Ms. Liu Daju Recounts Seven Years of Torture in Detention Centres and Prison

Name: Liu Daju
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Gaosha Township, Dongkou County, Hunan
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Release: October 5th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changsha Woman's Prison
City: Changsha
Province: Hunan
Persecution suffered: Imprisonment, forced labour, beatings, forced into unnatural positions for extended periods of time, starvation, solitary confinement, and sleep deprivation.

Before practising Falun Gong, Ms. Liu Daju suffered from a number of illnesses. Not long after she started to practise in 1997, all her illnesses disappeared. However, she was arrested in 2000 for refusing to give up her belief. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, during which time she suffered inhuman torture.

Below is Ms. Liu Daju's account, in her own words, about the persecution she endured:

Not long after July 20th, 1999, when the persecution started, Sun Lizhi, head of the township; Liu Shuguang, the political instructor of the local police station; and 20 or so police officers broke into my home and searched it. They took away all my Falun Gong books and the funds for my family business. I talked to them about the beauty of Falun Gong and how I had changed from being a person with many illnesses to one with very good health. They did not listen to me. I went to the local government and the police station to explain the facts about Falun Gong to them, and I also told the local people the facts. As a result, I was detained for 15 days. Ms. Xiao Yan, a fellow practitioner who went with me, was detained for more than 20 days.

On May 28th, 2000, I set out for Beijing to speak out for justice for Falun Gong. Liu Shuguan, leading a group of officers from Dongkou Police Station, boarded an airplane to chase after us. On the afternoon of June 1st, they found us at Tienanmen Square and took us to the Shaoyang Guest House. One week later, we were locked up in the Dongkou Detention Centre. On the following day, Jiang Guanlian, the director of the woman's ward, conducted a body search of more than 20 practitioners and stole all the money from our pockets. At the time I had about 500 to 600 yuan¹, and Ms. Xiao Yan had over 1,000 yuan. They did not give us any receipts. Jiang Guanlian tortured us in many ways. Some of us were handcuffed in different postures and forced to squat or kneel, or were forced into other painful positions such as the "Half-Sitting Squat." We were locked up in small cells, forced to stand for a long time, and brutally kicked. They also dragged us by our hair and slammed our heads into the wall and slapped our faces. I was later transferred to the Shaoyang No. 1 Detention Centre, and Ms. Xiao was sent to the No. 2 Detention Centre. Each of us was forced to pay a 3,500-yuan "deposit," without receiving a receipt.

On October 5th, 2000, Liu Shuguang from the Gaosha Police Station forced his way into my garment shop at around 8:00 a.m. and pushed me into a police car. I was held at the Dongkou Detention Centre for three months and then transferred to the Shaoyang No. 2 Detention Centre. Two months later, I was transferred to Shuining Detention Centre.

In the detention centre there were special locations equipped with handcuffs and shackles to torture practitioners. Since I refused to renounce Falun Gong, three days later I was handcuffed and shackled. These handcuffs and shackles weighed about 40 to 45 kilos (88 - 99 lbs.). On the fourth day I was interrogated and they tried to pressure me into signing a Guarantee Statement to renounce Falun Gong. It was half a kilometre from the cell to the interrogation room. On the way there were several wooden roadblocks. Because of the heavy handcuffs and shackles, it was difficult for me to move even an inch. In addition, I had not been given anything to eat for four days. I do not know how much time it took me to walk the distance of half a kilometre. This torture lasted for 21 days. I lost consciousness twice. My weight dropped sharply, from 68 kilos (approx. 150 lbs.) to half that.

On July 17th, 2001, I was taken from the Dongku Detention Centre to a court hearing. Those who knew me cried when they saw me. They could not believe that I was in such bad shape.

The so-called "court ruling" said I had been sentenced to seven years in prison for "disturbing the social order." On September 8th, I was transferred to Changsha Women's Prison.

Two months later, I was sent to the No. 5 Team of the Police Uniform Factory, which was notorious for its brutal persecution of practitioners. Deng Qingqun, the prison guard in charge, summoned me to the office and ordered me to sign a Guarantee Statement. I refused. They slapped my face, forced me to stand still for a long time, kicked me, and handcuffed my arms behind my back. I talked about the goodness of Falun Gong to the prison guards but they did not listen. They hung me up on the window frame of the toilet and opened the window, exposing me to the bitter cold winter wind. At the time, the temperature dropped to more than ten degrees below zero. My whole body became swollen and the handcuffs cut deep into my flesh. My wrists were so swollen that the handcuffs were not even visible. I was hung there for 15 days. When the guards unlocked the handcuffs, I was unable to move my hand and fell down in the filth of the open-pit toilet. I could not bring my hands down, which were stuck to my back. It took me a long time to move my hands from behind my back. For a very long time, I could not pick up anything with my hands. I suffered from this inhuman torture at the Police Uniform Factory for half a year.

In 2002, the authorities established a so-called "Education and 'Transformation' Division." Li Chunhui, the prison guard in charge, gathered all the practitioners together and selected a few white-collar criminals to supervise and monitor us. We had no personal freedom whatsoever. Even when we went to the toilet they followed us. Those who cooperated with the prison authorities were given less work, those who refused to cooperate were given extra work. We were forced to peel watermelon seeds. Everyone was required to peel over 30 kilos a day. Even if you worked 24 hours non-stop you still would not be able to meet that quota.

Since we did not cooperate, prison guard Ao Qin and her accomplice, Zhu Xinyuan, handcuffed Ms. Yi Jianhua, a practitioner from Hengyang City, to the railing in the corridor. She broke the right hand of Ms. Bao Chengying from Huaihua City and handcuffed Ms. Jia Cuiying's arms behind her back in the torture method referred to as "Carrying a Sword on the Back." This is a very painful form of torture, in which one arm reaches down the back behind the shoulder and the other hand meets it from the lower back. The hands are cuffed together, causing unbearable pain. Ms. Zhu Xinyuan suffered the same torture. I was handcuffed with my legs stretched far apart and my arms stretched out sideways. Then they forced me to stand facing the wall and shocked me with electric batons.

Prison guard Ao Qin was the first one who shocked me with an electric baton. She shocked my face, mouth, and hands. She also ordered guards Zhou Can and Zheng Qin, who had just started to work in the prison, as well as two other guards with the same surname of Zeng, to watch what she did so that they could take turns shocking me. Ms. Jia Cuiying's hands became swollen not long after she endured the torture of "Carrying a Sword on the Back." Her hands looked red and shiny. She was from Jishou City and was the one who suffered the worst torture. In the first half of 2004, she was near death. Only then did the prison authorities agree to let her son take her home. A few days later, Ms. Jia Cuiying died, without being cleared of the false charges against her.

In the middle of the night on April 19th, the head of the prison guards selected two accomplices, Gong Xiaohong and Liu, to take me into a classroom, where they used their knees to pound my stomach. I was starved for several days and I fainted because of the pain. Then they used cloth to wrap up my head and slammed it into the wall. They also punched my head, and I bled from my mouth. The practitioners who were locked in Room 201 heard the sound of banging on the wall and shouted, "Don't beat good people. She is a Falun Gong practitioner!"

I was forced to run in circles several hundred times around the prison track starting at 5:00 a.m. every day. When I was unable to run, guard Gong Xiaohong and Liu would force me to run by dragging me. When they got tired, they would handcuff me into the above-mentioned position and force me to stand still facing the wall.

Every day I observed a practitioner who had been handcuffed and hung on the window frame of the fifth floor. I found out that she was Ms. Mo Xiaoyan from Yueyang City in Hunan Province and was being held at the Police Uniform Team. She was shocked with electric batons by three or four male guards after she tried to stop the guards from slandering Falun Gong in a classroom. They shocked her face until blood came out of her mouth. Practitioner Ms. Dai Yuyun from Yezhu City also stepped forward to defend Falun Gong.

On May 5th, because I refused to wear the prison uniform, Section Leader Tian ordered that I be handcuffed in the position of "Carrying a Sword on the Back." Guard Zhu Xinyuan ordered seven to eight criminal inmates to carry out the order. They hung me up at the top of the corridor. The metal cuffs pressed against my neck so tightly that my breathing and circulation were cut off. My hands were swollen and my face was extremely pale. Guard Tian was afraid that I might die so he used his mobile phone to call in the special guards. The male guards failed to open the cuffs and broke two keys. At last they had to lower me down and then unlocked the cuffs with the third key. My hands were stuck behind my back even when they were released. Even after a long period of time, I was still unable to move my arms and hands.

In June the prison held a meeting with 3,000 people present. The director and the deputy director of the prison openly slandered Falun Gong. We practitioners all stepped forward to defend Falun Gong. The guards cuffed those that stood up. Ms. Zhang Yawei from Zhuzhou City, who was over 60 years old and a senior engineer; Ms. He Lijia from Changde City; Ms. Liao Cui from Yueyang City; Ms. Yan Hong from Changsha; and I were handcuffed and locked up in the male confinement cell. The room was only two meters long and less than 1.5 metres wide. It was dark and smelly and there were a lot of mosquitoes. Ms. Yang Yawei's entire body was swollen from all the mosquito bites. We were confined in this cell for one week.

After six months at the "Education and 'Transformation' Division," I was transferred to the No. 3 Team of the Police Uniform Factory. On my arrival, they ordered me to write a Guarantee Statement. When I refused, they cuffed my hands behind my back for 15 days.

It was very hot one day in June of 2004. The guards used a barbaric form of torture involving a very thick cloth, referred to as a "binding cloth." On the cloth, there were 12 iron rings, and a metre-long strip was attached to each of the rings. The guards twisted my arms behind me back and tied the strips on my sleeves to the three rings on my shoulders. There were nine iron rings on my chest. They bound up my whole body with all the strips for nine days and nine nights.

On May 3rd, 2005, I was transferred to the No. 2 Team. In the evening on June 7, the on-duty prison guard, Liu Chuqin, found me reading a new Falun Gong article. She jumped onto my bed and tried to snatch the article. I stuffed it into my mouth and tried to swallow it. While beating me, Liu shouted, "We must get the evidence!" Li Yong'e, who was assigned to monitor me, and a dozen or so guards all rushed in. They kicked and punched me and used their knees to pound my stomach. Li Xiaoping, who was a group leader in charge of brainwashing, grabbed my hair and slammed me into anything solid. Zhang Li, who was in charge of disciplining practitioners, grabbed my arm and Liu Chunqin tried to pry open my mouth and dig out the article with her finger. I was almost half dead as a result. Then guard Luo Jian ordered inmates Li Xiaoping and Zhang Li to drag me to the classroom.

I had blood all over me as I lay on the floor. Guard Luo Jian took two handcuffs and told the guards to handcuff my hands, one cuff for each hand, and then dragged me to the opposite side of the cell where there was a metal window. They hung me on top of the window and then used wooden clubs to hit my stomach, legs, and hands. Zhang Li said that she planned to beat me to death and that I should prepare to have my term in prison extended for two years. Li Xiaoping slapped my face. My face was so swollen from the beating that my eyes became sunken. At dawn they wiped away the blood and covered up the crime scene. Then they moved me to the on-duty room, and Luo Jian called in a male guard surnamed Song to continue to torture me. When he came into the room, he accused me of biting Liu Chunqin's finger and breaking it. As a result, I was told that I had to pay 155 yuan in medical expenses. He said that I only had 150 yuan and still owed her 5 yuan. All that was a pure fabrication.

The guard stated in a meeting of the No. 5 Ward that I had broken Liu's finger. Practitioner Ms. Li Lianchun asked to see the injury. What she observed revealed that the prison guards had lied, and the meeting ended without any consequence. The practitioners asked to see me, but the prison authorities refused. In the evening, Xiao went to a meeting of the No. 5 Ward and said that my injuries might have been caused by the beatings or that it might have been caused by me "bumping into something."

On October 5th, 2006, on-duty prison guard Lao Chen yelled out that someone had come to see me. When I went downstairs, I saw two policemen with handcuffs in their hands. One of them winked a signal and He Bolin came over with seven or eight people. They held my head down and stuffed a foul-smelling cloth into my mouth. Then they dragged and pushed into a brainwashing session. Zhou Can was promoted to section leader for his "merit" in persecuting practitioners. The thugs she selected to brainwash practitioners were all cruel and ruthless. They described the scene at the time as "a pack of wolves eating a lamb."

They tied my legs up tightly and forced me to stand. This torture lasted for six days and nights. During that period, they did not let me sleep nor go to the toilet. My legs were as swollen as buckets. Five of them took turns watching me for 20 minutes at a time. This was to ensure that I would not close my eyes. Whenever they saw that my eyes were closed they pushed them open with toothpicks. They also ordered me to recite the "code of conduct" and tried to force me to write slanderous words about Falun Gong. I resolutely refused. On the fourth day, they then handcuffed me to a metal bed frame from behind my back, causing a fracture in my right ankle. They tried to pressure me into signing a Guarantee Statement and admit that I had broken Liu Chunqin's finger by biting it.

After 60 days of torture, I was skin and bones. I thought to myself that if I got out of the prison alive, I would expose the inhuman torture of practitioners. I eventually did go home, on October 5th, 2007.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/8/28/207295.html