Ms. Yang Hongmei from Shulan City, Jilin Province, Recounts Years of Mistreatment

Name:Yang Hongmei
Gender:Female
Age:Unknown
Address:Unknown
Occupation:Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Unknown
Most recent place of detention: Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City
City: Changchun
Province: Jilin

Types of Persecution Suffered: Detention, physical constraint, beatings, home ransacked, torture, forced labour.

In March 2000 I went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, but was intercepted by local police officers on the way. I was detained for 15 days at the Treasury Bureau's guest quarters. A week later, I was released after putting up my family's land for bail.

In December 2000, I went to Beijing again and was stopped by the police in Tiananmen Square. They forced everyone to curse Falun Gong as a means of identifying Falun Gong practitioners. I refused to curse Falun Gong, and so was arrested and taken to the Tiananmen Square police station. Later, I was taken to another unknown location. The police stripped off my clothes and used handcuffs to shackle me to an iron pole in a garage. The handcuffs were very tight. After a long time the cuffs were removed. By then my hands were completely swollen and my face had turned purple from the cold. A policeman forced me to squat with my arms held out parallel to the ground. After a while, I was taken outside to suffer in the cold. I shouted to the people passing on the street, "The police are persecuting good people!" I was then taken back inside.

After a few days, the police took me from the unknown location back to the local police station. Forty days later, I was taken to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City to serve a one-year term. In the labour camp, I refused to stop practising Falun Gong, so the camp guards cursed at me and beat me. Later, I was transferred to the Yinmahe Forced Labour Camp.

On March 21st, 2003, officers from the Henan Police Station ransacked my house and harassed me three times in five days. I was forced to flee my home, leaving my husband and child, who was still in school, behind. I did not have much money in my pocket nor did I have time to bring spare clothes with me. I lived in fear and anxiety, with little to eat and no place to appeal the unjust treatment.

To stop the persecution, I distributed Falun Gong informational materials with three other practitioners, but we were reported to the authorities and arrested. Shujiao Township police officers beat us and confiscated the 200 yuan¹ I had in my pocket.

Agents from the National Security Bureau took the four of us to a room in the backyard of the local police station. I was tied to an iron chair², with my left hand pulled over my left shoulder and cuffed to my right hand that was pulled around my waist and up my back (an excruciating torture position known as "carrying a sword on the back"). My head was covered with a dirty cloth that was pulled so tight that it caused my eyes to hurt badly. A policeman stood in front of me and forced a mop into my mouth, while another forced a spicy liquid down my nostrils, which stung and caused my eyes and nose to water. They repeated this several times. Then, they sat me on the ground with my legs straight out in front and rolled the mop handle over my shins, causing severe pain. They also stomped on my ankles. As a result, that area of my ankles was badly damaged and I no longer have any feeling there. In the end, they tied me onto the iron chair that had been placed near the wall. Several policemen tortured me at the same time. The perpetrators included Tan Hongchao, Li Jiazhe, and Li Zhuo. Around 8 o'clock at night on the second day, the police took me and the other three practitioners to the detention centre. Thirty days later, I was sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp of Changchun City for another one-year term.

In the labour camp, working overtime is routine. Most of the raw materials used for making items are harmful to the human body. For instance, dyed feathers are used to make small butterflies. When the raw feathers arrive, we have to dust them to make them unfold As we are dusting, our bodies and clothes become completely covered in the dye. Because we are inhaling the dust, even our phlegm is coloured by the dye.

Note

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

2. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/12/8/214005.html