The Persecution and Abuse of Ms. Xie Caile from Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Local police arrested practitioner Ms. Xie Caile from Chengdu in August 2002. She was sentenced to five years in prison in June 2003 and later incarcerated at Chengdu Women's Prison, where she suffered much misery. She was forbidden to leave the cell and was cut off from all connections to the outside world. Rumour once had it that she had already died from abuse. Ms. Xie was released on August 27th, 2007. Following is her account of events in prison.

I started to practise in April 1997. My body and soul changed dramatically after cultivation. I knew the true meaning of being a human being and how to be a kind person.

Following the start of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution on July 20th, 1999, many of us practitioners gathered together in November of that year. We were reported, arrested, and taken to Xindu Detention Centre, where we were held for 15 days.

In 2000, I went to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. Three plain-clothes policemen from the Tiananmen Square station arrested me and transferred me to the Chengdu Liaison Office in Beijing. All my possessions and cash were confiscated. It was cold in Beijing. We were separately detained in small, unheated rooms. The four guards monitoring us were veteran kung fu experts. Two of them beat us a lot. Nine days later, a group of police officers arrived and handcuffed us together. All of us were put on the train and taken to the Chengdu Supoqiao Drug Rehabilitation Centre, where we had to run and were forbidden to speak to each other. Our captors verbally assaulted and berated us at will.

Two days later, they transferred me to Xindu Detention Centre, where I stayed for 15 days. The guards frequently abused me physically. I had to sit cross-legged under the sun for a long time. The guard poured dirty water over us or verbally abused us whenever we did the exercises. Xindu suburban police agents also went to my home to intimidate my mother. They said that they would release me if she paid 2,500 yuan¹, otherwise, they would send me to the mountains to pick tea. The afternoon of the fourteenth day, a police officer surnamed Long took me to the local police station. Another officer brought my mother. When mum had paid them 2,500 yuan, they told her to go home. Then they returned me to Xindu Detention Centre for another 20 days. While I was there, agents from the local police station and officers from Guihu Township extorted money from my mother several times. They demanded another 6,000 yuan from her, and the local police demanded another 5,000 yuan. My 73-year-old mother faced tremendous mental pressure. Finally, after they got 4,000 yuan, they released me.

At the end of May 2000, three of us practitioners went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong and were arrested. While in Xindu Detention Centre, we went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. Guard Liu Jixian and several male criminal inmates restrained us on the Death Bed² and exposed us to the scorching sun until late afternoon. They also injected us with unknown drugs. When they realized their efforts had failed, they placed me on the Death Bed and inserted a tube used for liquefied gas from my nose to stomach. My nose and oesophagus were injured right away. I felt terrible. My body shook so much that even the bed shook. Those who were holding me down were so terrified that they cried. Other criminal inmates were so scared that they turned away. The guards forced me to drink a concentrated saline solution before they pulled the tube out. My stomach churned and the pain was so hard to endure. Within five minutes, I had copious bloody diarrhoea. This frightened the guards. I was released following another month of suffering.

In June 2000, several practitioners took the train to Beijing but were arrested. We were returned to Xindu and were sentenced several days later to send to Sichuan Women's Forced Labour Camp. While there, I gave in to my captors under the intense pressure and did something bad. The guard assigned me to "transform³" firm practitioners and I complied.

Returning home in July 2001, I started to practise Falun Gong. On the New Year's eve 2001, I went out to clarify the truth with another practitioner. I was again arrested. Two policemen kicked and beat me, handcuffed me, and took my photograph. I did not cooperate with them. The next afternoon, police officers nabbed me and took me to the Nibatuo Brainwashing Centre in the Xindu District. Later I was able to flee.

On August 28th, 2002, seven to eight people nabbed me while I waited for a bus to Chengdu Chinese Medicine Hospital. They confiscated all my money and possessions. The plain-clothes police also barged into my home and took away a computer, printer, CD burner, a laminating machine, and about 6,000 yuan cash. I went to the window and tried to call for outside help. Several plain-clothes police jumped on me and pinned me to the floor. They used tape to seal my mouth. I almost choked.

The police arrested other two fellow practitioners and me and transported us to the Chengdu Detention Centre. On the ninth day, officers from Qingyang Police Station covered my head with a black hood and drove me to an unknown hotel for forcible interrogation. My captors handcuffed me to a stool and kicked and beat me hard. They refused to let me sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, they stabbed my eyes with a toothpick. Many people took turns to interrogate, threaten, and torture me. I eventually became unconscious. My mind was muddled and I didn't have any strength left. I didn't know what I said. Later on I learned that this group of people were from the Qingyang District Police Station and the 610 Office⁴.

Then I was returned to the Chengdu Detention Centre and held till June 2003. On June 2nd, 2003, three of us were taken to court. Two people were sentenced to five years, and one was sentenced three and a half years. On June 19th, 2003, another four practitioners were sentenced, including Ms. Duan Shiqiong. We went on a hunger strike to protest.

A day later, the guards suddenly transferred me to the Western Sichuan Women's Prison, now called Chengdu Women's Prison. It is located in Dabao Village in Hongan Township in the Longquanyi District. In October 2003, one practitioner who had just been transferred to this prison told me that fellow practitioner Ms. Duan Shiqiong had died as a result of the persecution.

Those in charge at the prison adopted many strategies to try to "reform" and brainwash practitioners. They isolated firm practitioners. Two criminal inmates monitored each practitioner. We were compelled to write a "criminal" report. And we were not allowed to buy any daily necessities unless we filed a report. We were compelled to wear a prisoner's uniform and wear criminal identifying markings. We were forbidden to speak with others or have any contact. We were forbidden to write letters or have family visits. We were made to do hard labour. The guards thought of ways to constantly torture and torment practitioners. Until just last year, we were prevented from leaving the room.

I returned home on August 27th, 2007.

As far as I knew, approximately 50 practitioners are now being incarcerated in the Chengdu Women's Prison.

Note

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

2. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

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. "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/2008/3/8/173836.html