Ms. Bai Yuzhi from Hebei Province Suffers Brutal Persecution for Her Firm Beliefs

Dafa practitioner Bai Yuzhi has suffered a series of persecutions since July 20th, 1999. The authorities used many cruel methods to transfer her to and from several Forced Labour Camps, Detention Centres, Mental Hospitals and Drug Rehabilitation Centres. She was injected with powerful, mind-altering drugs, which the ruffians alleged were meant "to change her character". They inhumanly tortured her and vainly attempted to destroy her firm, righteous belief in Falun Dafa. On several occasions she was almost killed during her 11 months in detention centres in Tangshan City, Baoding City and Shijiazhuang City, all in Hebei Province. During this period, she was on a hunger strike for nine months, and her gradually emaciated body suffered all kinds of brutal tortures. She was released from the forced labour camp three times, each time close to death, with many parts of her body very seriously injured. The long-term hunger-strike protest, together with being repeatedly force-fed through a tube, severely damaged her stomach. Frequently vomiting blood and having blood in her stool, as well as having a serious lack of potassium, caused her eyesight to become very dim. The head of the hospital diagnosed her and let her know that she would not live longer than several days.

On Christmas Eve 2001 she was detained and taken to Shijiazhuang City No. 2 Detention Centre for sending Falun Gong truth-clarifying VCDs to people. This was her third hunger-strike protest. Due to her prior serious injuries, this time she started to vomit blood on the ninth day of her hunger strike. The police officer Zhang Haiyan connived with the common criminals to brutally beat practitioners who were on a hunger strike. Bai Yuzhi pointed to Zhang Haiyan and asked, "Why do you not take charge when you see the common criminals beating people? How can they beat people for no reason? Who gave them the power?" The thug Zhang Haiyan shamelessly replied, "Who beat people? I didn't see anything." To retaliate, for a duration of nine days, Zhang Haiyan handcuffed Bai Yuzhi, who was on hunger strike, on the "tiger bench" [a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall. Practitioners' knees are tightly tied on the small bench. They have to sit straight up with their eyes looking straight ahead. Their hands are tied behind the back or sometimes placed on the knees. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath their lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse. For illustrated information on torture methods, click here.] and also beat her endlessly, although she had been on hunger strike for over a month. As a result, Bai Yuzhi fainted immediately. Each time, the unlawful prison doctor force-fed her with 1,000 ml salted flour gruel. All the police, prison doctors and the chief of the detention centre knew that Bai Yuzhi vomited blood every day, but these people just kept watching her on her hunger strike for over four months, without caring, until she was very close to death. At that time, Bai Yuzhi weighed just 35 kilogram [about 80 pounds].

When the ruffians saw that Bai Yuzhi was close to death and realised that they could be held responsible, they decided to release her and told her family to take her back home. Even so, they did not forget to include robbery in their list of crimes; together with the case-handling unit and the Shijiazhuang Fang County Police Department, they extorted money from her family and further added to the suffering that Bai Yuzhi had already been through.