I Was Cruelly Tortured in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City

Ms. Song Wenjuan came from Heilongjiang Province. Because she practised Falun Gong, she was repeatedly tortured by the guards in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City. She was hung up, left out in the cold, beaten, and shocked with electric batons. Because of the torture, she lost consciousness many times. What follows is her account of being barbarically persecuted because of her faith in Falun Gong.

My name is Song Wenjuan and I live in Ertun Village in Niujia County, Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province. I had very poor health before I practised Falun Gong. After I gave birth to my child, I developed a postnatal illness and a variety of symptoms such as headaches, swollen eyes, chest pain, lower back pain, gynaecological disease, and haemorrhoids. Because of the pain and the crisis in my family, I once lost my will to live.

1. Learning Falun Gong

One day, I overheard someone saying Falun Gong was really good and that it has a magical curing effect. Out of curiosity, I went to find a practice site and also read Zhuan Falun, the main text of the practice. After I finished reading the book, it gave me hope, and I found the purpose of my life. I realised that living this life on the earth is not the only purpose--returning to my true self is the real goal. After finding a home for my soul, I quickly embarked on my cultivation path. I always used Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the principles taught in the book, to measure my behaviour and thinking. Shortly after I started practising Falun Gong, my health was restored and I lived harmoniously with my family. I was sincerely grateful to Falun Gong, and it was a happy time in our lives.

On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong. The village party branch secretary from the police station came to my home and confiscated my Falun Gong books. After that, they started monitoring my family and me. In these desperate circumstances, we had no other choice but to move out of that village to another.

2. The Persecution

In the spring of 2005, I moved out to live with my parents in order to send my child to school there. At that time, my parents were in poor health. My father had been unable to work on the farm for more than six months, and my mother suffered from a skin disease. She couldn't expose herself to the wind or sunlight. I taught them to recite "Falun Gong is good, and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." After six days, my father was able to go back to work on the farm. My mother's skin disease disappeared after I read Zhuan Falun with her once. We witnessed the magical power of Falun Gong. I also went to explain the facts of Falun Gong to my child's teacher and principal, but they went to the police station and reported me. I escaped being persecuted because the village head helped me, but my child was expelled from school. Desperate, I was forced to move back to my village and survived off of the little income I earned selling pancakes. When I was selling pancakes, I always tried to inform my customers about the persecution of Falun Gong and dispel the state propaganda attacking the practice and tell them to quit the CCP. Because of my efforts, many people knew the truth and withdrew from the Party. However, some people didn't believe in what I told them and reported me in return for money. On July 19th, 2005, the village director, Liu Peijun, who died of cardiovascular rupture in 2007, and three other police officers arrested me and put me in the Wuchang Public Security Bureau.

At midnight, I was transferred to a detention centre by Zhan Zhigang and other police officers in the Wuchang City State Security Brigade. When I was interrogated by the police, I refused to eat or sleep. Even though my feet were fettered by a 70-pound chain, I still managed to do the exercises every day.

On July 28th, Zhan Zhigang sent me to the 13th Division in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City. Because I didn't sign the "Four Statements"¹ to renounce my belief, I was forced to squat, and they didn't allow me to use the toilet. As a result, I soiled my trousers. I had diarrhoea and became dehydrated. Seven days later, I couldn't squat anymore and I lost consciousness. This was the second time I passed out. The first time was when I was detained in the Wuchang Detention Centre.

The police started using a different method to torture me. They tied me to an iron bench. They didn't allow me to go to sleep and hit me on my lips with a police baton for three days and nights. My front teeth are still loose. Falun Gong practitioners are not treated as human beings by the police. They tried every torture method in order to force us to give up our belief in Falun Gong.

When the police saw that I still didn't sign the statements, they tied me to a heating pipe. There was a bed at the bottom. They started shocking me on my lips, neck, breasts, palms, and arches with their electric batons. Blood came out of my mouth and dripped on the bed. They furiously asked: "Do you want to sign the papers or not?" I answered: "No!" They asked me why not. I told them that I could let go my life without regret to safeguard and uphold the truth. They again forced me to squat for two days. They also coerced me to sit on a hard-surfaced bench, causing calluses all over my buttocks. Later on, the police told me that if I didn't want to sign the paper, I could write something else. So I wrote about the beauty of Falun Gong, and how it changed my life.

On October 13th, I was transferred to the 12th Division where I was met with more abuse. Hanging is the cruellest method that the guards use to torture practitioners. They stripped my clothes off and only left my underwear on. Then, they tied my shoulders and hung me on an iron rack. My toes barely touched the ground. Because of the excruciating pain, I lost consciousness. I came back to my senses when I felt the cold that penetrated to my bones. The guards intentionally opened the window and let the wind of late autumn blow in. They hung me up again. They tied me with a rope and pulled it with their feet. When my handcuffs suddenly snapped open, they were dumbfounded. They didn't care and hung me up on the iron rack again. My shoulders became numb. At night, they forced me to sign three of the four statements which were previously written by someone. I struggled and stopped at the fourth letter. I told them that I nullified the three letters I had just signed. After I nullified the letters, I was met with more, endless physical and mental torture such as being forced to sit on an iron bench, squat, and watch CD's designed to slander Falun Gong. Because of the excruciating torture and pain, I wanted to commit suicide twice.

I thought to myself that I should go down to the workshop to share with other practitioners, so I went to the workshop where practitioners were forced to do hard labour. I told them that we shouldn't countenance such evil persecution, and we had the dignity and right to live as good people.

During the 2006 New Year, because I didn't eat much, I was emaciated and weighed less than 110 lbs. On March 18th, I declared to those in charge that all three statements that I had signed before were invalid, and I would always follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance taught in Falun Gong. I told the guards that interrogated me how my relatives and I had benefited from the practice.

However, they started torturing me again. They stripped me naked, leaving only my underwear on. They wrapped a wet towel around my shoulders, handcuffed me to a luggage rack, and hung me up two feet above the ground. They hit me with police batons, stopping only when I passed out. They hung me up again when I awakened. Because I didn't give in, they repeated this torture many times. They also shocked me with two electric batons. When they saw that I didn't have any reactions, they tied my legs and hung me upside down. They kept pulling the rope with their feet until the handcuffs broke. I fell on the ground with a thud. They picked me up and put me on an iron bench. My shoulders became numb. They then told the criminals to hit my hands. They hit me for about an hour but finally gave up when they didn't see me react. As a result of the torture, I had difficulty bringing food to my mouth with my right hand, and my left hand became completely paralysed. Because they didn't allow me to go to the toilet, I urinated three times on the bench. In April it was very cold when they opened the window, and even the guard who monitored me was trembling.

3. Returning Home

After about 100 days, the police forced me to do hard labour in the workshop, even though I had an ankle injury and four of my toes were festering so seriously that there were holes in them. When my health recovered, they forced me to stand from 4:30 a.m. until midnight before I was allowed to go to sleep. When they saw that my abdominal area had swollen like a drum, they sent me for an ultrasound examination. The doctors didn't find anything wrong. I told them that the CCP is like a tumour in China. Only when we remove this tumour will Chinese people have hope. Only when there is no CCP will a new China be born. They said they would believe me if my symptoms disappeared. I told them that after I started practising Falun Gong, all my illnesses disappeared, and I've had no new diseases since then. Because I didn't want to wear the prison uniform, they stripped me naked again. One half month later, the captain asked four policemen to forcibly take me to the workshop to do slave labour. Because I didn't cooperate with them, they punched and kicked me. They dragged me to the office and forced me to squat. When I didn't cooperate, they put me on the floor. I sat up and sat in the double-lotus posture. They forcibly unfolded my legs and started hitting me on my left eye with a police baton. I couldn't open my eye for a long time. When I could finally open it, I could not see anything with it. Someone told me that there were purple bruises around my eye. I sat on the floor motionless like a piece of ice for a day without drinking or eating anything. At nighttime, a few people came to carry me upstairs to my bedroom. I started going on a hunger strike, but I was only met with more persecution.

Time has passed by very quickly. At present, I have fully recovered from the torture. The scars left by the torture have disappeared. The pain in my chest and shoulders is also gone. My body has been restored. On September 18th, 2007, I came out of Wanjia Forced Labour Camp openly and with dignity.

On this occasion when the United Nations Committee Against Torture is meeting and strongly urges the CCP to disclose the details of how it tortures and abuses its own citizens. I, as a Falun Gong practitioner who has experienced the cruelty inflicted by the CCP, wanted to record this painful experience and expose what the CCP is trying to hide, and restore the truth to humankind.

Note

1. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/1/28/194415.html