I Witnessed Falun Gong Practitioners Suffering Abuse in the Women's Prison of Wuhan City, Hubei Province

I was a regular inmate in the Women's Prison of Wuhan City. At the end of 2003, another Falun Gong practitioner named Ms. Sun Xiuqin entered the prison ward where I was being held. There are many methods of torture used in the Wuhan Women's Prison. Inmates are never respected, guards will treat inmates really nicely only if the inmates are wealthy or powerful. They are really cruel to Falun Gong practitioners. They would try to force them to give up their belief, make them watch slanderous videotapes, and force them to do hard labour, day and night. If they didn't cooperate, they would be strung up to a metal door.

The guards arranged for two or three inmates to monitor Ms. Sun 24 hours a day. If they saw her do the exercises or recite Falun Gong teachings, they immediately reported it to the guards and she was punished right away. The guards authorized other inmates to beat or curse her at anytime. According to the rules in prison, inmates were not allowed to use violence against each other. If anyone did, they would have to write a statement to confess their mistake. They would have marks deducted in their personal evaluations or be locked up in a small cell. However, inmates were allowed to beat Falun Gong practitioners. If any other inmate tried to stop it, he or she would be threatened by the guards. They could get marks deducted or get a longer term.

Among the inmates watching over Ms. Sun Xiuqin, there were three that were the most vicious. Their names were Zhao Benyu, Wang Lanyin and Zhang Yulian. I will refer to them as Wang, Zhao, and Zhang.

During a discussion, Ms. Sun did not want to read the material that tries to convince practitioners to give up Falun Gong. She was cursed at and beaten by Wang and Zhang in the cell for three to four hours. Some inmates immediately reported this to the guards, but they were criticized by the prison's instructor, Zhang Wenxia, and small section warden Jiang Ying.

The following day, Zhao severely beat Ms. Sun in another small cell. I saw her having trouble walking after that. She was dragging one of her legs, and there was blood on her face and lips. When inmates Li Jizhi and Gao Yuzhi and practitioner Lu Lixian wrote a letter to the guards to report this incident, the guards cross examined the three inmates accused of abusing Ms. Sun. Zhao said the abuse never occurred. Wang and Zhang also claimed they did not abuse her. Jiang Ying announced that he would file an investigation, but the true purpose was to cover it up and protect the perpetrators.

Zhao was very proud of herself and showed off by saying to me, "The guards allowed this, and no one saw it happen, so of course I don't have to admit it." Instructor Zhang Wenxia said it all happened because Ms. Sun did not renounce her belief, so she deserved it! As for the two kind inmates who reported the incident, Zhang Wenxia threw a cup of water at them and claimed that she would deduct marks from them. I asked Zhao, "Did Ms. Sun fight back?" She said, "I have never seen someone so stupid. She didn't curse or fight back when I beat her."

After a while, I was transferred to a different ward. I met a total of ten Falun Gong practitioners in Wuhan Women's Prison. They are truly innocent people. They were locked up like us, but we are criminals who committed crimes. In jail, only Falun Gong practitioners never used bad language and never cursed at people. They even told us to do good deeds, and they were really kind to us. When we didn't have daily necessities and clothing, they gave theirs to us. They are really the best people in the world.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/3/194757.html