Older Practitioner Ms. Gao Yujie Tortured and Paralyzed in Jiamusi City Labour Camp, Heilongjiang Province

Name: Gao Yujie
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Pan Factory of Jiamusi City
Occupation: Stevedore
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 31st, 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jiamusi City Forced Labour Camp
City: Jiamusi
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, torture, extortion, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use

Due to the heavy physical labour in her work as a stevedore, Ms. Gao Yujie suffered from many diseases, including serious rheumatism, heart disease, dizziness, gastric disease and hemorrhoids. When she fell ill she became so weak that she could not even hold a needle. To end her suffering she had considered committing suicide, but could not bring herself to do it because of her two young daughters. She fortunately discovered Falun Gong in 1995. Several months after she started practising, all her diseases disappeared and she regained her health and happiness. She became so energetic that she could do her work much easier than before and did not feel tired at all. She was grateful to Falun Gong's founder from the bottom of her heart for renewing her life.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Gao could no longer exercise at the practice site in her neighbourhood as she did before. On July 27th, 2000, when she was reading Falun Gong books at the home of a fellow practitioner, police broke in, arrested her and took her to the local Yingjun Police Station. She was later held in the Jiamusi City Detention Centre for one month. Later, she learned that her family had to pay police 1,700 yuan¹ for her release. An Quanzhi, a policeman from the Yingjun Police Station was among those who were involved in the arrest.

On July 31st, 2001 Ms. Gao was arrested by police from the Urban Police Station in Jiamusi City and the Yingjun Police Station when she was at the home of a fellow practitioner. She was later held in the Jiamusi City Detention Centre for 17 days. In the detention centre she was forced to sleep on the icy cold concrete floor beside a toilet. The living conditions were extremely poor and she was forbidden to freely do her Falun Gong exercises. Because of these circumstances her previous diseases like rheumatism and heart disease came back and she became unable to take care of herself. Despite all this, police officers including Guo Weishan, chief of the Yingjun Police Station, still handcuffed her hands, shackled her feet and sentenced her to one year of forced labour in the Jiamusi City Labour Camp.

Mrs. Gao's conditions worsened in the labour camp, but the prison guards still forced her to work despite her bad physical condition. To make sure that she would fulfill her workload, they even put restrictions on how many times and the length of time she could go to the toilet each day. She once suffered from constipation and stayed on the toilet for a longer time. When she left the toilet she found her legs were not working as usual. Seeing her unable to walk, the prison guards Liu Yadong, Mu Zhenjuan and Yu Wenbin held her arms and dragged her to work. She became paralyzed since then, but she was still dragged from her living room to the workshop where she was forced every day to make paper boxes, pick beans and do other work.

The prison guards also searched her frequently. Ms. Gao's younger brother once saw her in a bad condition and asked the prison guards to give her a physical examination. He took this opportunity to give her 100 yuan, and she put it in her pillow, but the prison guard Liu Yadong found it and took it for herself. Ms. Gao asked her to return the money to her, but she refused. Later Liu returned only 50 yuan to her.

The prison guards kept pressuring practitioners to write statements to give up Falun Gong. Those who refused to do that were not allowed to drink water or go to the toilet.

After Ms. Gao was released, although her legs were paralyzed she was still harassed by Du Feng and other police officers from the Yingjun Police Station. They went to her home many times to ask her whether she was still practising Falun Gong.

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/2010/5/31/224596.html