Ms. Ma Bingjuan's Narration of Torture in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison

Ms. Ma Bingjuan is a Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province resident. She is a victim and eyewitness of the torture that happened in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison. The following is her narrative.

I was taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison on September 27th, 2003. Every morning, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., we were forced to run laps without a rest except for one toilet break. It was called "military training". But only practitioners, not regular inmates, were subjected to the military training. Guards even instructed the most wicked inmates to watch us, and had them keep the running pace up and beat us with sticks from behind if we stopped running. After two days of running, my legs became so sore that I could barely walk. On the third day, I knew I was innocent and, as a practitioner, should not be treated like that. I refused to run and cried "Falun Gong is good." Wang Xiaoli, the deputy chief of the training centre in the prison, dragged me out of the line, pushed me into a corner, forced me to squat facing a wall, and whipped me fiercely with surgical tubing. I protested that the beating was illegal, but she continued whipping me and said, "I will beat you." At around 10 a.m., in the training centre office, guard Tao Dandan questioned me, "Why didn't you run?" and then kicked me with her heavy work boots. As a result, my nose was broken and badly bruised. Guards locked me in a small cell.

These small cells had two-layer metal doors. The cells were dark; no sunshine could get in. I was handcuffed behind my back to a metal ring on a wooden bed. At night, the cell was very cold and no one was given any bedding. I received two meals a day: corn flour gruel and several salted vegetable strips. I was handcuffed behind my back day and night and could not sleep. My whole body was sore and in pain, and I was cold. My entire body was numb. At that time, almost all small cell detainees were practitioners. Some were tied to metal chairs and it was impossible for them to move their bodies. October was very cold in northern China. Some practitioners were imprisoned in August and only had the summer clothes they were arrested in. Even though we shivered from the cold, the guards did not allow any clothing to be delivered to the cells; meanwhile, they wore padded jackets, trousers, and warm shoes. We were forbidden from speaking to each other, and allowed to use the toilet only at an assigned time during the day. Because we were forbidden from using the toilet at night, sometimes I could not hold it until the next assigned time and ended up going in my trousers. Clothes washing, hair washing, and bathing were forbidden in the small cells too. There were no toothbrushes, only a towel. I was locked in a small cell for a month and lost more than thirty pounds.

Guards used other inmates to watch us. These inmates did not allow us to talk and followed us everywhere even when we were using the toilet. If there was a practitioner in the toilet, another practitioner was not allowed to enter the toilet and had to wait outside. For those who were allowed to use the toilet at night, a companion inmate to had to accompany them no matter how late it was. Otherwise, the practitioner could not use the toilet. To make practitioners give up the practice, guards had the most heinous inmates try to "transform¹" practitioners. They deceived us with false doctrines and forced us to listen to or read slander against Falun Gong. From morning to night, several inmates would surround a practitioner, not allow her to do anything and force her to be silent while they berated her. From 5 a.m. in the morning to 8 p.m. at night, a practitioner was forced to sit for 15 hours without closing her eyes.

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/2009/4/20/199307.html