I Suffered Four Years in the Prisons of Heilongjiang Province

I am a Falun Gong practitioner in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province. Staff from the local police department arrested me in May 2002. They cuffed me to a metal chair and took turns interrogating me. I refused to answer their questions, so the police verbally abused me and threatened me. A police officer surnamed Zhang slapped my face and hit my head. Another policeman surnamed Xue from the local 610 Office¹ kicked me fiercely when I refused to answer the questions in the way he demanded. In the evening, I was locked to the leg of a desk inside the conference room and forced to sit on the floor with my back straight. The police took one-hour shifts monitoring me for the entire night. I was locked onto a mental chair for two days at the police department. Later, I was sent to a local detention centre and was held there for almost three months.

The local court sentenced me to four years in prison in August 2002. I was sent to Xianglan Prison where more than 2,000 prisoners were held. The guards were all very ferocious. The suppressive atmosphere made one feel as if the whole prison was hell. Upon arrival, the guards checked my bags and forbade me from bringing a single item into the prison. They even took away bathroom tissue. On my third day in the prison, my family came to visit me. The guards watched closely, standing beside me. When I asked about how my family was doing, the guard stopped me immediately and verbally abused me. In the following days, the guards tried to coerce me to "transform²" by writing the so-called "four statements³". At that time, I had practised Falun Gong for four years, and I had benefited tremendously from the practice. I truly wished to be a good person according to the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." However, under the enormous pressure from the guards, I wrote the "four statements" against my will and my conscience. I felt extremely sorrowful.

The food in the prison was terrible. Prisoners were given drinking water that was used to raise fish. I subsequently developed stomach problems and became very weak. On one occasion, I slightly bumped into a guard passing by when I was working. He brutally beat me without giving me any chance to explain the situation. On another occasion, when the guards organised a meeting to give orders to the prisoners, I felt uncomfortable and moved a bit. For this, a guard beat me with his leather belt. I instantly saw numerous stars in front of my eyes. One day, a group of criminals started a fight. I tried to persuade them to stop, as I was afraid they might seriously hurt each other. A guard heard the noise and came over. A criminal pointed to me and told the police, "He wants to join the fight." The guard didn't bother to find out the true situation and shocked me with an electric baton as punishment.

In October 2002, I was transferred to Lianjiangkou Prison. It was the harvest season for rice, and the guards ordered us to harvest rice every day, and they monitored us as we worked on the farm. I tried my best and I sweat a lot, yet I still could not catch up with the others and finish the assignment in time, because I was too weak. The guard surnamed Ma beat me several times. It went on like this for two months. One evening I went to the toilet and passed out for five minutes. It was not until a criminal inmate told me what had happened, that I knew that I had passed out in the toilet.

In late March 2003, I was transferred again. This time I was taken to Jiamusi Prison. I was ill, and SARS was at its peak at that time. The guards were afraid that I might get SARS and allowed me to stay in the patients' cell for a few days. Then I was assigned to the Sixth Brigade. Because I had previously written the "four statements" which made me feel extremely sad, I wrote a "Solemn Declaration," nullifying the statements, and handed it in to a guard because I didn't want to betray my conscience. In it, I declared that all my past "renunciation statements" were void and that I would not give up the most precious belief in my life.

The guards then often made trouble for me. One day, guards Sui Jin and Xu Chongwen ordered me to announce myself in a certain way as required for criminal inmates when entering the office. I said I didn't know how to do it. They then dragged me upstairs and beat me violently. My nose and mouth bled profusely. They didn't let me go until very late. On the next day, the guards ordered me to go to the office and cuffed me to a bed. Guards Sui Jin and Teng Qining took turns shocking me with electric batons, and my neck blistered all over. As they continued shocking me on the blisters, blood and puss seeped out. I didn't recover for quite some time.

One day in October, I didn't go to their class. For this, the brigade head, surnamed Chang, and guard Sui Jin cruelly beat me. When I fell onto the ground, and they continued kicking me. They even came back to kick me again several times after they rested. The next day, they ordered me to have a meeting with the other (criminal) inmates. I passed out on my way to the meeting room. It was then that the guards allowed me to take a break. Several days later, my illness became more severe. I could not eat, nor could I walk. Even so, guard Sui Jin still treated me harshly. When other (criminal) inmates were working in a big hall, he ordered me to go to the hall as well and lie down on the floor. One month later, upon seeing that I was indeed in a terrible situation, they ordered a criminal inmate to carry me to the cell for patients, where I stayed for a little over a month. The guards at the patients' cell accused me of "pretending to be ill" and often beat and cursed me. When I was lying on the bed, they kicked my bed harshly.

In late March 2004, the Jiamusi Prison merged with Lianjiangkou Prison. I was then sent to the Second Ward of Lianjiangkou Prison. A few days after the transfer, an inspection group was said to be coming for an inspection. The guards rushed us 13 ill detainees to a dark room inside the patients' area so that the inspection group would not see us. It was also a measure to prevent us from reporting to the inspection group how we were treated in the prison. As soon as the inspection group left, we were sent back to our original cells.

Several days later, guards Zhao Jinpeng and Xu Congwen assigned common inmates to watch all practitioners in the Second Ward. The guards threatened us and tried to force us to write the "four statements." Zhao Jinpeng and Xu Congwen often beat and verbally abused me. They also instructed criminal inmates Han Benshuang and Zhang Pingwen to bully me. We several practitioners were separated from one another and were put under strict surveillance. Our families were not allowed to visit us, and we were forbidden from talking to other inmates. The guards also restricted us from buying needed daily items.

One day in May, inmate Zhang Pingwen, who was assigned to watch me, told me that the head of the Second Ward would award me 2,000 yuan with additional favourable treatment if I wrote the "four statements." I told him that I would not write the statements. Guards Zhao Jinpeng and Xu Congwen then continued torturing me, even though I was already in poor health.

In late June, the guards ordered the inmates to lock us several practitioners into one room, and they came in and violently beat us. They forced me to bow down and face the wall. They beat and kicked me, causing my nose and mouth bled heavily. I was forced to write a repentance statement again under tremendous pressure.

My health deteriorated significantly due to the torture. The two inmates who were assigned to watch me continuously and cruelly tortured me.

My health continued to deteriorate. In January 2005, the doctor weighed me when I went to the clinic. I was 170 cm tall (~5'6"), but I only weighed 40 kg (~90 lbs). In March, I could not eat or drink for three days. The guards took me to the Second Hospital of Jiamusi City for an examination. When we came back from the hospital, I was sent to the patients' cell. When my family managed to visit me through their personal connections, they were heartbroken upon seeing that I was so weak. The guards read through the medical reports in front of my family and me, saying that I was critically ill and that I could not eat anything, otherwise my life would be in danger. My family demanded my release on medical parole. The prison authorities disapproved, regardless of my family's pleas.

I was held in the patients' cell for several more months. Inmate Han Benshuang, as instigated by the guards, always made trouble for me. In June, he reported to the guards that I practised the exercises inside the cell. I was thus driven out of the patients' cell. At that time, I was able to eat a little food, but I was still very weak. A criminal inmate carried me on his back to return me to a normal cell. I stayed in bed in the cell for nearly six months. It was not until the new year of 2006 that I began to recover. I was fortunate to survive.

I was finally released in May 2006. After I returned home, I continued studying the Falun Dafa teachings and practising the exercises, and this restored my health within a very short time. My family was amazed to see the wonders of Falun Gong manifest in me.

When I look back, the four years of the hellish life remain fresh in my memory. I was able to live through this most difficult time because of my strong belief in Dafa. I firmly believe that our righteous belief will overpower evil, that the truth can not be covered by lies, and that the persecution of righteous belief will not last long.

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. "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")

3. "Four Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write the "four statements" as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the 610 Office, they consist of "a letter of repentance," "a guarantee" to never again practise Falun Gong, a "Dissociation Statement" to declare a dissociation with Falun Gong and promise not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/8/28/161627.html