear the name of Falun Gong, release all illegally detained practitioners, and punish murderers Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, and Zhou Yongkang.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

2. "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.

3. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/12/24/117133.html