Ms. Wang Aihua Sent to a Labour Camp Three Times and Suffers Severe Abuse

Ms. Wang Aihua, a Falun Gong practitioner in Chongqing, was sent to labour camp three times over the past 10-plus years during the persecution of Falun Gong. She suffered from a severe head injury at the hands of prison inmates and was forcibly injected with medicine. Her head injury led to further, internal injuries and impaired a cervical vertebra, resulting in dizziness, headaches, and memory loss for a long time, including temporary blindness.

Ms. Wang Aihua, 50 years old, is a former employee of the Shaping Machine Factory. She began practising Falun Gong in September 1993, and soon after her previous illnesses went away.

Yubei District police arrested Ms. Wang on July 23rd, 1999 and detained her for 10 days. During this time the police often interrogated her and threatened her until the wee hours of the morning, even when she was ill.

Ms. Wang's workplace officials held a brainwashing session for her for half a month in March 2000. Many people swore at her and threatened her to give up her belief. Workplace officials also ordered a security vehicle to be parked outside her house and dispatched security officers to monitor her 24 hours a day.

First labour camp term: stripped naked in public

Ms. Wang Aihua went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in May 2000 and was detained. A Chongqing Police Liaison Office agent surnamed Li in Beijing took Ms. Wang's money, which totalled 560 yuan¹. Another officer, Qiao Shuyi, extorted 2,000 yuan from her family. One month after her release, officials arrested her again and ransacked her home. She was fired from her workplace, and has not been able to work since. She was also sentenced to one year in a labour camp. The term was later extended by more than three months.

Labour camp guards forced Ms. Wang and other practitioners to stand for a long time outside in the sweltering heat in mid-August 2000. After practitioners began to recite Lunyu, camp head Yu Qinghua, along with guards and inmates, dragged them into cells. About seven or eight inmates brutally beat Ms. Wang and forced her to stand for a long time. After breakfast the next day they beat her severely again. Inmate Zhang Wei hit her especially hard in the head and at the sides of the eyes. Inmate Liu Xiaochang slammed his elbows into Ms. Wang's back many times. Other inmates kicked and beat her until she lost consciousness and fell on the floor. Guard Liu Yongqin brought a rope and ordered Chen Li and other inmates to tie the practitioners up. Ms. Wang was pushed to a wall with her hands tied up in the back. Inmate Liu Mengru came up and pulled her up by grabbing her hair. This caused part of the skin on Ms. Wang's head to be ripped off. The excruciating pain and swelling lasted for more than six months. The inmates then hung the bound Ms. Wang Aihua from the upper level of a bunk bed.

Before the 2001 New Year, Ms. Wang refused to wear an inmate ID badge and uniform. Guard Liu Yongqin ordered inmates to strip her naked in front of a crowd of about 400-500 people. Inmates then twisted her arms behind her back and pulled her up to the fourth floor of the labour camp.

Ms. Wang was arrested again on March 8th, 2002 and taken to the Yubei District Detention Centre in Chongqing. Guard Zhang Yuanli ordered seven young male inmates to beat her. Guard Zhang Yuanli pushed hard on her head and neck and hit her ribs. Zhang Yuanli then instructed inmates to use heavy torture instruments on her, something usually only used on felons. The guard then twisted her hands behind her back, immobilised her with a wooden board and handcuffed her. She was left like this for three days. Ms. Wang Aihua's arms turned purple and black.

Second labour camp term: hit on the head with a metal bowl

During her second labour camp term, Ms. Wang was put in solitary confinement at least four times; this confinement accumulated to more than 100 days. Guards isolated her from others for a long time, swearing at her and further abusing her with beatings, forcing her to stand at attention for long periods of time, to squat, to walk like a duck both in the cell and in public, forcing her to alternate between squatting and standing up 500-1,000 times a day, and limiting her rice intake to less than 50 grams (about two ounces) per meal. Guards also put unknown substances into her food, tied and hung her up, and handcuffed her to a bed at night. Guards also forbade her from washing herself, changing clothes, or having access to the toilet, and deprived her of sleep, as well as placing her in sweltering heat. When she went on a hunger strike to protest, the abusers force-fed her through a tube. Guards used the force-feeding to torture her, making her mouth and nose bleed severely.

Guards put Ms. Wang in solitary confinement in May 2002. Under instructions from guards, inmate Zhu Yulan covered Ms. Wang with a thin quilt and hit her with a wooden stool. The wooden stool was damaged during the beating. Inmate Zhu Yulan then used the bottom of a metal bowl to hit her head, striking her so hard that the bowl became misshapen. Ms. Wang reported this to camp official Wu Chunmei, who responded by extending her term by three days. Another time guards instructed inmate Liu Chengling to grab Ms. Wang's clothes to pull her up from the floor. Liu Chenling then repeatedly hit her head against a wall. This resulted in severe head trauma, with dizziness and headaches for a long time, as well as partial memory loss, all of which she suffers from even now.

Third labour camp term: forced intake of unknown substances

Ms. Wang was sent to a labour camp for the third time on August 8th, 2005. After a more than one-month hunger strike, camp official Wu Chunmei ordered inmates to buy milk at Ms. Wang's expense, for force-feeding. She also instructed inmates to add more sugar to cover up the flavour of the unknown substances put in the milk. The force-feeding gave her a severe stomach ache and diarrhoea.

She was put into solitary confinement again in September 2005. Inmates Liu Chengling and Mo Yanrong sprayed caustic mosquito-repellent on Ms. Wang in the middle of the night to burn her skin, resulting in four blisters and an ulcer that plagued her for four months. To cover it up, guard Shu Chang demanded inmate Mo Yanrong give false testimony. She also threatened Ms. Wang with solitary confinement not to tell others about the incident.

Ms. Wang suddenly lost sight in both eyes in July 2008. The next day she recovered somewhat and was able to see large objects. She requested an examination. Guards waited five days before taking her, handcuffed, to a clinic at the Daping Third Military Hospital. More than 2,000 yuan was spent, but there was no diagnosis. The guards said that she was pretending to be ill, and ordered her to write self-criticising statements and extended her detention term.

Since her release, Ms. Wang has often been in a trance-like state, with memory loss, severe dizziness and headaches, and severe cervical vertebra impairment. She has difficulty raising her head, suffers from long periods of back pain, various deformities, painful toes, and a generally poor physical condition.

She was wanted by the police again in 2008 and went into exile to avoid further persecution.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/4/21/221900.html