Middle School Teacher Ms. Zhao Yuhuan, Brutally Persecuted During the Past Four Years, Arrested Again

Ms. Zhao Yuhuan, who is in her 40s, is a Chinese language teacher at the Qinghuangdao City Seventh Middle School in Hebei Province. On November 30th, 2008, officers from the Chaoyang District Police Department arrested her because she distributed Falun Gong materials. She is currently being held in a detention centre in Beijing, but the exact facility is unknown. Ms. Zhao was previously detained for four years. The following is what has happened to her so far, as witnessed by other practitioners.

After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Zhao went to Beijing to appeal for the persecution's end and was arrested in 2000. She was sentenced to two years of forced labour and sent to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. She was beaten and force-fed. Since she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was transferred to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding City, Hebei Province. In June 2002, when her health had deteriorated, she was sent home. However, five days later, on June 27th, 2002, officials from the Qinghuangdao City 610 Office¹ arrested her again and took her to the Shanhaiguan Xiaowan Brainwashing Centre in Qinghuangdao City. Since Ms. Zhao still refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was beaten and deprived of sleep for three days and nights. She was then sent to the Qinghuangdao City Third Detention Centre. Around October 2002, she was sentenced to two years of forced labour and sent to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp again. She was detained there until October 2004.

In May 2002, while detained in Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, she was subjected to different kinds of torture since she refused to give up Falun Gong. Handcuffed to the rail of an upper bunk bed, she was deprived of sleep for over 50 hours, and subsequently forced to sit on the floor every day with her arms straight at each side and handcuffed to the rail of the lower bunk bed. This lasted for more than three weeks. The camp guards also taped her month to prevent her from shouting "Falun Gong is good."

One afternoon in Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, Zhang Ruiying (female), the head of the brainwashing centre, discovered that Ms. Zhao was reciting Falun Gong teachings. She rushed to Ms. Zhao and slapped her. Then several guards came and took turns slapping her. One of them picked up a shoe and slapped her with it until her mouth started bleeding, but she still kept reciting. They started to try to find things to stuff into her mouth. One guard could not find any tissue in the toilet, so he picked up a rag and gagged Ms. Zhao. In the evening, camp guard Wei (given name unknown) asked Ms. Zhao if she still was going to recite, and she answered loudly, "Falun Gong is good, Falun Gong is righteous." Wei started slapping her. Zhang Ruiying asked others to join the beating. Ms. Zhao's mouth was bleeding and the inside of her mouth was torn. Her face was swollen and disfigured. She kept shouting, "Falun Gong is good." The guards then ordered an inmate to beat her. The inmate kicked her stomach, and Ms. Zhao vomited blood. The other inmates couldn't bear to watch this pitiful scene and some cried at the sight.

In April 2003, Ms. Zhao shouted "Falun Gong is good" to protest the persecution in Kaiping Forced Labour Camp (also called the Hebei Province First Forced Labour Camp) in Tangshan City. The camp guards stuffed dirty socks in her mouth, then sealed it with tape and handcuffed her behind her back. They only took off the tape during meals and re-applied it immediately afterwards. Her skin was damaged as a result.

In early February 2004, Ms. Zhao, Ms. Liu Lihua, and Ms. Cheng Guijun held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. They were force-fed every day by male inmates with doctors. During the tape recording, the doctors had to do the force-feeding.

During her hunger strike, the camp guards pulled her to the toilet, tied her to a chair, and sealed her mouth with tape. Then they instigated other female inmates to beat her by promising to reduce their terms.

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/9/191356.html