Labour Camp Director: "Since you went to Beijing to appeal, you deserve to be treated as those on death row."

I am a practitioner who was illegally detained in the Anda City Detention Centre in Heilongjiang Province. On December 8, 2001, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested near Tiananmen Square. I was sent to a police station, where Falun Gong practitioners from different places were cursed and beaten by police. That night I was sent to the Police Bureau of Yanqing County, Beijing, where I was searched, interrogated and tortured all night and then handcuffed and shackled for 24 hours. When I asked why I was treated so badly, director Chen told me, "Since you went to Beijing to appeal, you deserve to be treated as those on death row. You are not allowed to appeal." This officer and another policeman interrogated me together. They swore and guaranteed that they would not report to their higher-levelled authorities if I told them where I was from. At that time I had not had any food for two days and had been handcuffed to a chair on my back for 24 hours. I felt exhausted and I told them my home address. Later, I was sent to the Yanqing County Detention Centre of Hebei Province.

In the detention centre, I saw that many Dafa practitioners were brutally tortured. A practitioner in her 60's from the Yimianpo area, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province had been beaten up so badly that her whole body was covered with bruises. Her eyes were swollen and she could not open them at all. Director Zhang and an officer named Chi Lin burned another practitioner on her face with cigarettes. They inserted the burning cigarette into her nose and mouth, and then proceeded to burn her face, covering her face with blisters. Another practitioner who came from Sichuan Province was tortured so severely that she could not speak. This was done because they could not understand her dialect. There were many other practitioners inhumanely treated there.

We were squeezed together in one cell, and several days later we were taken away by our respective local government officials. Without any legal procedures, I was escorted to Anda City Detention Centre. Once I arrived there I began a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. On the fifth day of the hunger strike Officer Wang Yinhua and other policemen from the Law Enforcement Department, City Police Bureau of Anda City forcibly took me to the Shuanghe Labour Camp of Qiqihar City. On the way, they brutally fed me with bread and water. Since I refused to eat anything, they worried that I would die, so they sent me back to the Anda City Detention Centre. Because I continued my hunger strike, director Liu Yingshan of the 610 Office (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) brought my family members to the detention centre and forced them to persuade me to surrender. Since I still did not give up, Liu got very angry and cursed my family members viciously. After several days on a hunger strike, my body began to show signs of problems. I found blood in my urine and stool for several days. I wrote two letters to the government to ask for an unconditional release, but they ignored them.

After the Spring Festival, I began my third hunger strike. I had some physical symptoms show up again, including low blood pressure and irregular heartbeat. I was then sent to the hospital. In the hospital I refused to be treated, since my purpose was to demand my unconditional release. I was sent back to the detention centre again. I wanted to continue my hunger strike until they unconditionally released me. Despite my terrible physical condition, they still locked me up in the detention centre. Mayor Wang Yinghe even planned to send me to the Shuanghe Forced Labour Camp in Qiqihar City again in order to further persecute me.

In the Anda Detention Centre, there were many more female practitioners who also received similar persecution. Due to long periods of illegal detention and maltreatment, they were seriously injured both physically and mentally. For example, Diao Fenglian has a very irregular heartbeat and frequent seizures. Two other practitioners have very high blood pressure. Cui Jinghong has been found to have a heart problem. Wang Caiyun has a large liver tumor (7.1 cm in diameter).

We appeal to the United Nations and to human rights organizations to send a group to China to investigate the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. All that the practitioners have done has been to insist on practicing "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance." We appeal to all kind-hearted people in the world to voice their concern about the Falun Gong situation in China and stop the inhumane persecution.

The responsible individual is Liu Yingshan, Supervisor of the 610 Office, Director of Political Security Department, Telephone: 86-455-7332909, 86-13945624994.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/4/21/21209.html
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/4/3/27781.html