A Physician's Narrative of Her Persecution

Name: Tan Wei
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Address: Chenzhou City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Medical doctor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 5th, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Sanya City Detention Centre
City: Sanya
Province: Hainan
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denied use of toilet

Ms. Tan Wei, a a 35-year-old physician from Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, started practising Falun Gong in 1996. At that time, she had a tumour in her ovaries and had become infertile. After two months of practice her tumour disappeared, and she even gave birth to a baby boy in 2002. To avoid persecution, she was forced to leave her hometown in November 2009. The following is her narrative of what she went through:

Falun Gong not only gave me a healthy body, but more importantly, it gave me a healthier mind. On the evening of May 5th, 2005, I was arrested by undercover police officers while putting up posters exposing the persecution of Falun Gong outside the 92474 unit army base in Sanya City, Hainan Province, and was detained for twenty three days.

During my detention, I was not allowed to sleep for long periods of time, I was denied the right to use the toilet, and was injected with unknown drugs. My husband, who worked in the finance section at the 92474 unit army base, spent our entire savings to bribe the police in an attempt to save me. He even took hold of my hands to make me sign and put my finger print on the guarantee statements to renounce practising Falun Gong. This way, I avoided going to prison.

Due to the brutal treatment I received I was down to my last breath, and was extremely thin. I was taken to my parents' home in Chenzhou City, where I have a registered residence. Officials from the local 610 office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the community association soon came to harass me, and told me to write a letter guaranteeing that I would not practise Falun Gong again. I refused. As a result, they intended to take me to a brainwashing centre, so I had to quickly leave home to avoid arrest.

Officials from the 92474 unit army base then ordered my husband to divorce me. If he refused he would lose his job and would be sent back to his home village in the countryside. My husband divorced me early in 2007.

To avoid arrest, I was forced to leave home with my five year old child, and become homeless. From 2006 to 2007, my sister, a non-practitioner, and I ran a small clinic called Ankang, in Wuyixin Village, Tianyuan District, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. During that time, I distributed leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to the local residents. As a result, I was reported many times and the clinic was ransacked three times by the authorities.

On the evening of April 13th, 2007, officers from the Shifeng District Police Department in Zhuzhou City arrested a fellow practitioner, Liu Xueqin and five other practitioners. One of the practitioners could not bear the physical torture and divulged my name along with names of several other practitioners. Agents from the 610 Office then ransacked our clinic, using the excuse of an inspection by the Public Health Department. I heard beforehand that they were coming, so I avoided being arrested. They confiscated several Falun Gong bookmarks from the clinic.

To avoid persecution, and with no other choice, I returned with my child to Chenzhou City.

In 2007, I worked at Deng Baozhen Clinic on Bayi Road, in Chenzhou City. Through fear of being persecuted and losing my job again, I didn't say that I was a practitioner at my new workplace. However, I was still being persecuted, and have been homeless ever since.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/5/14/223539.html