An Unfinished Letter from Prison

The following letter was written by a practitioner in Jinan Women's Prison in Shandong Province. It was passed out through many layers of blockades and with much difficulty. The letter exposes the brutality of the communist party and its regime. We make the letter public in the hope that more people worldwide will join the efforts to oppose the persecution, and to end the brutality against practitioners in China.

The following is this unfinished letter from prison:

I once told you the situation here had improved. We finished working at 8 p.m. every day and had a break on Sunday. In fact, this policy was only implemented for one week. I heard we had this short lived policy because of a Hong Kong newspaper's exposure of the prison policy. The newspaper reported we laboured long hours with poor living conditions, and that we were being persecuted.

They tried all sorts of things against practitioners over the past several years. All the practitioners arrested prior to 2002 were electrically shocked. Now they don't allow the use of electric batons any more. Once practitioners enter the prison, they are detained in the enforcement division first, and forced to write "three statements¹" to give up the practice and defame Dafa. If they refuse, they are deprived of sleep and the use of the toilet. Food is also restricted. They are forced to squat, to stand for extended periods, or put into solitary confinement. Guards and inmates armed with sticks take turns to watch practitioners. When practitioners move a little bit, they are beaten. A practitioner was once forced to squat down for more than 40 days, and was unable to stand up afterwards. The severity of the torture and beatings are beyond description. Some practitioners were forced to write the "three statements" and other practitioners lost consciousness several times. Every practitioner was tortured like this.

The persecution continues here. Practitioners are forced into solitary confinement and force-fed if they go on hunger strike. Practitioners are beaten and have their clothes ripped. In summer of 2005, thugs stripped a practitioner naked and beat him badly for the entire day, just because he refused to "transform²." Practitioners are not allowed to wear heavy clothing in the winter. They are kept in the cold for a long time, and watched over by thugs bearing sticks. If they move a little bit they are beaten. One time when meeting family members, a practitioner told them about the beatings and showed them the wounds. The prison officials then prohibited all of the practitioners who refused to "transform" from seeing their families. In addition, a special group was formed to "transform" us.

Since Shandong Women's Prison was established in 1997, it has committed many bad deeds. We are forced to work more than 15 hours a day--sometimes overnight or even two or three days in a row without sleep. The police ask inmates to monitor us 24 hours a day, and do not allow us to say a single word. The mental torture is severe. Ms. Liu Zhimei, a 26 year-old practitioner from Tsinghua University was persecuted this way until she developed a mental disorder.

The above are the personal experiences of some practitioners in Jinan Women's Prison in Shandong Province.

Note

1. "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.

2. "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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/2/9/120420.html