Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Yang Xiaolan lives in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. On October 26th, 2006, when she was released after a three-year term, she passed out at the prison gate. Guards told her father that they had treated Ms. Yang Xiaolan like their own daughter, but Mr. Yang saw how his daughter had changed into a very pale and thin person who was very depressed. He had no idea what had happened to his daughter behind the gate, and he did not dare to tell her that her grandmother and mother had both died indirectly from worrying about her while she was detained.
Ms. Yang's residential registration is in Zengcheng City, Guangdong Province, and she lives in Shenzhen City. Her health was average before cultivating Falun Dafa in March 1999, but she was very competitive and lived a very exhausting life. After she had the good fortune to begin practising Falun Dafa, she tried to be a good person according to "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance." Her mind and body were both purified, and her family life became serene and peaceful.
Ms. Yang Xiaolan, an average citizen of China, has been through inhuman tortures for the past seven years just because she kept her faith. Mistreatment at the hands of the local police station, the detention centre, the forced labour camp, and the prison caused her to be separated from her husband and son for more than six years and her family members to die from worry.
Appealing in Beijing
On July 20th, 1999, the CCP began the persecution of Falun Gong. Out of compassion, Ms. Yang went to Shenzhen City's government to clarify the truth and appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa. She was detained for 24 hours in Liantang Police Station in the Luohu District, Shenzhen City. Her son Chen Jieke was only six years old. Ms. Yang told the police that her son was home alone, but they didn't care.
After that, Ms. Yang's peaceful home was constantly harassed by the police and the Neighbourhood Administration. Her family lived under close scrutiny every hour of the day. The police also confiscated Falun Dafa materials from her home. Her neighbours thought she was involved in some crime and did not understand why she was being monitored so closely for such a long time. Ms. Yang's husband lives in Hong Kong. The police forced him to report to the Liantang Police Station and write a guarantee statement to watch his wife closely, not let her go to Beijing to appeal, and otherwise detain Ms. Yang. If Ms. Yang ever went to Beijing to appeal, the police said that they would confiscate his travel permit and threatened to never allow him to enter Mainland China again.
At that time, the media was slandering Falun Gong everyday. Ms. Yang knew for sure that Falun Gong was not as the media portrayed because she became both mentally and physically healthy after practising Falun Gong. In order to inform people about the true nature of Falun Gong, she went to Beijing to appeal and was detained several times.
In July 2000, Ms. Yang went to Beijing again and took her son with her. They were arrested by policemen from the Qingta Station. Their computer and one thousand yuan1 in cash were confiscated, and they were detained for three days. They went to Tiananmen Square to unfurl a banner after being released. Policemen arrested them and forced them into a police van. Policemen shut the door, closed the windows, and then began to brutally beat Ms. Yang over her ears. She almost passed out due to the cruel beating.
The policemen twisted Ms. Yang's son Jieke's ears and twisted his wrists, causing him to sob. Other practitioners that tried to stop the police from hurting the little boy were all beaten viciously in the vehicle.
Ms. Yang and her son were both taken to Tiananmen Square Police Station, from which many detained practitioners were transferred to other stations since it was getting overcrowded. Policemen body-searched each practitioner and forced them to say where they came from. A female police officer threatened Ms. Yang, saying, "You'd better tell us your name and address, otherwise you will be tortured." Ms. Yang ignored her. Officers then tried to make her son Jieke tell by saying, "You are a good boy. Where are you from? If you tell us, we'll let you go home with your mother." Young Jieke did not give in no matter which trick they played. They finally locked Ms. Yang and her son in the basement.
There were lots of blood stains on the walls of the basement. Ms. Yang knew it was evidence of practitioners being tortured. Young Jieke was thirsty and hungry after ten hours of detention, but the police did not care and still tried to force them to give their names and address. Later, Chen Jieke was crying so much from his stomachache that they were released.
Upon returning to their home in Shenzhen City, Ms. Yang learned that the police were watching them. Ms. Yang and her son had to leave home to avoid being arrested.
Severely Tortured in Sanshui Women's Forced Labour Camp
In November 2000, Ms. Yang Xiaolan went to Shunde City to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution and was arrested. The police subjected her to sleep deprivation for two whole days. When she was detained in the Sunde City Qinliu Detention Centre, she keep doing the exercises. The guards handcuffed her and attached a straight metal rod onto both of her legs for one week, causing her to not be able to bend her legs or relax while sleeping. She was in tremendous pain. Ms. Yang went on hunger strike to protest this treatment. The guards pressed her down, tied her up with rope, and then had an inexperienced nurse insert a tube to force-feed her. Ms. Yang was screaming from pain, and her blood flowed like running water.
Without any legal procedures, Ms. Yang Xiaolan and seven other Falun Dafa practitioners in Shenzhen City, including Ms. Huang Qiuyan, Ms. Rao Licong, Ms. Wei Lingli, and Mr. Wang Hongjun, were each sentenced to two years of forced labour. The Shunde City Police Department took their new van (worth 300,000 yuan) and 10,000 yuan in cash.
Ms. Yang insisted on protesting the persecution while being detained in Sanshui Forced Labour Camp. The Fourth Ward Head Tian Shuling (female) and other guards tortured Ms. Yang by hanging her up by her handcuffs and verbally abused her. They locked her in solitary confinement and closely monitored her. Tian Shuling had her term extended for five months for no reason. Ms. Yang's hair grew very long during the detention. Ward Head Chen ordered several prisoners such as Li Xiaohong and others to hold Ms. Yang down and step on her head. Chen threatened Ms. Yang with an electric baton while they cut her hair.
In December 2003, Fourth Ward Head Tian Shuling led a group of guards and prisoners to handcuff Ms. Yang behind her back and then hang her up by her handcuffs. They deprived her of sleep for 24 hours, shocked her with an electric baton, and gagged her by stuffing her mouth with a towel or taping her mouth shut. They forced her to watch a video slandering Falun Dafa and its founder. They intentionally left the window open and poured cold water over her barely dressed body while denouncing her and Falun Gong. They hung her up and only allowed the tips of her toes to touch the ground so that the handcuffs cut into her wrists.
One guard kicked Ms. Yang with her leather boots. The guards encouraged prisoners like Li Xiaohong to beat Ms. Yang severely. The prisoners did not allow Ms. Yang to use the toilet, kicked her private areas, and threatened to poke her breast with a needle. They also threatened to put a toothbrush into her vagina if Ms. Yang still refused to write the "Guarantee Statement2". They forced Ms. Yang's feet to step on the Falun Gong founder's photo. Ms. Yang could not move when she was being tortured by being hung up, and her private area was swollen due to not being able to use the toilet. The guards forced her to drink her own urine, or else they would ruin the photo of Falun Gong's founder.
When Ms. Yang was tortured by being hung up, Sanshui Labour Camp Head Tang Guangli, female, led a group of people to see Ms. Yang, who pointed out that persecuting Falun Gong is a crime. Tang said angrily, "Everything has been directed by Jiang's phone orders. We were only taking orders. You better be smart; refusing to accept the brainwashing is not beneficial for you. You can either accept the brainwashing or die."
After eight full days of torture that was worse than death, Ms. Yang was disfigured. She was a tragic sight to behold. Two toes on each foot were numb from only being able to touch the floor with those toes when hung up. The four toes regained sensation only after six months.
Beginning on December 31st, 2002, Ms. Yang Xiaolan was detained in solitary confinement again. She was not allowed to bathe, use a toilet, sleep, or use a blanket. Two prisoners took turns watching her closely. The guards intentionally opened her cell window to freeze her. She was forced to sit, shivering with cold, on the cement floor. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution for 45 days. The drug-addict inmates dragged her to be force-fed. Ward Head Tian Shuling shouted, "That makes it too easy for her. If she refuses to eat again, feed her feces from the toilet."
At that time, many inmates had rashes that were similar to SARS symptoms. Guards did not tell the people what SARS was, and they separated those prisoners together with Ms. Yang. They had a fever, and they were coughing and groaning with pain nonstop every day. Ms. Yang tried to comfort them and clarify the truth about Falun Gong to them. Some of them were very moved and said to Ms. Yang, "Falun Gong practitioners are good people. Those guards and prisoners are inhuman; in the future, how will they pay for what they have done?"
In the middle of February 2003, the guards deceived Ms. Yang into going to the study building, where they cruelly tortured her by depriving her of her right to use the toilet, which made her soil her pants. They forced her to squat for a long time, electric baton shocked her, and forced her to watch TV programmes that slandered Falun Dafa. After being tortured like that for several days nonstop, Ms. Yang dizzy and couldn't think clearly.
When Ms. Yang Xiaolan was released in April 2003, because of the location of her residential registration, her father had to come all the way from her birthplace in Sichuan Province. They picked her up, took her to the local police station, and took away her release certificate. Her father had to take her back to where she had been born in the Wutongqiao District, Leshan City, Sichuan Province. After arriving home, she learned that the Leshan City 610 Office3 had ransacked their home in 2000, taken away her personal photos, and scared her grandmother and mother badly.
She tried to recover a bit at home, but the Wutongqiao District 610 officers kept coming to harass her, causing her family to live in terror. In order to reduce her family's mental pressure and prevent police from harassing her family, she was forced to leave her hometown to go into hiding.
Detained in the Futian District Detention Centre
On October 25th, 2003, Ms. Yang Xiaolan was living in a fellow practitioner's home in Meilin Village, Shenzhen City. Shenzhen City 610 Office agents and police from the Meilin Village Police Station stormed into the house, arrested her, and detained her in the Futian District Detention Centre. Fellow practitioners Ms. Xue Aimei, Ms. Guo Yiqun, Ms. Yan Hong, and others were all arrested before her. Police snatched Ms. Yang's handbag and found a rental contract signed by fellow practitioner Ms. Chen Li. They arrested Ms. Chen Li according to the address listed on the contract. They lied to her, saying that Ms. Yang had led them to find her.
In Futian Detention Centre, the 610 Office personnel interrogated Ms. Yang with cruel torture. They took turns torturing her constantly and did not allow her to sleep for 60 hours. They hung her up by handcuffs attached to both hands behind her back, causing the cuffs to cut into her wrists, only allowing her toes to touch the floor. They kicked her and slammed her head against the metal gate while pulling her by her hair.
Her whole body was swollen due to torture. They threatened her with cuffing her thumb4 and then hanging her up or forcing her sit on the electric chair. They took off her socks, rolled up her sleeves and trousers, poured water all over her, and then turned on the electric fan to freeze her. They shut the regular lights off and then blinded her with special lights. They were green, red, or yellow, but they hurt her eyes terribly. The atmosphere was very frightening. They took turns torturing her to make her feel like she was living in a nightmare. They feared that their crimes would be exposed, so all of the torture was conducted in the middle of the night. Ms. Yang was tortured until she was mentally dazed, and her wrists were swollen severely for one month.
In order to protest the violence, she went on hunger strike for two months. She wrote three letters during those two months to the Detention Centre Head, the Futian District Police Department Head, and Shenzhen City Procuratorate Head Shen Yuanxiu (male), exposing the 610 Office agents' crimes of torture.
During her hunger strike, the guards in Futian Detention Centre tortured her by putting 40-pound shackles on her for a whole week. She wore that even while she was using the toilet or being force-fed.
Ms. Yang Xiaolan's life was in danger during her hunger strike, and she was taken to the Huaqiang Street Red Cross Hospital in Shenzhen City. She was detained there for 30 days, still in shackles that were connected to her bed. Another practitioner Ms. Cai, who was in her 50s, was also taken to the hospital for emergency treatment, and she stayed in the same room with Ms. Yang. Officers from the Shenzhen City 610 Office, local police station, and Futian Detention Centre took turns watching them around the clock. Ms. Cai was very weak, but she still wore the 40-pound shackles. After ten days, the guards said they were taking her for a check up, but she never came back. Ms. Yang didn't eat in the hospital for almost two months.
During her detention, Shenzhen City 610 Office personnel tried to tempt Ms. Yang by saying, "We will help you get a passport to get out of the country. If you are smart (meaning give in to their demands), we will not treat you badly." Ms. Yang absolutely refused these offers. An office head in the Futian District Police Department said to Ms. Yang, "If you sign your name and guarantee to not participate in any Falun Gong activities, we will release you." Ms. Yang did not answer him, and as a result, she was sentenced to three years in prison.
Tortured in Prison
On December 21st, 2004, Ms. Yang was taken to the Guangdong Province Women's Prison. They cut her hair short, put her in a prisoner's uniform, and ordered her to do slave labour. Ms. Yang refused to do slave labour because she had not committed any crimes. The guards on the Fourth Ward encouraged prisoners to drag her downstairs. They stopped by the guards at the Fourth Ward entrance because they were afraid of being seen by visitors. Six regular prisoners carried Ms. Yang to the work section. They first carried her face up, but then they flipped her over, making her face the ground, to increase her pain. The guards cursed her and threatened her with electric batons.
Ms. Yang still refused to do the forced labour, so Warden Yi Lihong (female) tortured her secretly by forcing her standing facing the wall for a long period of time with her legs and arms straight. Yi Lihong and Guard Yu Xiao rolled up Ms. Yang's trousers and electric baton shocked her on her legs. The guards also encouraged prisoner Wen Yulian (female, a drug-addict, death row prisoner) dragged Ms. Yang along the floor, causing her trousers to fall off. Her buttocks and hips were bleeding and scratched badly due to being dragged along the ground. When the prisoners took naps after lunch for an hour, the guards would tell Ms. Yang to wash the dishes of the over 600 people in the prison.
The 610 Office staff threatened Ms. Yang, saying, "If you refuse to listen to us, it would be rather easy to fix you. We have lots of means. Whoever dares to oppose the Communist Party will never meet a good end. You must quietly obey and not do whatever you want."
Normally the prisoners can go to bed at 9 p.m., but guards directed prisoners to force Ms. Yang to recite the prison rules until midnight, yet she had to get up at 6 a.m. to do forced labour right after breakfast. The guards and prisoners crudely cursed her everyday, insulted her, and threatened her. Prisoner Wen Yulian beat her cruelly in front of the guards, and the guards turned a blind eye because they supported the beatings. Ms. Yang had blood in her stool due to the heavy labour. The guards did not care. One of the guards Zhang Xinhui (female) said, "The Constitution only protects those who follow the law. If anyone refuses to follow the law, we should not treat that person according to the law. We can suppress those who violate the law without following the same legal procedures."
When Ms. Yang was taken from Futian Detention Centre to the prison, her cash was withheld. The Fourth Ward put her under a strict monitoring system (no visitation, no wiring money from home, no mail, and no purchasing items). The money that her family mailed to her was all rejected. Ms. Yang was violently criticised everyday, and she had no toiletries to use, not even shampoo or toothpaste. Under such unreasonable mistreatment, she went on hunger strike to protest. The 610 Office agents recorded when guards would "nicely" try to make her eat. When the recording stopped, guards shouted, "Take her to be force-fed!" Prisoners tied her up, and the prison doctors inserted the tube roughly, ignoring how much pain Ms. Yang was in. They said, "You deserve this pain!"
Inside the prison cell, guards threatened her, saying, "A hunger strike violates the prison rules. You will be deprived of sleep for 24 hours and hung up by handcuffs if you still refuse to eat." The guards told prisoners to chastise her, and they did not allow anyone to lend her any personal items or speak to her. They were trying to isolate her and torture her mentally. Ms. Yang had to use only water to wash after using the toilet because there were no tissues to use, and she had to use strips of her clothing when she was menstruating. The prison gives 15 yuan to each prisoner, but her 15 yuan was used to buy notebooks. It was not until August 2005 that Ms. Yang received her own money that the detention centre had withheld.
The Fourth Ward has a dark room called the "Speaking Room." There, Ms. Yang was forced to watch television or a videotape that slandered Falun Dafa and its founder. She was also forced to write she "understandings" on it. If not, she would not be allowed to sleep. The guards and prisoners took turns berating her. They tried to bring about her mental collapse so that she would accept the brainwashing. They were trying to force Ms. Yang to speak falsely and slander Falun Gong .They even forced her to read Communist doctrines and to "admit" that gods do not exist. Ms. Yang's mind was a blur due to the mental torture. She had to write a large quantity of notes everyday and sit on a small stool, causing her buttocks to retain two dark marks (they later changed to a taller chair). The guards ordered the prisoners to record all of Ms. Yang's activities during this intensive brainwashing period. The 610 Office personnel rewarded these prisoners who participated in brainwashing Ms. Yang with some snacks, and even secretly let prisoner Wu Anfang watch Korean soap operas.
Drug Abuse
In June 2005, several doctors arrived at the Fourth Ward and injected a white drug into more than ten practitioners. The doctors said that Ms. Yang "could easily be sick with tuberculosis," so she needed to take three pills daily. The guards ordered her to take the pills, otherwise it would be seen as violating the prison rules. Ms. Yang felt nauseous and dizzy after taking the pills, so she refused. Nevertheless, inmates forced her to take them.
On the night of July 4th, 2005, Ms. Yang suddenly passed out and appeared to be close to death. Her hands and feet turned purple. The prison doctor reported her condition, and she was sent to Zhuliao Hospital for resuscitation. Doctors did a blood transfusion, and the prison notified her younger brother, Yang Bin, who works in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, that his sister was dying. Mr. Yang Bin was tied up with his work, so he could not get to Guangdong Province right away. Ms. Yang survived after three days of intensive treatment. The guards admitted to giving her certain drugs in the prison, and the doctors ordered them to not give her such drugs anymore.
Ms. Yang was transferred to the recovery area in the prison hospital. On the way, blood was oozing out of her abdomen. When she asked the doctors why, they said the blood was coming out of her stomach because she had ulcers. The doctor gave her a great deal of medicine and kept her on intravenous injections for 20 days but refused to tell her the cause. Several days after being checked out of the hospital, the 610 Office agents told her she was sick with epilepsy. Ms. Yang said no one in her family had ever had such an illness, and she had never had any such symptoms, so how was it possible that she had such a disease? The 610 Office person said that they must trust science since the doctor found out about it from her blood test.
In October 2005, a 610 Office agent handcuffed Ms. Yang Xiaolan and took her to get a electroencephalogram (EEG) done in a major hospital in Guangzhou City. The doctor said she was sick with an early-stage mental disease and forced her to sign the "Family Notice of Illness."
Ms. Yang had been transformed from a healthy young lady into a deeply depressed, constantly fainting patient due to the torture she suffered in the Fourth Ward. In November 2005 and February 2006, Ms. Yang wrote twice to Prison Head Zhang Zhiping (female), declaring that all the "transformations" of Falun Gong practitioners were accomplished through intense pressure and torture. She kindly told Zhang that Falun Gong and its founder were innocent, and that anything that practitioners had written or said due to the intense pressure inside the prison was null and void. Ms. Yang was further tortured due to these letters. The torture was exactly the same as before, except she had to copy down the prison rules several dozen times or she would not be allowed to sleep. Guard Zhang Xinhui was in charge of this. They also forced Ms. Yang to do their "homework" and forced her to write things ending in "the above are my true thoughts." She was not allowed to sleep if she did not finish such fabricated writings.
Ms. Yang was often deprived of sleep. From February to July 2006, Guard Zhang Xinhui ordered prisoners Fu Guifen and Wu Anfang (both female) to watch Ms. Yang closely and encouraged them to do violent things to Ms. Yang to stop her from speaking up for Falun Dafa and to force her to write the "Five Statements". Prisoner Fu Guifen's nickname is "Tiger" because she often beats practitioners cruelly and intentionally makes trouble for them. Guards use her especially to torture steadfast practitioners. These two prisoners bullied and constantly beat Ms. Yang until her body was covered with purple bruises. They fabricated excuses to abuse Ms. Yang in front of the guards. The guards ignored the truth and forced Ms. Yang write a "regret letter," saying that it was her fault. Before Ms. Yang was about to be released, Fu Guifen beat her so hard that it caused her legs to be covered with purple bruises again. Ms. Yang reported such abuse to the guards, but they chose ignore her.
On October 25th, 2006, 610 Office agents Wei, Lai, and Zhang Xinhui took Ms. Yang to a small room and threatened her to give her "understanding" of Falun Gong. If she did not, she would not be released. She refused. Wei threatened her again by saying, "You can only take one change of clothes tomorrow when you are released; the superiors ordered it."
The Zengcheng City 610 Office called Ms. Yang's father in Sichuan Province to pick up her up in Guangzhou City, otherwise they would not release her. On October 26th, 2006, Ms. Yang was released. She fainted at the gate. When she came to, she found that her old father, a doctor, and officers from the Zengcheng City 610 Office were there. The prison guards shamelessly said they had treated her like their own daughter. Ms. Yang was a healthy, kind, normal, young lady before she entered the prison. Now she was sick with an ulcer, epilepsy, and a mental disorder, which were the result of being tortured prison. How could the prison not be held responsibility for that?
We sincerely hope that Ms. Yang will recover soon, and we call on all kindhearted people in the world to condemn the guards in the Guangdong Province Women's Prison for their brutal torture and detention of Falun Dafa practitioners. Immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong! Release all detained practitioners!
Guards involved in torturing Ms. Yang Xiaolan in the Guangdong Province Women's Prison (all female): Yi Lihong, Zhang Xinhui, Tan Guimei, Yu Xiao, Wei (first name unknown), Yu (first name unknown), and Huang (first name unknown)
Prisoners involved in torturing Ms. Yang Xiaolan (all female): Wen Yulian, Li Jinling, Liang Xiaohong, Wu Anfang, Chen Wei, Li Wenxiang, Liang Junran, Chen Yuhua, Su Ruijuan, Jiang Cuihua, Chen Weiwei, Fu Guifen, Guan Hongyan, Chen Xiaolian, and Lu Huichuan
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
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.
3. "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.
4. A thumb cuff is very small, and it only cuffs the two thumbs together. Then the victim is hung up by the thumb cuff, his or her entire weight on the thumbs. The pain is so extreme that the victim often passes out.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/2/20/149258.html
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