I Was Arrested and Taken to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp to Be Persecuted for My Spiritual Belief

I began to cultivate and practise Falun Gong in 1995. Both my mind and body benefited, and all my diseases were cured. On the evening of November 7th, 2000, when I went out, I was arrested and taken to the county police station. The police locked me to a metal chair for the entire night. The chair was hard, cold and I couldn't move. The following day, Meng Xiangui interrogated me, "What did you do outside yesterday evening?" I said, "I appealed for justice for Dafa." I spoke about the facts of Falun Dafa to them and told them that by following Truth, Compassion and Tolerance one can be a good person. However, they did not listen to me and detained me in a cell.The weather was cold, and it was cold in the room where I spent the following two weeks. I wore a cotton-padded jacket and trousers. I wrapped my woollen sweater around my head, but I still awoke several times per night because of the freezing cold. They did not give me the insulated shoes my family members sent me. Before I started practising Falun Gong I suffered from nephropathy. I suffered a relapse and was very weak. Plus I contracted diabetes because of the persecution.

After I was imprisoned for twenty days. Meng Xiangui from the Political Security Section in the county police station sent me to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp in Hebei Province. When I arrived in the labour camp, the doctor inspected me and found I had diseases. Although the doctor did not say what diseases I had, they did not accept me. On the second day, Meng Xiangui took me for an inspection at a local hospital. They did not check whether my blood sugar was high or not, but my diabetes was very serious from the doctor's expression. Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp still did not accept me. But Meng Xiangui insisted, and by 5:30 p.m. the following day I was there.

After three days, the forced labour camp inspected me and other seriously ill people. They gave me some unidentified medicines. I took them twice. As a result, I had lumps, which itched and were very hard to endure. Later, I threw away the medicines.

Most of the people imprisoned in Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp were Falun Gong practitioners. There are also some non-practitioner detainees there, but not many. The atmosphere is especially intense. As soon as a person enters the camp, he/she feels it is ghastly and fearful, causing one to gasp for breath. I lived on the first floor. Five people live in each room. The window was nailed shut and the room was not ventilated. The smell was very strong from the toilets. We often heard guards beating and abusing people on the second floor. There were also the pitiful cries as the practitioners were beaten.

I stayed in Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp for more than a month. I could walk at that time, but I could not wash my clothes. My body did not have the energy. The fellow practitioners helped me to wash my clothes. In the brainwashing class, they forced us to study materials slandering Dafa. There were some brainwashed people teaching incorrect principles of Falun Dafa, quoting out of context. We were all strong in our faith in Falun Dafa and resisted this "re-education."

At around midnight one night, guards asked us to move bags of Chinese yams. I said I was very uncomfortable and couldn't lift them, but they forced me to go. After I lifted three to four bags, I gasped for breath. I almost fainted, so I was sent back to the room. Then I began to have convulsions and my whole body became stiff. I lost consciousness. I did not have any energy and I slept for about twenty four hours.

After another week, a Dafa practitioner who was tortured to neurosis arrived in the next cell. Her name was Wang Lei, around 40 years old and from Beijing. I heard that she was very rich before. She was sentenced to be imprisoned in the forced labour camp for more than two years. Sometimes, when she slept, they still handcuffed her. One day, she shouted loudly and her voice was very miserable. I was frightened into convulsions, which was worse than the last time. I couldn't move and I felt faint.

At this time, they asked the team chief to pinch my philtrum [the vertical indentation in the upper lip]. Only then did I revive, but I did not have any energy. My lower limbs lost consciousness and I couldn't get up. I stayed in bed and others took care of me. On the second day, a guard in the forced labour camp saw it was not good, so he carried me on his back to a vehicle and took me to a hospital for inspection. I had serious heart disease and obvious signs of diabetes. My blood sugar was high. The forced labour camp feared being held responsible for a death so they called the county police station and decided to release me, and asked my husband to take me home. My husband came to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp at 9:00 a.m. on March 22nd, 2005, but they did not release me and they still created obstacles and asked him to write this or that. Finally, my husband did not tell me what he wrote and I was released after 4:00 p.m.

I practise Falun Gong and I am a good person everywhere. Not only do I have a healthy body when I practise, but my mind has also been purified. However, the communist party and Jiang's regime persecuted me to a state where my life was in danger. Where is the justice? Is this a society for people to live in? After I came back, through a period of time practising Falun Dafa less than six months later, I had basically recovered to full health.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/9/2/136929.html