An Account of Five Years of Brutal Torture in Harbin Women's Prison

I'm a Falun Dafa practitioner from Ang'angxi, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. The following is an account of the torture I suffered while being held by the authorities.

I was arrested on December 27th, 2001. I was taken to the Second Detention Centre in Qiqihar City on December 30th and detained there. On April 10th, 2002, I was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. The local court rejected our appeal and stuck to the original terms.

One day, guards at the Second Detention Centre wanted to take pictures of several detained practitioners (for making propaganda materials and falsifying news). We refused to cooperate. Guard Lu Zheng ordered practitioners Ms. Yang Yanqiu, Ms. Wang Shufang, Ms. Zhang Shuzhe, Ms. Liu Yongjuan and I to go to the hall. We saw many police officers with cameras in the hall. They handed me a sign with my name on it. I put the sign down. They became angry and swarmed around me, then began beating me with their hands, feet and clubs. I heard the other four practitioners shout "You should not beat people" and "Falun Dafa is good."

On September 19th, 2002, we were taken from the Second Detention Centre to Harbin Prison. We started off before dawn and didn't get to the prison until 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon. The prison authorities didn't even allow us to have lunch. We were taken directly into several offices to be "transformed¹." Prison guards used various means to torture me. I was forced to squat down for a long time, my hands were cuffed behind my back, I was shocked with electric batons and beaten ruthlessly. I told the guards to be kind-hearted and to no longer commit wrongdoings. They kept shocking me with electric batons.

After a while, they put me and others in solitary compartments. The next day, they called us out and subjected us to the same torture methods, trying again to "transform" us. Again, we refused to give up our belief in Dafa and were sent back to solitary confinement. The third day, they asked us to shout "report" and recite the prison regulations. I refused to do it and was pushed to the ground by five prison guards and ruthlessly beaten. I thought to myself, "I'm a Dafa practitioner. My belief is not a crime. I would rather die than follow your arrangement." They sent me back to solitary confinement again. I was held there for 26 days. They then put us in the hall on the third floor.

There, staff from the local 610 Office² forced us to sit on the cement floor. Our hands were cuffed behind our backs, even when we used the toilet, and we were forced to watch videotapes that slandered Dafa. It was winter and very cold at night. We were forced to sleep on the cement floor with our hands cuffed behind our backs. The next day, we went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards sent us to the "concentration training unit," where every practitioner was monitored by two criminal inmates. They followed us everywhere, and wouldn't allow us to talk to each other. Soon we were sent to the central division.

At the central division, practitioners were monitored by four prison inmates. The prison authorities adopted the "guilt by association" policy. If monitors cannot control practitioners, they lose points (if they lose a certain number of points, their sentence is extended). The prison guards try to create disputes between practitioners and inmates. Inmates ruthlessly beat practitioners just because they talked to each other. One time, I exchanged Dafa lectures with practitioner Ms. Chen Weijun, from Nenjiang County (she was later tortured to death), so the prison guards slapped our faces, and threatened to deduct points from the inmates who monitored us.

In November 2003, several practitioners from the 7th Ward and I refused to respond during roll-call, so the prison authorities forced us to stay outside for 6-7 days. We were not allowed to eat lunch and were forced to stand from early morning to late afternoon in the cold wind. Some practitioners fainted from the severe cold. When it was time for evening roll-call, practitioners who refused to say their names were forced to squat down. If the practitioners refused to squat down, they were beaten. Later, twelve practitioners including myself decided not to wear our name tags. For this we were put in the bathhouse of the 7th Ward and then in the warehouse to receive physical punishment. The bathhouse floor was covered with water. We were forced to stand in it during the day and sleep on the wet, cold floor at night. As a result, my left foot and calf became swollen. Some practitioners fainted.

During the Spring Festival 2004, five practitioners, including myself, were studying the Falun Dafa lectures in the warehouse. The prison head found out in the monitoring cell. He broke into the warehouse and put Sun Yuzhi, Li Donglei and I in solitary confinement. Our feet were shackled to the ground, and our hands cuffed behind our backs. We were only allowed to have two servings of porridge per day. I was sent back to my previous ward after 19 days. The other two practitioners didn't get back until a month later.

In April 2004, eight practitioners and I refused to wear name tags, and were subsequently tortured using the "big hang up" method (practitioners' hands are handcuffed behind the back, then they are pulled up and hung from a hook high above the floor. The feet are made to hang just above the floor.) My hands were cuffed to the ladder of the bunk bed. I felt dizzy and passed out. When I regained consciousness, my whole body was soaked in sweat. Some practitioners were hung up for four or five days. Later we were sent to the workshop and put under strict surveillance.

In July 2004, prison guards brutally tortured about thirty practitioners who held hunger strikes, refused to respond during roll-call, refused to wear name tags or the prison uniforms. My hands were cuffed behind my back, and I was hung up with the tips of my toes barely touching the ground. My hands hurt to the point of numbness. One inmate said, "She doesn't look good. Put her down." By then, the handcuffs had cut into my arms, and blood was streaming down. They had to pick me up from the floor in order to take the handcuffs off of me. I was then put back on the ground. At the time, I had been on a hunger strike for four days, so they started force-feeding me. They tried inserting a tube into my throat twice and failed. When the tube was pulled out, blood and mucus came out with it and covered my body. They then used an in-vitro injection. I had a high fever, so they had to take me to a hospital to have an X-ray. I was then sent to the infirmary ward for continued persecution. In the infirmary ward, I became emaciated and had to lie in bed all day long.

In October 2006, the prison sent me to a hospital for examination. I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent home on medical parole. I learned later that in the five years of my imprisonment, my family paid money to the prison so I would suffer less. Yet I was still brutally tortured, and my family members were persecuted both financially and spiritually by the Chinese Communist Party.

Note

1. "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")

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/10/13/164392.html