Falun Gong Practitioner Mr. Ding Fadong Has Endured Severe Abuse in Detention Centres and Labour Camps

Name: Ding Fadong
Gender: Male
Age: 48
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Teacher

Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 2005
Most recent Place of Detention: Yinchuan Detention Centre

City: Wuzhong
Province: Ningxia Autonomous Region
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, torture, force-feedings, solitary confinement, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention
Key Persecutors: Chen Wanli, Wang Man, Wang Shiyuan, Li Xi, Xu Jianshe, Wang Hao, Li Zhengjiang, Xie Jun

Mr. Ding Fadong was an acclaimed high school music teacher in the Yinnan Area, now Wuzhong City. He was awarded the title of Excellent Teacher and his musical entry won an award in the First National Chinese Music Cup.

At the end of 1998, Mr. Ding started practising Falun Gong. Shortly afterward, numerous illnesses that had taken a toll on his health all disappeared. He saw the truth in life through Falun Gong and has remained steadfast in his belief.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested, held in police departments and detention centres, and sentenced to forced labour three times. He endured severe abuse in detention centres and labour camps until he was on the verge of death.

The following is his account of the great changes that took place after he started practising Falun Gong and the torture he has endured.

Changes brought by Falun Gong

My name is Ding Fadong. I am 48 years old. Because of the affluent background of my parents, our family endured persecution for as long as I can remember. We lived in the countryside under harsh conditions. I was a sickly child but had my share of work to do to support the family. After all the hard work, we could barely feed ourselves throughout the year. For a family like ours, costly hospital treatment was out of the question. By the time I went to high school, I often woke up in the middle of the night sweating with excruciating pains.

I studied hard on my own initiative. Despite illness, I got accepted into a college music department. After graduation, I was assigned to teach a high school in the Yinnan area. I was granted the title of Excellent Teacher for my hard work. I composed the first school anthem in the area, which received an award in the First China Music Cup competition. I led students to attend numerous art shows in the education system, which earned honours and commendation.

Despite my achievements, my illness and associated pain never let up. This distracted me from devoting more of myself to work, because my thoughts would drift for answers about the ultimate goal of life, such as whether we can transcend ourselves and achieve a new life in the true sense.

In October 1998, I saw someone fall down in Yinchuan Park. I called for an ambulance and accompanied the person to the hospital. This act of kindness led me to Falun Gong. In a few short months, all the illnesses that had accompanied me for over 20 years disappeared. It was an incredibly refreshing experience. I was moved to tears by the immense generosity and power of Falun Gong. I knew what it meant to live life in harmony with one's purpose. I was so energetic. Gone were the days when I would cough up blood after a short walk.

Persecuted for my belief

On July 20th, 1999, the CCP head, Jiang Zemin, launched the unconstitutional persecution of Falun Gong across the nation. I was arrested by the police on numerous occasions simply for telling fellow villagers about the benefits of Falun Gong and the unreasonable persecution practitioners were being put through. I was held in custody and sentenced to forced labour three times, which left me subject to extended hours of forced servitude, while guards and inmates carried out inhuman torture and conducted brainwashing sessions on me.

The following are just a few such occurrences.

Detained for practising Falun Gong

After July 20th, 1999, I was doing the Falun Gong exercises in a park, when officers from the Fenghuang Street Police Station arrested me. They forced me to listen to replays of news broadcasts that defamed Falun Gong. They lied to my family and, thus, were able to take away Falun Gong books from my home. They spread lies that all practitioners suffered mental illness. Looking back, I felt I had not made it a point to dispel the lies they spread, so I then and there decided to explain the facts about Falun Gong to help stop these officers from committing crimes against Falun Gong. From then on, I resolved to speak out for Falun Gong's good name.

When I did the exercises at a practice site, an elderly woman turned me in to the police. Two officers took me to the Xingqing District Police Department. I was detained for 15 days. When I was taken to the detention centre, I told them I would not give up Falun Gong as long as I had one breath left. I also told the officers that it was wrong to persecute Falun Gong. They replied, "You may practise as much as you like once you are in the cell."

Only two meals of thin noodle or vegetable soup was offered in the cell, with an extra bun, occasionally, in between. Though this was hardly enough for anyone, I often held back so others could have a little extra. People in the cell all acknowledged that Falun Gong practitioners are kindhearted.

Taken into custody for appealing in Beijing

In July 2000, I went to Beijing to put in a word for Falun Gong. I went to Tiananmen Square to look for the Appeal's Office to report the great changes that took place in my mind and body after practising. In the course of my search, I was stopped by the police several times. They punched and cursed at me, but I remained calm and sincerely told them the facts of Falun Gong ,and it just so happened that they let me go. When I was to return to my hometown, I waited for a bus in the terminal. Two patrol officers saw I was reading the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, so they immediately took me to the nearby police station. I was then transferred to the Liaison Office of the Ningxia Autonomous Region in Beijing. Officers in the liaison office took the only 70 yuan¹ that I carried with me. A few days later, another practitioner and I were taken to the Xincheng Police Department in Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region. I was then taken to the Xingqing District Police Department. Two officers interrogated me. One punched me so hard that I fell down. The two officers soon had stomach aches. The one who punched me shouted, "What's wrong with my stomach. How come it hurts so much?" I said, "Who just slandered Dafa?" Several other people in the room heard my question. All fell silent to think about what I had said.

When I arrived at the detention centre, an inmate incarcerated on murder charges punched me in my right eye. He was in charge of the cell. Any newcomer would be viciously beaten, stripped of pants and slapped with shoes, or have a bucket of cold water poured all over him. I told them that treating practitioners like this was committing a crime.

Some of the inmates took orders from detention centre guards to prevent me from doing the Falun Gong exercises. They would use cigarette lighter to burn my feet or poke my nostrils when I practised the exercises.

The slave labour we were engaged in was to tear apart glued strips. The guard in charge of the labour intentionally assigned more work to Falun Gong practitioners. By the end of the day, if anyone did not finish his assignment, he would be cursed and beaten. Sometimes our fingernails would chip or we would bleed from under our fingernails, leaving no alternative but to use our teeth to separate the glue strips. Grinding pepper was another type of labour. Whoever finished the last or did not complete the assigned work would be tortured. Inmates tried to force me to recite the detention centre regulations. I told them Falun Gong practitioners were innocent and the regulations did not apply to us. I told them cultivation stories. They enjoyed listening. I did not harbour any grudge against them. They were deceived by the CCP propaganda. I was held there for 38 days.

Sentenced to 18 months of forced labour for clarifying the truth

In 2000, I wrote an article to spread the facts about Falun Gong. I posted many copies publicly. The following day, three people from the Wenhua Street Police Station broke into my home. An official with the last name of Zhang asked, "What else do you have here? Please show us, so that we might also learn." I gave him the few remaining copies of my article. They said, "Make arrangements for your child. Then follow us to the police station." I was again taken to the detention centre.

Five days later, three officers took me to Baitugang Forced Labour Camp in the Wuzhong area. After getting out of the car, an officer took out a sheet of paper and told me to sign it. I wrote instead, "What is the crime in cultivating one's heart and trying to be kindhearted?" The officer yelled, "I am adding five extra years to your forced labour term for your intransigence." I did not argue with him. But I was certain that I came to this world for Dafa. Five years would not scare me. In addition, it was not he who would determine my destiny.

Guo Wenzhi, a labour camp official who later died in an accident after his active participation in the persecution, took me to a large cell with over 30 inmates. I spotted a fellow practitioner that I knew. I walked over to greet him and just as I asked, "How are you?" three or four inmates rushed over and assaulted me for over 10 minutes. This was an evil place for sure. The inmates who had beaten me were members of a supervision committee set up by labour camp guards.

In this labour camp, everyone got up at 5:00 a.m. Throughout the day, profanity and beatings were commonplace. Labour camp guards looked for any excuse they could find to attack us. In brainwashing sessions, when singing songs, during drills, or running through the hygiene checklist, anyone who was not in full compliance would be punched, kicked, slapped in the face, or even hit with the long handle of a pick. Other practitioners and I never let up clarifying the truth. Gradually, inmates started to realise Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance was good for them and Falun Dafa was great. Some even started reciting Teacher Li Hongzhi's poems from Hong Yin. The guards noticed the change in our environment, so the head guard sought new tactics to keep up the persecution.

The guards used to make up excuses during the drill. Sometimes they gave orders to inmates to beat me. The guards themselves also slapped me with leather gloves on. Sometimes, they even threw bricks at my back. If they still were not satisfied, they would drag me and the other practitioner to the playground in the middle of winter,leaving us to suffer the elements for hours. Frozen inside out, we were allowed to return to the cell.

Besides outright beatings, the guards also pulled deceptive tricks to try to "transform" practitioners. When these tricks were seen through, they took us to a brick kiln for slave labour. We were forced to work from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day. Our job was to pull carts loaded with bricks to fill up the kiln. The cart, when loaded, weighed over 2,000 pounds. When I was too exhausted to pull the cart, Wang Baobao, the head inmate in charge, would whip me with belts. When I fell down, he would order me to get up as he continued to whip. After the violent beating, I was ordered to continue pulling the cart. The order was: "If the cart is fully loaded, you have to run with it; of the cart is empty, you are supposed to pull it so fast that it flies."

On a snowy day in winter, my shirt was soaked in sweat. I buried the concepts of cold and fatigue and resolved that nothing would change my belief. The guard in charge of our team often called me to the office for a "talk." He learned quickly of my staunch faith in Dafa. When the job of transporting bricks was over, I was assigned to the No. 2 Division, which was responsible for piling up soil in a brick factory.

The most vicious of all the divisions in the labour camp, the No. 2 was divided into four teams. One practitioner was assigned to the No. 3 Team. Another practitioner and I were assigned to the No. 2 Team but in two different classes of 20 people each. A joint meeting was held the first night I arrived. The head inmate of one class was Wang Xiaoyong. The other was Zhou Zhongping. They, as well as several other inmates, hit my head and face and kicked me in the chest. The head inmates told the other inmates to beat and demean me as their own whims saw fit. It was wholly arbitrary and not based on the violation of any rules. They grabbed me by my neck, clamping down on the main arteries in my neck. I immediately lost consciousness as I was not able to breath nor was any oxygen getting to my brain. They called this "minor death." When I regained consciousness, I saw twisted faces of inmates surrounding me that were sneering, watching with viciousness, or laughing out of control. They ordered me to write a statement to quit practising Falun Gong. I refused. As they talked over their odds, the two head inmates were confident that just a little while longer would be necessary under their more venomous assault. Some other inmates also actively participated in exchange for possible reduction in their terms of forced labour.

I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. while everyone else got up at 5:00 a.m. I was ordered to recite some labour camp rules to start the day. Then I was to mop the floor with discarded insulated pants using icy water. My hands turned swollen and numb. Starting at 7:00 a.m. we started piling up soil. Anyone who did not finish the assigned number of carts would face beatings upon return. Inmates would throw a metal stool at the person or beat him with the handle of a pick. Even if one got injured from the beatings, the following day was back to work as usual. If someone really could not go to work, the head inmate would give an order: "Call in Hua Tuo (the famous ancient doctor of Chinese medicine) to take care of his idiosyncratic illness!" Then a group of inmates would come with picks to beat him. It was also impossible to get to see the guard in charge of the division till noon, which was too late to get permission for the day off.

These inmates were vicious, perverted, and full of hatred. On one occasion, I said to an inmate, "Falun Gong teaches people to be kind." He gave the statement no thought whatsoever and punched me right in my eye. While other inmates were given breaks between work sessions, I had to mop the floor. The head inmate also ordered me to kept singing, "I enjoy mopping. I enjoy mopping." One day, head inmate Zhou Zhongping showed me a guarantee statement signed by a fellow practitioner promising not to practice Falun Gong. He told me that if I promised not to practice in the labour camp, no one would ever touch me. He said such statement would be his to keep personally and would not be shown to the guards. He asked me to be considerate to others in the class so they would not be under so much pressure. After I signed it, he gave it to the guard in charge of the division. I realised it was a trick and asked them to return it. They refused and escalated the persecution instead.

Each weekend, a walk-through inspection of a hygiene checklist was performed by the guards, who came up with every excuse for beating inmates. Everyone was responsible for a certain section. No matter how hard you had cleaned it, the guards would arbitrarily, as a matter of course, find some fault. One day my area was said to not be clean, so assigned inmates rushed over and started hitting me with shovel handles that had nail tips exposed. Blood soon started dripping down my pants. One inmate later looked and me and told me the wounds were infected. I had to sleep sideways to avoid making the wounds worse.

On inclement weather days when work was called off, I was ordered to sing "transformation" songs. Non-stop beatings ensued if I refused. For every word that was not recited correctly, the inmates would slap my palm with a plank. When both my palms swelled up, they would switch to slapping the bottoms of my feet.

One day at 3:00 a.m., two inmates, Gao Ke and Wang Wei, who were members of the supervision committee, woke me up. They came to tell me that, on television the previous night, a so-called Falun Gong follower, Fu Yibin, was supposed to have killed people. They asked whether I would now give up practising Falun Gong. I told them that was a fabricated report, that it was contrary to the principle of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. Fu was no Falun Gong practitioner. Gao and Wang immediately dragged me to the hallway and started beating me. I fell to the ground and had a hard time breathing. They pulled me up, and then one of them hit my back with his elbow. He yelled, "You write the 'transformation' statement now! If you don't, I'm not letting you off the hook!" I refused. They were enraged. As time went by, Gao and Wang awoke to the facts and later admitted that all Falun Gong practitioners are kind people. They refused to take part in the persecution anymore.

One night, Zhou Zhongping, the head inmate, turned off the lights, while Wang Xiaoyong, the other head inmate, started the torture. He wrapped my head with rags. Then he picked up a shovel and threatened, "Are you getting 'transformed' or not? Today is the day. You decide what consequences you are going to face!" Then they dragged me to a corner, held my shoulders to the wall, and Wang started banging my chest with his knees. They held me in different positions and kept attacking me till 1:00 a.m. When Wang finally burned out, he did not forget to threaten, "As long as I'm here, every day you refuse to be 'transformed,' I will teach you a lesson that day. We will see who eventually gives in."

One day I was mopping the floor and an inmate named A-Long walked over. He suddenly kicked me really hard. I immediately felt dizzy and fell to the ground, unable to breath. After about five minutes, I was able to catch my breath. I saw the inmates looking at me viciously. They were yelling, "Don't you pretend to be dead!" I felt as if all the cells in my body were suffocating. I moved slowly to the foot of the bed and stood up slowly by grabbing on the bed rail. A-Long even received praise among the inmates. Zhou Zhongping, the head inmate in charge of this class, said, "No one is to report to the guards. If you do, I will take care of your dead body." Then he turned to me, "Look here! Open your eyes wide! If you die here, it is no different from a chicken's neck being twisted off." Wang Xiaoyong rushed over and yelled, "Who would care even if he does report to the guards? He thinks this labour camp is operated by his family?" I said with my back bent, "I would not be able to go out to work!" Zhou Zhongping immediately shouted, "Call in Hua Tuo!" A group of inmates came over. They grabbed my head, arms, and legs. They kept punching me. I was lifted in mid-air. I tried to shout but was not able to make a sound. It hurt terribly, worse then being killed. Zhou kept hitting me in the groin. Excruciating pain made me want to die immediately. Despite broken ribs, I had to go out to work the following day and finish my share of the workload. I was not able to walk with my back straight. I had to support the broken ribs in my lower left chest with my arm.

On another day, I returned to the cell after the morning exercise, and Zhou Zhongping asked sternly whether I had spoken to the practitioner in the No. 3 Division. I told him I did not even see him, so how could I talk to him? Zhou rushed over and kicked me in the lower abdomen. I fell down and passed out. I am not sure how much time passed before I regained consciousness. I struggled to stand up. Zhou continued to yell, "Don't you pretend innocence! No one goes over to hold him!"

After sustaining continuous beatings and engaging in intense slave labour, I was having a hard time going to the restroom. I had to move one step at a time while leaning against the wall. Zhou gave orders that no inmate was allowed to give me a hand.

Later the division head learned about this. He asked me what demand I wanted the labour camp officials to meet. He offered to let me take a rest for two months, and at the same time, Zhou's forced labour term would be extended for eight days. He asked whether I was satisfied. I told him he could make his decision, but I was innocent. They wanted to take me to a hospital. I declined. They got some medicine and tried to let me take it, but I refused to co-operate. They force-fed me. A week or two later, their attitude changed, and they ordered me to resume slave labour.

The labour camp guards were afraid that their brutality would be exposed. They did not permit my family to visit me. My family tried very hard and eventually met with me. When they saw me holding my lower left chest, my back bent over, moving one step at a time toward the gate, they all burst into tears. My younger sister was so sad that she cried and passed out later. The guards lied to my wife, saying that the injuries were from an accidental fall. Doctors, on assignment, examined me, claiming no serious injuries were sustained.

When they found out that inmates were not able to "transform" me, the division heads started to have talks with me. An official with the last name Xu kept asking why I had to believe in Falun Gong and how could it be that Falun Gong was the only thing in the world that I was to give my family and career. My mood was so low during those days that I even thought about suicide. But I recalled that Master said in the Lecture in Sydney that committing suicide is a sin, so I gave up this thought. On another occasion, Hu Zhonglin, the political instructor, talked to me from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. I remained steadfast in my belief.

Later, the labour camp authorities organised a group of people to conduct "transformation" sessions. However, all the Falun Gong practitioners in the labour camp staged a group hunger strike for a whole week, which thwarted the authorities' plan. They decided to send over 20 practitioners to various other labour camps in the region. Two practitioners received an illegal sentencing of six years in prison. Two practitioners and I were sent to a forced labour site known as Ningxia No. 2 Drug Rehabilitation Centre located in the Saima Cement Factory. Our job was to package cement. All year around, the factory was filled with cement dust. Due to the heavy workload, our clothes would be soaked in sweat and covered with cement dust in no time. So, in the summer people worked bare chested, even knowing the cement was toxic. Many developed blisters on their bodies. Those who constantly carried cement had cracks in their hands. Their palms would bleed throughout the day. Often people passed out during the work day. As long as they regained consciousness, however, they had to show up for work the following day. Many suffered severe silicosis, a lung disease due to exposure to toxic dust. In winter, we had to change clothes outdoors to avoid bringing dust indoors. Meals were served at the work site, often mixed with cement dust. After over six months of inhuman treatment in the cement factory, I returned home.

Second forced labour term of three years

On June 18, 2002, I was tailed secretly by officers from the Qingtongxia City Domestic Security Division in Ningxia Autonomous Region. The officers arrested me and took me to the Qingtongxia City Detention Centre. I was unlawfully sentenced to three years of forced labour. Chief Lei of the Qingtongxia City Police Department, officers Wang Hao and Li Zhengjiang, and officials from the Wuzhong City Forced Labour Department took me to Baitugang Forced Labour Camp again. I went on a hunger strike upon arrival. The officials deceived me and took me to the brick factory to pull carts with loaded bricks. I refused. Xie Jun, division head, handcuffed me to a cement pole with my arms stretched backward in the baking summer sun. The handcuffs were severely tightened, and after several hours of this, my entire body went numb. I was unable to walk without being someone else to support me. A week later, another practitioner and I were taken to the Qingtongxia City Cement Factory for slave labour. When we arrived, we found a fellow practitioner had been severely abused for three full months. His legs were buried in cement dust, he was hung up, and he had been inhaling cement dust all these days. He could not walk as usual. When his term ended, he was not allowed to return home on the grounds that he refused to be "transformed." To protest the persecution, the practitioner who arrived with me smashed his head onto a cement pole at the work site. Blood gushed down his head. Still, the authorities handcuffed him onto pole for two weeks. I refused to engage in slave labour and was handcuffed to a pole. On one occasion, after many days on a hunger strike, I was quite weak and lost consciousness from the extensive sun exposure while handcuffed to the pole. When I came to, I found they were force-feeding cold water into my stomach.

In order to "transform" me, they took me back to Baitugang Forced Labour Camp. A brainwashing session was created with over a dozen practitioners in it. The guards tried everything, including reducing forced labour terms, to induce practitioners to give up their belief. I refused to comply. Inmates were assigned to keep an eye on me around the clock to restrict my movement. After three years, I was released. Yet, on the day of release, officers from the Wenhua Street Police Station followed me and my family. In the police station, they told me to sign a statement, but I refused. While I was in the labour camp, my wife suffered hardship raising our child on her own. She thought about committing suicide several times as a result. In the end she chose divorce. I agreed reluctantly in the hope it might reduce her misery. When I returned home, she found out that I had dropped to below 80 pounds from over 130 pounds. Seeing this, she decided to restore our marriage.

Torture in Yinchuan Detention Centre

In November 2005, I was framed by a security guard in the Old Merchandise Building in Yinchuan City. The security guards and officers from the Qinjin Street Police Station took me to the Yinchuan Detention Centre. Upon arrival, the guards ordered inmates to search me and took possession of 140 yuan in cash. I was then held in solitary confinement, where I was placed on a bench with my legs stretched for 72 hours. The solitary confinement cell was cold and damp. Four inmates assigned to torture me roped my body and handcuffed me to an iron plank. My legs were shackled under the bench. After a while, they worried that I could die and started force-feeding me. Then they dragged me to a cell, where I was forced to assemble lighters. The authorities planned to sentence me to 18 months of forced labour without any reason. After being held at the labour camp for over 20 days, I was taken to the No. 1 Forced Labour Institute. I was not able to walk by then and my hands were still blistered. Because I was not able to take care of myself, they called my family to take me home. Over the three weeks I was in the detention centre and labour camp, Li Xi, director of the Qianjin Street Police Station and Officer Xu Jianshe went to search my home. In doing so, they caused quite a disturbance around the neighbourhood.

Forced to leave town to avoid further persecution

In the summer of 2007, Chen Wanli, director of the Wenhua Street Police Station, and two other people suddenly broke into my home. They asked for my cell phone and telephone number. Early in 2008, Wang Man, Wang Shiyuan, and another officer with the last name Chen from the Domestic Security Branch of the Yinchuan City Police Department showed up at my wife's workplace. They lied to her, telling her that I had been arrested and that she should follow the officers o the police department. My wife asked them where I was. They said I had been arrested while distributing leaflets in the street. My wife immediately dialled my mobile phone and found out I was safe. The officers grabbed her mobile phone, searched her bag, confiscated an ebook, and took the keys to our home. They forcibly took her back home and conducted a search. The police took away a computer, two printers, Falun Gong books, and many brochures. They took my wife to the police department and held her there till the next day. They staked out near my home and even followed my young son. I had to leave town to avoid being framed and persecuted yet again.

Above is just some of the abuse that I have been subjected to, all simply because of my belief in Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. My family has suffered as well. I am exposing these crimes to help put an end to this 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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/7/1/226270.html