Ms. Yan Xiaoli Tortured in Brainwashing Centre in Hebei Province

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Yan Xiaoli, approximately 41 years old, is an employee of the Gulou Credit Association in Hebei Province. In April 2007, as Ms. Yan was exposing the truth of the persecution and telling the facts of Falun Dafa to people during a tree-planting activity organised by the Zhuolu County Youth League, someone reported her to the authorities. Officers from the Zhuolu County 610 Office¹ then arrested her, took her to a brainwashing centre, and tortured her for over a month.

On April 11th, 2007, Zhuolu County Deputy Party Secretary Ren Yuan directed four county officials to go to Ms. Yan's workplace to coerce her into giving up her practice of Falun Gong. These individuals included Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary Zhang Zhifu, Zhuolu County 610 Office Director Zhao Xuan, along with Li Zhiming and Ban Zhiyong, also from the 610 Office. They did not succeed, however.

The following morning, Li and Ban returned to Ms. Yan's workplace. They summoned her to the office of the credit association director Chen Wei and tried to force her to write a guarantee statement², but Ms. Yan refused. That same afternoon, they told Ms. Yan that they wanted to take her to see the county credit union director Li Hailin. But instead, they forced her into a car and took her to the Zhangjiakou City Brainwashing Centre at the Qiaodong District Law School in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province.

Ms. Yan refused to cooperate during the brainwashing sessions. In retaliation, the guards forced her to stand still from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., and sometimes until 1:00 a.m. each day. They cut her meals from two to one per day, and each "meal" consisted of only a steamed bun and some pickled vegetables. On two occasions, the guards forced her to stand until 1:00 a.m. and then bound her to an iron chair³ . She was forced to lie still and was unable sleep for the entire night. The next morning, they forced her to resume standing. The guards shouted obscenities at her if she did not stand absolutely still. She was tortured like this for a week, and then was tortured psychologically. The guards forced her to watch videos that defamed Falun Gong and they attempted to make her write a "review" after each one.

As Ms. Yan was enduring physical and psychological torture during her detention, her family members were placed under constant duress. Her parents are both elderly and have experienced a great deal of anxiety over the persecution of their daughter. During this time, Ms. Yan's mother-in-law always had tears in her eyes. Ms. Yan's son was deprived of his mother's care, and her husband was unable to eat or sleep well.

During Ms. Yan's detention, the Zhuolu County 610 Office and the brainwashing centre forced her workplace to pay a 8,000 yuan⁴ "tuition fee." Ms. Yan's family paid 10,000 yuan to various government officials while attempting to secure her release, plus incurred 1,000 yuan in additional expenses, so Ms. Yan's family lost a total of 11,000 yuan before she was finally released on May 15th, 2007.

Responsible individuals:

Ren Yuan, Zhuolu County deputy Party secretary: 86-313-6521148 (office), 86-313-6586666 (home), 86-13633139818 (cell)
Zhang Zhifu, Zhuolu County Political and Judiciary Committee secretary: 86-313-6521066 (office), 86-313-2015090 (home), 86-13903237929 (cell)
Zhao Xuan, director, Zhuolu County 610 Office: 86-313-6521076 (office), 86-313-6534298 (home), 86-13833358536 (cell)

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.

3. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

4. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/9/10/162437.html