Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yu Mei from Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province was arrested and her home was ransacked many times in the past eight years. She was forced to leave her disabled husband and young daughter and lived a life of homelessness to avoid persecution. Ms. Yu Mei was arrested again on June 15th, 2004 on her way to her brother's home. She was sentenced to two years of forced labour and was savagely tortured at the Sanshui Women's Labour Camp in Guangdong Province.
The following is Yu Mei's account of the gross abuse she suffered under the persecution.
My name is Yu Mei, and I live in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. Before I started practising Falun Gong in 1997, I suffered from numerous illnesses that often plunged me into deep depression and caused my family great stress. Miraculously, Falun Gong cured all of my illnesses and restored not only physical health but also my mental well-being, thus relieving the burden on my family. More importantly, I conducted myself according to Truth, Compassion, Forbearance, which led to tremendous improvement in my relationship with others. Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] and his group fabricated lies and brainwashed the public after launching the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. In the past eight years I have dispelled those vicious lies and explained the facts to the Chinese people. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) retaliated by repeatedly persecuting me. I want to expose the CCP's crimes so people can see for themselves the ruthless persecution that Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to.
I was arrested at the onset of the persecution for doing the Falun Gong exercises in public. Officers from the Zhonghua Police Station in Zhanjiang City held me at the Huguang Detention Centre for 15 days. I went to Beijing to appeal in November 1999 and was arrested by the local police who held me at Xinhua Police Station for one day. More than 100 other practitioners were also held at this police station. The police demanded our names and addresses. When we refused to comply to avoid the implication of our families and colleagues, the police resorted to electric batons, beating and kicking and dragged many practitioners into a dark room. One practitioner in his twenties was beaten until his eyeballs bulged out. We were then taken to the provincial liaison office in Beijing and held there for one week where we were severely abused. The police also took our money and belongings.
The abusers even treated three children under the age of ten the same inhumane way. They were forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor in subzero temperatures; were not given food or bedding, and the police punched them like sandbags. The children cried from hunger, and the police threatened them. One week later we were taken to the No. 2 Detention Centre in Zhanjiang City where we were held for 50 days. The police shackled us together in groups of two, three, or four. I was shackled to six other practitioners. We could not move or use the toilet and had to relieve ourselves in our trousers. The stench soon became intolerable.
A group of armed police officers knocked us to the floor, and one practitioner was beaten unconscious. They took our Falun Gong books and constantly pressured us to renounce our belief.
Several days later the officers who had hit us developed swelling and pain in their hands. They realised it was retribution, so they unshackled and released us.
The police also extorted money from every practitioner's family. My husband had 16,000 yuan1 extorted from him. My privacy was additionally violated as the police tapped our home phone and often called me in the middle of the night to intimidate me after I was home again. They ransacked my home and pounded on my door every night. My husband and daughter were so frightened they dared not turn on the lights. They even stayed with my sister for a while out of fear. My family did not live a day in peace.
One day in June 2001, three practitioners and I went out to explain the facts about Falun Gong to people. Someone reported us, and officers from the Donghai Police Station arrested us. They interrogated us and beat us until my body was bruised everywhere. I was in terrible pain. They pinned us to the floor and dragged us into a small and filthy toilet by our feet. They locked us in there for one day. We were then detained in the Dongpoling Drug Rehabilitation Centre the following day and went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The director of the rehab centre screamed, "Let her die! We'll say it was suicide! At most, it'll only cost me 30 yuan to cremate your body--that's nothing."
Our hunger strike lasted two weeks. The officials transferred us to the No. 1 Detention Centre at Mazhang where we continued the hunger strike for 18 more days. I was skin and bones, and the police force-fed us. They let me go home only when they thought I might die and they wanted to avoid responsibility.
Before I could recover, officers from the Cunjin Police Station and people from Zhanjiang City 610 Office2 came to my home, attempting to arrest me. At first my husband and daughter were terrified, but my husband was eventually able to step forward and stop them so I could escape. The police looked for me everywhere. Several days later Chen Jun led some officers and surrounded a fellow practitioner's home where I was staying at the time. I jumped from the third floor and walked away without a scratch because of the power of Dafa. I went into hiding, away from my husband and young daughter.
The police followed me around and went to my workplace trying to arrest me, but again I left safely. The police were furious and kept harassing my husband and daughter.
I visited my brother on June 15th, 2004 and was reported to the police. Officers from the Xiashan District Police Department stopped me in the street and held me at the Harbour Bureau Detention Centre for more than 20 days. They subsequently sentenced me to two years of forced labour without any evidence. The persecutors transferred me to Sanshui Women's Labour Camp in Foshan City, Guangdong Province in early July 2004.
The guards locked me in a solitary confinement cell. They did not let me sleep at first and made me stand for days on end. I collapsed on the floor. They accused me of "faking weakness." They made me stand up again and would punch me if I closed my eyes. They hit my head with cell phones and banged my head against a wall until I had dizzy spells. Six guards and two inmates monitored me around the clock, to make sure I did not use the toilet or take a shower. As a result, I had to relieve myself in my trousers. They called me "dirty." They even shoved Teacher's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] picture inside my underpants and forced me to sit and step on the picture. They said to me, "Look, you've already sat and stepped on your Teacher's picture. If you don't "reform3", you'll continue to suffer."
I saw through their trickery, however, and then they forced me to sit on a plastic stool 24 hours a day while watching slanderous videos. They again made me stand for several nights until my feet were so swollen that I could not wear shoes. When I closed my eyes, the guards would order the inmates to attack me. They whacked my head, ears and face. The guards also kept switching our rooms, trying to confuse us. They sent me to the isolated Division 5 where I was ordered to do slave labour. I refused, so they took me back to Division 3 and locked me in solitary confinement on the fifth floor. The persecution escalated, step-by-step. Division 3 was the pinnacle of evil. Here, the guards made us sit on plastic stools all the time and watch slanderous videos.
The guards folded a soft-cover book into a cylinder through which he screamed into my ears. He viciously attacked Teacher and Dafa. They brought pen and paper and forced me to squat, so long as I refused to write a "guarantee statement". If my buttocks touched the floor, they would start torturing me. Layers of scars, old and new, covered my entire body. My weight dropped from 60 kg (132 lbs) to 35 kg (77 lbs).
They made me stand barefoot on the concrete floor for ten days in subzero temperatures. I shivered; my hands and feet turned black, and yet the guards hit my eyes with paper towels soaked in cold water until my eyes were filled with chunks of dried blood. They dragged me outside and sprayed me with cold water until I froze. During this period, all of the guards and inmates caught a cold, except me. The guards tried to make me take some "unknown" pills but I refused. They brought seven drug addicts and struck me to the floor. They banged my head against the floor until my head, face and chest were severely bruised. Two heavy women sat on my stomach and inserted a hard object into my vagina. They knocked the wind out of me. I lost consciousness from the beating. They pried open my mouth and poured drug(s) into my stomach. They broke several of my teeth in the process, causing profuse bleeding.
The guards took pictures of me with their mobile phones, saying, "You are sick and yet you are refusing to take medication. We'll show the pictures to your family!" The inmates who fed me the pills complained, "We have to force-feed you twice or three times a day! What a pain!" My clothes were soiled and they poured cold water on me.
What I went through at the labour camp is beyond the limits for an ordinary person. All of the evildoers' tactics had no effect on me because I firmly believed in Dafa.
Soon they transferred me to Division 2, where I was forced to work during the day and underwent brainwashing at night, followed by the authorities coercing me to write a guarantee statement4. I refused to write it and held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards ordered inmates to force-feed me, not out of concern for my well-being, but only to inflict pain. During the force-feeding, they purposely inserted the 60 cm [23.4 inches] long tube into my nose and yanked it back out. They did it repeatedly, which caused severe irritation in my throat and profuse bleeding in my nose. They swore at me while torturing me.
Seeing nothing could change my mind, the guards collaborated with Chen Jun from the Zhanjiang City "610 Office" and drove me to Zhanjiang Brainwashing Class in April 2005. The persecutors stayed with me there for 15 days. They gathered my family and friends and told them they wanted to "help" me. During 15 days of brainwashing, Chen Jun went to the countryside, picked up my father and relatives and convinced them that I had abandoned them. As a result my family came to me, crying and swearing, accusing me of heartlessness and casting them away. My husband wanted to divorce me, my daughter wanted to disown me, and my father and all of my relatives and friends wanted to permanently renounce me.
The police lied to my family, telling them I had become mute and would die if they did not "reform" me. The CCP regime spent more than 30,000 yuan for my stay alone during the 15-day session. In order to obtain information about me from my daughter, they drove her to and from school every day and bought things for her while telling her, "See, your mum doesn't care about you anymore. She doesn't love you!" The Communist Party has always covered up the truth and deceived the public. Their conspiracy failed before the steadfast Falun Gong practitioner, so Chen Jun from the "610 Office" and Li Yu, a political head at the brainwashing class, ordered the labour camp authorities to extend my sentence.
The guards took me to Division 2 at the Sanshui Labour Camp on April 28th, 2005 and forced me to do heavy manual labour. They feigned kindness and said, "We hired a Tai Chi teacher to ensure the health of our detainees." Every morning they forced us to learn Tai Chi and punished me for refusing to cooperate with their demands. [Note: Falun Gong stresses the importance of staying within one cultivation way. Tai Chi is another system of practice]. Once, the guards brought a pile of papers saying they would extend my sentence, and that I must sign it. I remained calm and did not sign it. Another time they "rewarded" me with several hundred points and again tried to get me to sign a document. I refused.
There are many people like me who have suffered during eight years of persecution because of their belief in Truth, Compassion, Forbearance. My husband passed away on July 14th, 2006, after living in fear for a long time. While at the labour camp, I often heard fellow practitioners' heart-wrenching screams as they were being tortured in a dark room.
It was learned on October 2nd, 2005 that a Falun Gong practitioner was beaten to death in a dark room at Division 2 at the Sanshui Labour Camp.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
2. "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.
3. "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")
4. "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/2007/6/12/156745.html
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