Persecution in the No. 9 Ward of Harbin City Women's Prison

Since 2002, officials in the 9th Ward of Harbin City Women's Prison have persecuted good people who practise "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance."

Since 2004, this prison has been called the '"reform¹" base.' A group of big, muscular inmates headed by Qi Chunyan and directed by guard Jia Jiaojun has been established for the sole purpose of torturing practitioners. These inmates and guards have been particularly vicious. They have verbally abused and beaten the practitioners. They have deprived them of sleep and forbidden them to have a shower or change clothes.

They brainwash the practitioners under duress. Starting in the spring of 2002, they dictated that the practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong have to walk all the time, from spring to winter. In 2003, the different teams dragged outside female practitioners who refused to cooperate. Then male guards would torture them. They used whips and electric batons against the practitioners, in addition to punching and kicking them. In winter, they make the practitioners go outside and stay there for several days in a row. The practitioners are also forced to lie on their stomaches on piles of excrement. Some practitioners' feet and hands have become frostbitten.

Practitioners have been gagged with dirty socks and had toothpicks inserted underneath their fingernails. Practitioners have also been hung onto be dframes for long periods of time, locked inside storage rooms for a month at a time, and forced to sleep in bathrooms for days at a time. Sometimes practitioners have been hung up for seven or eight days in a row. Some have lost consciousness or almost become crippled. Almost every day a number of practitioners are locked up in small isolation cells. Even now, practitioners are being separated and force-fed daily.

Practitioner Ms. Guo Meisong, 40 years old, was imprisoned in the 9th Ward. Since 2002, she and the other practitioners were forced to walk outside for long periods of time, regardless of the weather. From 6:00 a.m. to noon and from the afternoon till evening, the practitioners had to walk endlessly. As a result of this long-term abuse, Ms. Guo developed lung problems. Her body swayed uncontrollably while she walked, but the guards still would not let her stop. She could no longer walk one day and fell down. After that, she could not get up anymore. A checkup revealed perforated lungs. Only then did the prison officials notify her father. He came and took her home, carrying her on a bed sheet. She weighed less than one hundred pounds at that point and passed away a few days later at home.

Practitioner Ms. Cai Lei is 25 years old. Because she refused to answer roll call or follow the guards' commands, the inmates designated to persecute Falun Gong beat her for an entire evening inside a storage room. The responsible inmates were Long Juan and Yang Jing, who were instigated by the head guard. Ms. Lei was beaten so badly that it was difficult to recognise her. She was also locked inside a small cell for eight months.

Ms. Feng Haibo is 40 years old. Because she continues to practise Falun Dafa, and refuses to cooperate with the police, she has been jailed since 1999. Every year, she has been locked up in a small isolation cell. The longest time was 10 months. During her incarceration, she has endured all kinds of inhuman tortures.

Zheng Jie is the police team leader. Since the end of 2003, he has forced 32 practitioners to sit on the concrete floor to torture them. At 6:00 a.m. the practitioners have to sit on the wet floor, and they have to sit there until 11:00 p.m., doing this from the end of March till October 1st. At the beginning, the persecutors always single out one practitioner. They tie this practitioner up or beat her and force her to squat. They use these tortures to force the practitioners to do hard labour. The practitioners tried to stop this torture and would not let the guards take anyone out. Zheng Jie encouraged two male guards to beat practitioners. That same day, four practitioners, Ms. Liu Kun, Ms. Jiang Meshan, Ms. Yang Baozhu, and Ms. Feng Haibo, were locked up in small isolation cells. Due to the practitioners' strong righteous thoughts, more practitioners were spared from doing hard labour. Then the prison changed to using food deprivation as a means of persecution. Between April and October, they gave the practitioners only one half of a steamed bun (the whole bun is about 2.7 ounces) for each meal. Furthermore, during this time the practitioners were forbidden from buying additional food in the prison store. These practitioners' physical health was severely damaged.

Practitioner Ms. Ya Xiuhua is 52 years old. She was deprived of sufficient nourishment between 2003 and 2004 and was prevented from buying any additional food. Her teeth and gums started bleeding and oozing fluid, and her teeth started to fall out. In April 2005, someone named Liu Po knocked her down and injured her lumbar vertebra, causing her chronic pain ever since.

The former team leader, Zheng Jieren, forced 32 practitioners to sit on the earthen floor toward the end of 2003 from 6:00 a.m. until 6 p.m.

In the spring of 2004, the prison was moved to a new location. Immediately after that, a new round of persecution ensued. The practitioners were compelled to do hard labour. If someone refused to cooperate, four inmates would carry the practitioners away, beat them, and then lock them in small isolation cells. Practitioners started a hunger strike to protest, but they were force-fed. Practitioner Ms. Deng Lianmei's teeth became loose because the prison guards used tools to pry her mouth open during force-feeding. She eventually lost all of her teeth. The prison guards repeatedly inserted and then pulled out the feeding tubes, doing so five to six times until the practitioners vomited all that was being fed.

In the summer, the 9th Ward was renovated into a headquarters for "reforming" Falun Gong practitioners. Twenty practitioners were taken to undergo the forced brainwashing. The rest of the practitioners' money was confiscated. During these two years, every one or two weeks, the prison guards would body search the practitioners and search the entire cell. They confiscated hand-written copies of Teacher's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] lectures, and practitioners' bedding and clothing. Sometimes not a single shirt was left for the practitioners.

In April 2005, the prison was again preparing to forcibly "reform" practitioners. The next day the prison guards used some deceptive methods and dragged several practitioners away. If the practitioners refused to cooperate, the prison guards incited the criminal inmates to beat the practitioners or locked these practitioners up in small cells. Twenty prison guards with electric batons stood along the sides of the hallway. A new round of persecution started again. The practitioners had previously been compelled to do hard labour; this time they were made to stay inside their cells, watched by a prisoner.

In 2004, the guards attempted to force twenty practitioners to go through "reformation," but none were actually reformed. In 2005, only two out of 10 practitioners were "reformed."

In August 2005, some steadfast practitioners were transferred into different divisions, and only about 10 practitioners were left in the original teams. The torture was intensified. The practitioners were deprived of sleep for 10 days in a row. After being tortured for over two months they could no longer move.

Falun Dafa practitioners were detained on the third floor. The windows were covered, and the practitioners there were prevented from washing, changing their clothes, or sleeping. They were placed under around-the-clock monitoring and suffered from other inhuman tortures. The prison guards use these tortures to "reform" the practitioners.

Practitioner Ms. Ba Lijiang is 38 years old, and she is imprisoned in the 7th Ward. Because she refused to cooperate and continued to practise she was locked up, separated from the other practitioners, and tortured. The window in each small cell is covered with paper, and she was monitored around the clock. She was subjected to force-feeding between 2005 and 2006.

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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/9/1/136863.html