The Persecution Facts at the Heilongjiang Women's Prison

Please find below detailed information about violations of existing Chinese laws and regulations, as well as human rights violations and torture that caused injuries and took lives.

1. Between March 10th and December 30th, 2004, Practitioners Were Subjected to the Hanging Torture¹

On March 10th, 2004, practitioners were handcuffed behind their backs and hung on the railing of their bunk beds. Among them, six practitioners were hung up until they lost consciousness. Prisoners put fast-acting heart rescue drugs into the mouths of Ms. Gao Guizhen, Ms. Guan Suling, and Ms. Yao Yuming and then hung them back up. Ms. Xu Jingfeng was subjected to this torture for longer than any other practitioner. The handcuffs cut deep into her flesh and she was unable to remove them. Prisoners in the male section were finally able to remove Ms. Xu handcuffs.

On March 10th, 2004, Ms. Xu Jiayu was among those who were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs and hung by a rope so that they could still lie down and sleep. Several practitioners were hung with their hands behind their backs in a manner that did not permit laying down to sleep.

On March 10th, 2004, Ms. Wang Liwen lost consciousness twice because of being hung up. Every time she came to the guards hung her up again. After having to suffer this torture three times, there was an egg-sized lump on her wrist.

On March 18th, 2004, the prisoners six practitioners behind their backs and hung them up with a rope.

In 2004 Ms. Zhang Feng was tortured with the aforementioned method. She was not allowed to go to the toilet and therefore soiled her trousers.

On May 16th, 2004, over 50-year-old Ms. Geng Yafen was not allowed to go to sleep. The following morning her hands were handcuffed behind her back and she was cuffed to the railing of the bed for more than three months.

On July 10th, 2004, Ms. Chen Weijun was handcuffed behind her back and hung up on two bunk beds in the police office on the southern side of the sixth floor.

On December 21st, 2004, Ms. Zhang Xiaobo, Ms. Guan Suling, and Ms. Zhang Jing suffered the hanging torture.

Many practitioners had symptoms of high blood pressure from the hanging torture. Therefore, the prison authorities injected them with drugs claiming to "treat illnesses." Then these practitioners would be hung up again.

2. Forcing Practitioners to Squat Causing Injury to Many

In the past, prison authorities counted the inmates before they arrived at their workstations. Then, some prison authorities came up with the idea to count inmates in the evening, which quickly was adopted by many prisons and camps. Everyone who answered to his or her name call had to squat. The practitioners were forced to respond to the guards who did the role call, "Thanks to our government and goodnight to our government." In recent years, we stopped saying this, so the prison guards used the roll call to further persecute practitioners.

In 2004, prisoners' tortured practitioners a number of ways, claiming that they refused to answer the roll call. Generally, the prisoner held the practitioners down, kicked and beat them, and dragged them over the floor.

On May 14th, 2004, the prisoners dragged Ms. Yu Xiuying from the cell to the corridor and then punched her face until her nose was bleeding. When the Deputy Head of the prison, Liu Zhiqiang, saw this, he asked the prisoners to wash Ms. Liu with cold water and took with him the name-tag of that prisoner, claiming that he would deal with her later. He asked Ms. Yu Xiuying to lie down on the bed. However, within a short time the prisoner dragged Ms. Yu Xiuying off the bed and cuffed her with her hands behind her back to the ladder of the upper bunk bed. The handcuffs were tightened as tight as possible. While doing this, the prisoner claimed that Liu Zhiqiang had ordered her to do it. Ms. Yu was in this position for close to 40 hours. Yet, the prison authorities did not take any action against the prisoner. On May 15th, the prison guards ordered the prisoners to fingerprint Ms. Yu Xiuying while she was still handcuffed.

In March 15th, 2005, prisoners pulled practitioners from the top bunk to the ground. The prisoners verbally abused and beat them. The thugs dragged the practitioners down by their hair and threw them on the floor. Ms. Li Hongxia, Ms. Wang Yanbo, Ms. Lin Shuhua, and Ms. Song Qing were injured. Yet, when Ms. Wu Shufang pressed the alarm button to call the surveillance office, the guards did not respond. Instead, the on-duty guard swore at Ms. Wu Shufen in front of more than one hundred people, "If you press that button again I will chop your fingers off! I will beat you! Yes, I will beat you! Don't think that I won't beat you?"

On March 17th, 2005, one prisoner seemed to lose her mind after forcing the practitioners to squat down for several days. She tore the clothes of several practitioners, pulled Ms. Yao Yuming's hair, and hit her head against the wall twice. When Ms. Yao reported the torture to Deputy Head of the Ward Xia Fengying, Xia replied, "There is a sound monitoring system on the wall. How could your head hit the wall?" The prisoner readily took the hint and instantly questioned, "Who beat you? Is there any witness?" This very prisoner entered Ms. Xu Jiayu's cell and pushed her violently to the floor. Another prisoner covered Ms. Xu's mouth and nose with her hands and almost choked Ms. Xu to death in the process. When Xia Fenying saw Ms. Xu's torn clothes, she did not ask any questions. Many practitioners suffered from similar violent mistreatment, but no one stopped the prisoners.

On March 25th, 2005, Ms. Song Qing was covered with a quilt by several prisoners and could not move. Ms. Wu Shufang went to see the guards immediately. Seven or eight prisoners then surrounded Ms Wu Shufang and beat her. Fortunately, Ms. Song Qing could free herself from under the quilt and was able to breath during that time. Then the prisoners grabbed her hair and beat her up. When the guard arrived, she did not say a word, which the prisoners took as his/her consent, and beat Ms. Song Qing even harder. As a result there was blood and hair on the floor. Only when one of the prisoners suddenly suffered a heart attack did the beating stop. When Ms. Wu Shufang reported the beating to the guard, she said, "What did I see? I didn't see anything."

From April 3rd to April 6th, 2005, practitioner Ms. Wang Yuqin was dragged around and beaten up. They punched her left eye and pinched her legs. One of the prisoners also pressed Ms. Wang's neck with her elbow and stuffed a towel into her mouth. They also twisted Ms. Wang's arms backwards. On April 7th and 8th, 2006, Ms. Wang Yuqin was handcuffed and hung to the railing of the top bunk. She could only stand up. From April 9th to 20th April she was handcuffed to a bed frame.

On April 3rd, Ms. Yuan Zhanxu, over 50 years old, was pulled from the bed to the ground. The prisoners grabbed her throat, pulled her arms and legs, and then threw her to the ground.

On April 3rd, the prisoners throttled Ms. Wang's throat and held her down. Ms. Wang, about 20 years old, suffered from heart disease and kept twitching for more than an hour. After that she had acute neck pain for quite some time and was unable to raise her head.

On April 14th, 2005, the "pressing into a squat position" had evolved into "exercising squat." Under the watch of the prison guards, the prisoners repeatedly pressed the practitioners down into a squat position and then pulled them up. In the meantime the prisoners also punched and kicked the practitioners.

April 14th, 2005, the on-duty guard shouted, "I can strike all 14 of you." With that remark the brutal mistreatment began. Ms. Yu Xiuying was thrown to the floor and the back of her head hit the floor with a loud bang. People in the corridor all heard it. Ms. Yu had a big lump on the back of her head. She became sick and vomited. Ms. Xu Jiayu suffered injuries to her left chest, right rib, and left ankle.

On April 15th, 2006, practitioners suffered from being repeatedly pushed down and pulled up, as well as punched and kicked. Ms. Fan Guoxia, Ms. Zhang Jing, and Ms. Zhang Liping were dragged to the so-called monitoring room for further torture. They were pulled by their hair and swung against the wall, or they were spun around and around by their heads. The practitioners were also slapped on the face, punched, and kicked. The prisoners were sweating all over and only then did they stop the torture that had lasted for more than an hour.

On April 20th, 2005, Ms. Zhang Linwen lost consciousness because of being repeatedly thrown to the floor by the prisoners. After she came to, she was unable to walk and she could not see anything.

3. Using Prisoners to "Supervise" Practitioners Violates Existing Laws and Regulations

1) Prison authorities assigned four prisoners to each practitioner. They recorded in detail the practitioners' eating, drinking, and sleeping habits, as well the names of the people the practitioners contacted. In 2003, the prisoners followed the each practitioner wherever she went, including going to toilet, during working hours. This created a stressful situation for the practitioner. Whenever the inmates could not reach their work quota, they vented their anger on the practitioner. They swore and insulted the practitioner. This stressful environment had a detrimental mental and physical effect on the practitioner. Now it appears as if no one is watching the practitioners. In reality, the prisoners watch secretly.

2) On March 2nd, 2004, more than 30 practitioners were taken to their cells. They were then ordered to sit in the office of the prison guards. The office, a little more than 10 square feet, was crammed with practitioners sitting on small plastic stools. Generally, the practitioners had to sit for more than ten hours. Prisoners monitored all practitioners and insulted and swore at them.

In July, 2004, a room was divided into two sections. All practitioners were forced to watch television for more than ten hours a day at the eastern side of the No. 6 Building--from 6:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m..

From March 14th to April 13th, 2005, the prison authorities assigned one prisoner per practitioner. There were dozens of people in one room. If the practitioner moved a hand or foot he/she would be pressed or pushed to the ground. The prisoners even sat next to the practitioner.

During that time Ms. Fan Guoxia's private parts were injured from being kicked.

4. More Violent Mistreatment of Practitioners by Prison Authorities in 2006

On January 9th, 2006, seven or eight prisoners pushed Ms. Sun Libing to the ground and then began to punch and kick her. Prisoner Li Yanping pulled Ms. Sun's hair and swung her head against the wall. Ms. Sun had a big lump on her head. The prisoner then punched Ms. Sun in the face just below her left eye, which turned purple and swelled. Ms. Sun felt dizzy and sick, and her entire body was in pain. The same day, Li Yanping pressed Ms. Wang Yanbo's chest, resulting in breathing problems. Later, Li Yanping beat Ms. Wang's legs. Ms. Wang legs were black and blue, and she felt uncomfortable and had chest pain.

On January 10th, prisoner Han Jiaying dragged Ms. Xiao Shuzhen from the bed and threw her to the ground. Her head hit the door, which resulted in a big lump. The inmate forced Ms. Xiao's hands backwards and swung her head against the wall. Then she sat on top of Ms. Xiao and beat her. Prison guard Zhang Wenya witnessed everything but neither reprimanded nor stopped the inmate.

On January 11th, several prisoners pressed Ms. Lin Shuhua to the ground, twisted her arms backwards and one of them asked for a rope. On January 12th, Ms. Zhu Xianqin went to the hallway, resulting in verbal abuse for the entire morning. Since then, the prisoners swear at her almost everyday. Even today, they still verbally abuse her.

5. Harming Practitioners Physically and Mentally with Sound Equipment, Television, and Noise

In 2004, when the practitioners were under strict control in their cells, they were forced to watch television for more than ten hours daily. This created a stressful environment and harmed the practitioners physically and mentally. In March 2005, they even used a high decibel floor sound system, turned the volume at its highest, and put it next to practitioners' ears. The deafening noise caused the practitioners physical and mental suffering.

6. Nasal Feeding Injures Practitioners

Falun Gong practitioners were insulted and mistreated for a long time. They reported to the prison leaders at all levels, but nothing was done about it. They went on a hunger strike, asking to be released unconditionally and demanded basic human rights, but to no avail. They did not receive a response, as required under existing regulations. Instead, the prison authorities used inhuman methods to ruin the practitioners' health.

They opened practitioners' mouths with tongs and left the thongs in for one to two hours. They inserted a nasal tube into the windpipe and used a tube as thick as a little finger repeatedly, not caring about resulting infections. Beginning in January, 2006, prison guards broke the food into pieces with their bare hands, put it into a mixer, and then mixed the food with a huge amount of garlic, green onions, and hot preserved vegetables. They described this as "killing the germs." They fed this concoction to the practitioners in an effort to injure the practitioners' stomachs and intestines. The practitioners became nauseous and vomited, ruining the practitioners' health even more.

7. Confining Practitioners in Small Cells and Torturing Them

Practitioners were often locked up into small cells for a long time because it was claimed that they "refused to obey management" or "were leaders." They were shackled to the ground and could not see the sunshine for half a year. To prevent prison inspectors from finding out, they began to issue "detention certificates," which were renewed daily. Thus, it appeared that the practitioners were locked into small cell for only a short time.

The practitioners would be isolated for "not obeying management" and then they were subject to individual "supervision and control" by inmates. The prison authorities also authorised the inmates to choose the torture methods. Therefore, the prisoners used all kinds of torture methods, including handcuffing and hanging. At the beginning of 2005, the inmates tortured practitioners Ms. Wang Juyan, Ms. Guan Suling, and Ms. Liu Sufen with different torture instruments. In April, the prisoners handcuffed and hung Ms. Wang Yuqin, Ms. Sun Libin, and Ms. Zhang Jing and sometimes cuffed them with two pairs of handcuffs.

8. Bearing False Witness, Covering Up the Truth and Hiding Practitioners to Avoid Discovery during Inspection

In June and September 2005, when officials came to investigate the cruel torture of being hung up suffered by practitioners Ms. Zhang Jing and Ms. Song Qing, as well as setting up a torture room at an electrician workshop on July 30th, 2003, the people involved in perpetrating these crimes lied, denied under oath, dodged, and refused to accept responsibility. They covered up the truth and even forced the victims to lie.

Whenever leaders from the outside came to inspect the prison, prison authorities hid Falun Gong practitioners and took precautions against exposure of their persecution of practitioners.

Mistreatment and violation of human rights inside the Heilongjiang Women's Prison were rampant. The aforementioned details should be sufficient to prove that violations of existing laws are ongoing. To summarise:

When inmates supervise and control others, then the inmates enjoy the same rights as prison guards, although they are serving a sentence.

The inmates took revenge because of personal grudges, beat and cursed others, sowed discord, and stirred up trouble. The prison was run by criminals. Therefore, some prisoners committed crimes during imprisonment, which completely changed the intent of transformation through labour.

Forcing practitioners to wear prison uniforms and going against regulations during head counts proves continued violations of existing laws and regulations. On January 17th, 2006, to silence Ms. Liu Shufen, her mouth was sealed with sticky tape. This caused chaos during the roll call in the evening.

Laws are ignored and power is above the law. The prison authorities incited, instigated and ordered prisoners to commit physical assault or murder. This made the prison guards accomplices in crimes.

Prison guards did not stop prisoners who violated the law and harmed other people. Monitoring systems did not work. More than a week before the general review, prison authorities did not open the monitoring system. They were therefore accomplices in crimes and the covering up of the truth. All this shows that prison leaders scheme with the prison guards to break existing laws, although they should be the enforcers of these laws. Therefore, they should be held accountable for irresponsibility, negligence, and criminal intent.

Government spokesman Qin Gang said, "The Chinese people have achieved prominent success in protecting manpower and the Chinese people enjoy full human rights and freedom in accordance with the law." (Please refer to media reports of December 12th, 2005.)

We are asking, "Do Chinese people enjoy full human rights and freedom?" Authorities responsible for enforcement at Heilongjiang Women's Prison are breaking existing laws and regulations daily. Imprisoning practitioners is a violation of human rights and freedom. Also, practitioners are treated as or worse than prisoners.

We demand that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Heilongjiang Women's Prison be stopped immediately and request that the International Red Cross and human rights organisations come to China to investigate and bring an end to the persecution.

Appendix I:

In January, 2005, Ms. Liu Shufen was taken to the rear building to be monitored. Several prisoners tortured her and humiliated her. The prisoners could choose the torture methods, an indication that the prison authorities surrendered their authority to inmates. Therefore, prison guards broke existing laws and violated disciplinary functions. In 2005, the small cell confinement was extended and after being taken from the small cell she was monitored by a so-called "personal inmate monitor" around the clock. This was a gross violation of human rights.

At the end of 2005, Ms. Liu was transferred to the section for sick inmates, where the mental persecution became even worse. She was forbidden to close her eyes when sitting on the bed. The prisoners pressed her down and forbid her to speak. In January 2006, Ms. Liu was transferred back to the No. 1 Ward and two days later to the 5th floor. She was made to sit on the ground from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Three inmates held her arms and legs to stop her from crossing her legs. She went on a hunger strike once again. In the evening she was dragged to the roll call. Wang Xiaodong and Zhu Xiurong, incited by Hou Liping and Jiang Yajing, punched and kicked her. They also sealed her mouth with sticky tape or put rags into her mouth. Ms. Liu Shufen and Ms.Zhang Liping were force fed with hot preserved pickles, garlic, and green onions.

The Head of the prison, Xia Fengying, ordered inmate Shang Xiaomei to persecute practitioners. One day when Ms. Zhang Liping was doing the exercises, prisoner Liu Yazhi did not stop her. However, prisoner Hou Liping reported to the Head of the Ward, Xia Fengying. Xia deducted points from Liu Yazhi on the spot. On January 17th, the No. 8 Ward set up an illegal torture room and transferred 10 prisoners from No. 9 Ward to this room. They used torture instruments on practitioners. The prison guards of No. 8 Ward covered up the windows on the eastern side of the Fifth Building with newspapers because they were afraid that other people might witness their lawless actions. The guards used prisoners to hold the practitioners down so that they could not move when they searched practitioners' beds. All this was in violation of existing law and represents neglect of duty.

Appendix II:

Report to the Hotline of Heilongjiang Prison Administrative Bureau: 86-451-6342238

Appeal:

Overseas practitioners, please forward this letter to the UN human rights organisation and request that they to send it to the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Committee of the CPC, the Chinese National Congress, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Supreme Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Justice.

Please directly send this letter to the Head of the Heilongjiang Prison Bureau, the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, the Governor of Heilongjiang Province, the Provincial Discipline Inspection, the Provincial High Court, the Provincial People Congress, and the Provincial Political Consultative Conference. At the same time, please call on all people who uphold justice to form a delegation to represent us at an international tribunal or to a human rights organisation. Please, bring charges for the aforementioned crimes and also file charges of these crimes with the Chinese Justice Ministry.

We call on Ms. Liu Sufen's family to sue the No. 1 Prison Ward, where ill people are held, and the guards who ordered prisoners to torture her. We also call on the lawyers who uphold justice to support practitioners who are being persecuted We also ask that kind-hearted people do everything in their power to uphold justice.

Note

1. "Hanging Up Torture" - Both hands are cuffed behind the back and only the toes touch the ground. One is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frame.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/6/129747.html