Practitioner In Her Sixties Persecuted at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison

I am a Falun Gong practitioner in my sixties. I was persecuted at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison seven years ago. I want to write about my experiences at the prison to let people know the truth, recognize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lies, protect the good people, and choose a wonderful future.

Liaoning Province Women's Prison Fabricated Daily Schedules and Reports of Actual Living and Eating Conditions

In late 2001, I was arrested while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong. The following year I was sentenced to a three-year prison term and incarcerated in the Second Group of the Seventh Team at Liaoning Province Women's Prison. The prison officers in charge of persecuting practitioners were team leader Zhang Yantong and group leader Dong Fang.

The prison enforced the everyday rules of getting up at five in the morning, making the bed, cleaning the prison, starting work at six in the morning, stopping at ten in the evening, and going to sleep at eleven. After work, there was an hour for washing oneself and the evening roll call. But, in fact, prisoners were frequently forced to work overtime to create more income for the prison. I was allowed only three to four hours of sleep each night. Sometimes when there were urgent orders, we had to work all day and night without a break. We were not only not allowed to sleep, but also not allowed to eat breakfast if we didn't finish the work on time. On hot days, the food all went bad, so even if we finally finished the work, the food was no longer edible.

When inspectors came from outside, the prison pretended to use recipes for many different foods. When outside people interviewed or video-recorded the prison conditions, the prison fabricated comfortable prison rooms. In reality, the living and eating conditions in the prison were extremely bad.

Every week the prison provided only two meals of fine flour and rice in limited quantities. The rest of the meals were all coarse bread. The coarse bread was very hard. The prison merely provided some soups and pickled vegetables, which had a foul smell. The soup was as diluted as water. The prison only provided cold water, and the prisoners were only allowed to get a small bit in the morning. If you didn't get there in time, you wouldn't get any water to drink. Because of poor nutrition, my feet and legs became so swollen that I could not even wear shoes.

My bed was close to the door. During the summer, the door had to stay open and my back got prickly heat. The prickly heat swelled and became one big piece on my back. In the winter it was very cold at night during sleep. I suffered from torture every day and my sight was blurry.

The Prison Guards Incited Others to Persecute Practitioners

The Falun Gong practitioners were under a lot of pressure every day and were stressed from dealing with all kinds of continuous persecution. If I had not had my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to support me, I really don't know if I could have survived the three years in prison.

In the prison, the teams and groups constantly forced practitioners to look at videotapes and materials that slandered Falun Gong. They also forced practitioners to write so-called "mental-state" reports and summaries, and to sign an "inspection chart." Because I refused to write or sign anything, the team leader incited other prisoners to torture me and secretly record what I said and did.

Because I did everything righteously, the prisoners could not get anything on me, so the officers then fabricated false indictments to frame me and incited prisoners to criticize me and slander Falun Gong during the "All Prisoners Meeting."

On one occasion, group leader Dong Fang heard a prisoner call me "Auntie." She immediately called the prisoner to the office and reprimanded her. Then she called all the production group leaders, the prisoners who were in charge, the prisoners who had been ordered to watch me, and the prisoners who lived in the same cell with me to her office. She berated them and said no one was allowed to call me Auntie any longer. She also incited all of them to be mean and hard on me, and told the production group leaders to assign me hard labour and not let me rest. Suddenly, everyone became hostile toward me.

I Was Not Allowed to Eat During the Chinese New Year

After two months (it was November at that time), the group leader saw that I was still surviving. She then froze my monetary account in the prison (my family members saved some money for me in the prison) and didn't allow me to buy any daily necessities. In the women's prison, it was hard to survive on the food that the prison provided, as the prison food was very bad. The time between supper and quitting time was about six or seven hours and the prison guard frequently forced us to do overtime work. Going so long without food caused one to feel dizzy and get heartburn. The prison also didn't allow the prisoners to give any food to others, especially to the Falun Gong practitioners, and they punished any prisoners who did.

Starting on the third or fourth day of the Chinese New Year period, the prison no longer provided food and told the prisoners to buy it themselves. Since my account was frozen, I did not have any food to eat and I was hungry. At meal time, I sat there and watched the other prisoners eat. I had all sorts of bitter feelings and I started to cry loudly. A prisoner from Dandong saw this and sympathized with me. She gave me some of her food to eat. After the group leader came to work and found out, she called her to the office and gave her a tongue lashing.

The Prison Guards Used Violence to "Transform" Practitioners

One day, team leader Zhang Yantong called me to her office. She said, "We gave you too much time. We cannot give you any more time. Starting today, you do not need to work. You need to think about being 'transformed¹.'" I said, "I follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. What do you want me to 'transform' into?" She said, "You have to be 'transformed' whether you like it or not. You have no choice!"

The prison guard told the prisoners to drag me to the restroom and force me to stand still on the wet concrete floor. They told the prisoner who was responsible for cleaning the restroom to watch me, adding that if I did not stand properly, they would not reduce the sentence for that prisoner. I stood in the restroom 16 hours per day for three days straight.

On the third day when it was close to quitting time, group leader Dong Fang came to me and said, "You will continue to stand tonight." Then I was dragged to the workshop to stand. The group leader told the prisoners who worked at night to watch me. They didn't allow me to lean against the wall or squat, otherwise the prisoners' sentences wouldn't be reduced. The group leader also told several prisoners something secretly. After those prisoners came back, they started to beat me and curse me. Some attacked me. Some made fun of me in a dirty way.

Late that night, I could not bear it any longer, and I started to squat. The prisoners pulled me up. Some took the chance to pinch me and lifted my torso roughly, causing bruises and a burning sensation. I could not take deep breaths because of the pain.

While I was in pain and suffering, they brought up the prepared so-called guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong and forced my fingerprint on the paper. They said, "You cannot deny or renege. We are all witnesses. You already pressed your fingerprint." So I was forcedly "transformed" by the prison.

After two months, I wrote the Solemn Declaration on May 13th and declared that the so-called "guarantee statement" was invalid. I sent my Solemn Declaration to the team leader. She immediately transferred me to do the most intensive labour. The intensive slave labour strained all my knuckles on my right hand. My hand became inflamed and badly swollen. It was very painful. I couldn't stretch out my fingers and they had no strength. The team leader had to transfer me to the "handicrafts production team." I had to glue red chicken feathers and dusters, sieve powder, spread gold and aluminium powder and glue, which were all dirty jobs that no one liked to do. My face, head, body, and bed were full of dust every day. The glue stuck to my fingers and would not wash off. When I pulled it off, my skin came with it.

The persecution to which I was subjected is just a hint of what Falun Gong practitioners face at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison. Many practitioners who persist in their beliefs are brutally tortured and brainwashed every day, and some are persecuted to death. Since the prison carefully blocks information, many persecution cases have not been uncovered.

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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/1/26/194221.html