Ms. Sun Chongzhen Exposes the Persecution She Suffered in Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp

My name is Sun Chongzhen. I am a 41-year-old woman. While I was informing people about the true nature of Falun Gong at Liang Dian in Junan County, Shandong Province on July 11th, 2003, I was reported and arrested. I was sent to Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp by a 610 Office¹ agent in Junan County on August 1st, 2003. Since then I have suffered three years of persecution at the labour camp.

Right after the officers arrested me, while in the vehicle, they started kicking and hitting me. During the ensuing interrogation, I refused to cooperate and did not tell them my name and address [Note: Because of the Chinese Communist Party's practice of implicating and harassing family members and work units of Falun Gong practitioners, practitioners often refuse to give their names when they are arrested, in order to protect their families and associates]. They brutally kicked me and hit me again and forbade me to use the toilet. They sent me to the Junan Detention Centre and stripped me for a body search.

On July 13th, 2003, I was handcuffed and tied to a metal chair by agents from the 610 Office. As I refused to cooperate with them, they brutally kicked my legs and tried to force me to tell my name. I was tortured for three days. They tried to force me to provide my fingerprints, and photographed me. When I did not cooperate, they had criminal inmates hold my arms and kick me.

Finally, a guard from the village where my mother lives reported my name and I was sent to the Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp on August 1st, 2003. The Dadian Town head and agents from the 610 Office said, "You always say Falun Gong is good and tell how you benefited from it. Now it's your chance to really taste the benefits of practising Falun Gong."

The police bribed the labour camp to finish all the paperwork. They then attempted to force me to sign the documents and fingerprint them. I did not cooperate. Without any formal paperwork issued, I was sent into a demon's den. The guards locked me in a small cell every day and forbade me to meet anyone. They forced me to watch TV programmes slandering Dafa. They found some former practitioners who had gone against Dafa to tell me lies. Guards including Wang Shuzhen wrote a guarantee statement² and attempted to force me to sign and fingerprint it. I didn't follow their orders. A group of guards then held me down. Some of them pulled my hands to put my fingerprint on the statement. After that, they forced me to do work for at least 12 hours per day. Sometimes, they made me work overtime, until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.

On December 23rd, 2004, I refused to follow the order to do prison exercises. Guard Sun Juan made a phone call to Division Head Liu Yuqin. Four guards, including Deputy Division Head Sun Qunli tortured me in the file room. I clarified the truth to them. Liu Yuqin slammed my head into a wall and I lost consciousness. They then handcuffed me to a heating pipe with one hand up and one hand down. When I came to, Sun Qunli said that I was faking it.

I was handcuffed for six days and was forbidden to wash myself or wear warm clothes. When I finally got a jacket, the guards would not unlock my handcuffs; therefore, I could only put on one sleeve. When eating and drinking, I could only use one hand. I asked for a pair of trousers, but because I was handcuffed so low, I couldn't pull the trousers up. The trousers only sat on my hips. When it was cold my hands hurt and when they turned on the heat my hands were burning.

The guards slandered Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa], Dafa and me every day. These evildoers persecuted me in this way for countless days.

During the night of April 22nd, 2005, when the guards returned to the dorm from a meeting, practitioner Du Yifeng would not cooperate with the guards by saying "Present." Guards Sun Juan and Xiao Ying pulled Du Yifeng to a solitary confinement cell. Du Yifeng shouted. The guards then forced everyone to sit.

I was worried about Du Yifeng and didn't follow the guards' orders. Guards Geng Xiaomei, Sun Juan and Xiao Ying forced me to say practitioner Du was wrong for not saying "Present." If I didn't comply, they would send me to a solitary confinement cell and would prevent me from using the toilet. I didn't listen to them so they decided to pull me into a solitary confinement cell. I held onto a bed and they couldn't pull me away. They called Division Head Liu Yuqin and Tian E from the Management Division and two male guards. The seven guards then handcuffed me to a heating pipe in the television room, with one hand as high as possible and the other hand as low as possible.

After being handcuffed for two days, I was experiencing additional tribulations and had diarrhoea. I asked to use the bathroom. I asked every time the guards came by. Li Yu tried to take advantage of my request to force me to cooperate with them. They didn't let me go to the toilet until 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Liu Yuqin didn't leave me alone after she had unlocked my handcuffs. She wanted to see if I truly had diarrhoea. After I returned [from the toilet] they handcuffed me to the stairs for one day.

After four or five days, Du Yifeng's and my feet were swollen and red. We couldn't put our shoes on any more. Liu Yuqin forced Du Yifeng to read materials slandering Dafa but Ms. Du tore them up. Liu Yuqing then locked Du Yifeng in a toilet and sent me to a solitary confinement cell. This time, another practitioner named Deng Liangcun was also locked up and persecuted in a solitary confinement cell for several days.

On June 8th, guard Geng Xiaomei made practitioner Chen Yuhua and me pack, and go to the Fifth Division (the Strict Discipline Team). Guard Wang Shuzhen ordered us to say "Present." I didn't say it. The guards searched our things and threw clothes, napkins and papers all over the floor. Guard Liu Xia held onto my clothes to search for Teacher's lectures and then confiscated all of my daily necessities.

There were eight practitioners in Group Three [in the Fifth Division]. None of us cooperated with the guards. Sixty-year-old practitioner Liu Xiaorong shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" She was dragged into a solitary confinement cell and locked in there for three days before she was transferred to Group Eight.

This time, criminal inmates were watching us. We were forbidden to open windows or doors or turn on fans. We were forbidden to use the public toilets. We were further forbidden to meet with anyone and were only permitted to wash our clothes once a month. We had to pre-wash the clothes in our cell and others rinsed them outside for us. Between June 8th and August 3rd, 2005, I only washed my hair once.

We resisted the persecution and refused to wear the prison uniform. Guard Wang Shuzhen incited the inmates to remove practitioners' clothes. Practitioner Liu Jingmei threw the uniform in water. Guard Wang Shuzhen took it out and urged the inmates to put it on Liu Jingmei. We went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution.

Four days later, the guards dragged me into the hallway. I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" They couldn't stop me by gagging me with towels, so they put their hands in my mouth and scratched me. My mouth was bloody. They held onto my feet and dragged me to the prison doctor's office, to force-feed me. They tied my hands and feet to a bed. I suffered so much during the brutal forced-feeding that I vomited and made a mess on myself. Guard Wang Shuzhen pushed against my abdomen with her legs, and with one hand pulled my hair and with the other pressed down on my jaw. Deputy Division Head Wand Yuerao stepped on my genitals. The pain almost made me lose consciousness.

My stomach hurt after the force-feeding, and I began to vomit again. The guards gagged me with towels, almost suffocating me. They pulled my hair out and much of it was all over the floor. For the third time, Wang Shuzhen tied me to the bed and pulled my hair toward the headboard and pushed my head down. She force-fed me half a bowl of powdered milk along with two spoonfuls of salt. She left the feeding tube in. The guards kept me tied up for a total of 28 days. Out of the 28 days, I was tied up day and night for 11 days and I was only permitted to remain in one position to sleep.

Another time guard Wang Yuerao purposely gave me a hard time. I refused to cooperate. She then forbade the inmates who were responsible for watching me to sleep, along with me. The inmates were trying hard to reduce their sentences. They tortured me brutally. It was another sleepless night. Early the next day, guard Wang Shuzhen ordered me to carry a sewing machine. I didn't follow her order so she cursed at me again.

On October 21st, 2005, the guards transferred me to Group Six and tortured me ruthlessly. Practitioner Chen Yuhua and I were locked in the same northern cell. Chen Yuhua went on a hunger strike. After four days she became very weak and was dragged out to be force-fed. I never saw her or heard from her again after that.

Guard Wang Shuzhen used the excuse of checking hygiene in the cells and forced me to sit on a small stool 13 cm high and 10 cm wide without moving around. She forbade me to use the toilet.

Sometimes people from the Procuratorate came to inspect. The guards forbade me to say anything about the abuse. I spoke with those people about the situation in the labour camp. They usually said, "You can write letters. I'll resolve it." But after I spent a long time to finally write a report, guard Wang Liping took it away.

Another time, two new inmates were assigned to monitor me. We ate food from the same bowl. They were suddenly told one day not to eat or drink any more. A physical checkup was arranged for the next day. They were scared because they knew that two inmates in Group Four had been released because of having hepatitis. They thought they were being segregated and thought they had gotten the disease themselves as well. I told them not to worry because if it were truly the case, they wouldn't still be here. The guards then changed all the utensils and made everyone take medicine for a week to prevent the disease, but they told the inmates that it was for sunstroke prevention. I didn't take the medicine. They cursed me again.

The guards used the inmates to brutally persecute me so the inmates could get their sentences reduced. The inmates did not let me move. If I moved they would kick me and hit me ruthlessly. One day they tried to tear my clothes off to force me to change into a prison uniform. I fought back and they weren't successful. In retaliation they forbade me to wash my clothes or have a bowel movement. Usually they let me go to the toilet once a day. This time they would not let me go for five days. At last, they were afraid of something unexpected happening to me, so they let me go in a bag in my cell and took it out.

Not seeing the sunlight all day, without any freedom, listening to the guards and inmates slandering Dafa every day, was such a suffering. The guards forbade us to open the windows or doors. There were no fans in the summer. They tied us up, kicked us, and verbally abused us and restricted our toilet use. Such persecution and abuse! The guards threatened the inmates who monitored me not to say anything to the outside world. Otherwise, they would have their sentences extended.

The parties mainly responsible for persecuting practitioners are as follows.

The First Division:

Liu Yuqin (Head of the Division), Sun Qunli (Deputy Head of the Division), Sun Juan (Deputy Head of the Division)

The Fifth Division:

Wang Yuerao (Deputy Head of the Division), Yin Chuanfang (Deputy Head of the Division)

The First Division:

Zhang Yongmei (Group Head of the Division), Tian E (Division Head), Niu Xuelian (Director), Sun Xiufeng (Deputy Head of the Second Division), Xiao Ying, Geng Xiaomei, Shi Yongmei, Wang Shuzhen

Note

1. "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.

2. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/31/151881.html