After Nine Years of Torture in Prison, Father and Son Did Not Recognise Each Other

Name: Zou Guoyan
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Address: Chunguang Village, Tuanjie Township, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer

Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 15th, 2001
Most recent place of detention: Daqing Prison
City: Daqing
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, torture, sexual assault, hanging up, brainwashing, physical constraint, interrogation, force-feedings

Zou Guoyan benefited tremendously after he began the practising Falun Gong at the end of 1995. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, he went to Beijing three times to appeal on behalf of the practice. He demonstrated on Tiananmen Square four times and was arrested and detained six times.

After he was arrested on June 15th, 2001, he was secretly sentenced to a nine-year prison term.

Tortured after Going to Beijing to Appeal for Falun Gong

In February 2000, after Mr. Zou visited Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, he was arrested and taken back to his hometown and detained in Shuangcheng Detention Centre. He was severely abused mentally and physically and was constantly beaten. The inmates used the bottoms of their shoes to beat the bottom of his feet and used needles to stab the tops of his feet. They turned the handles of toothbrushes back and forth between his tightly clamped fingers, leaving scars between his fingers.

They also sexually abused him, tying a rope to his testicles and yanking it back and forth. The skin came off and it was very swollen. He still has big scars. In the detention centre he was also tortured by being made to "fly an airplane." He had to stand with his back against the wall, his head forward, and both hands pulled up from behind. This form of torture is extremely painful, and it feels as if both arms are going to break. Mr. Zou was tortured like this for more than 40 days in Shuangcheng Detention Centre. He was then detained at the Yuejin Township Brainwashing Centre for over 10 days.

In June 2000, he and another practitioner went to an art exhibition in Haerbin that slandered Falun Gong. They signed the guest book by writing "Falun Gong is good!" As the result, they were detained in Shuangcheng Detention Centre for more than three weeks.

In December 2000, Mr. Zou Guoyan again went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. He was arrested and taken to Xicheng Detention Centre in Beijing. He fled and went to Tiananmen Square again to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. He was then detained in Mentougou Detention Centre in Beijing for more than 10 days. After he was released, he went to Tianmanmen Square again to appeal. He was detained for another 5 to 6 days.

Beginning in 2001, in order to avoid further persecution, Mr. Zou became homeless for about six months.

Arrested Again and Tortured

In May 2001, Zou Guoyan was arrested by officers of the Handian Township Police Station in Shuangcheng City and was detained in Shuangcheng Detention Centre. Without any evidence or a trial, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

As soon as he entered Shuangcheng Detention Centre, several inmates tore his clothes. He was pushed to the ground and restrained on an iron chair with handcuffs and sticks. During the "night interrogation," he refused to give his name and the police brutally tortured him. First, they poured alcohol in his mouth and then made him "Carry a Sword on the Back" (his hands were tied behind his back with one hand over his shoulder and the other against his lower back. His hands were pulled toward one another and handcuffed together.) He was forced to bend his body with a barrel hanging on his neck. There was alcohol in the barrel with burning cigarettes. The smell of alcohol and cigarettes was suffocating and it was very uncomfortable.

The policemen also used wooden sticks to beat his legs. They tortured him through to the next morning, but they were not able to get his name. Later, they took a photo of him and showed the photo to people to try to identify him. He was restrained in the iron chair for 14 days and nights. After he was released, his legs were severely swollen. His ankles were injured by the metal cuffs and he was unable to walk.

Beaten and Tortured in Haerbin City Prison

In mid March 2002, Zou Guoyan was transferred to Haerbin City Prison. On the second day after his arrival, while several hundred people gathered in the hall for training, he shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Several other practitioners also started to shout. Their voices stunned the whole hall. The guards present let several inmates kick Mr. Zou. He was dragged into a solitary compartment with handcuffs on his wrists and cuffs on his ankles. His limbs were fixed to the ground. The inmates took turns watching him 24 hours a day and did not allow him to fall asleep. As soon as he closed his eyes or leaned over, they kicked him. Every day he was only given two bowls of corn porridge. The porridge was so thin that one could count the number of corn kernels in it. He was not allowed to go to the toilet and had to wet his pants. His buttocks became festered from sitting in the one position for a long time. The handcuffs on his wrists hurt his bones and the scars are still visible.

In winter, he was detained in a solitary compartment that was damp and cold. He suffered from hunger, deprivation of sleep, and tremendous physical pain. After he was taken out of the solitary compartment, he was not able to walk and had to be dragged out, but the guards still ordered four inmates to closely monitor him. The mental and physical abuses were so severe that he contracted severe tuberculosis. He was taken to a hospital.

Brutally Force-fed in Daqing Prison

In July 2004, Zou Guoyan was transferred from Haerbin City Prison to Daqing Prison. There the persecution continued and was even more brutal. The "baojia" (inmates assigned to monitor and torture practitioners) took turns to monitor practitioners and they had to submit their records when they finished their duties. They periodically and randomly searched practitioners and checked their rooms. Practitioners were not allowed to speak to each other when they met. When they ate, they had to get their food and return to their own cell to eat. When they sat, they were not allowed to cross their legs. When they went to the bathroom, they could not go at the same time. Practitioners were strictly monitored and controlled. They were constantly beaten.

To resist the brutal persecution, Mr. Zou and other practitioners went on hunger strikes four times, each time for more than ten days. They also refused to wear the inmate clothing. The guards allowed inmates to force-feed Mr. Zou Guoyan. On the way to the force-feeding, they used tape to seal his mouth so that he could not shout "Falun Gong is good!" They only took off the tape to force-feed him. Several inmates held him down so that he could not struggle. The tube was inserted into his nose, and they pulled it back and forth. Sometimes they inserted the tube into his trachea, and he could not breathe and nearly suffocated. Sometimes the guards force-fed corn porridge to practitioners, and sometimes they used thick salty water.

In June 2009, the guards in Daqing Prison took practitioners outside and exposed them to the sun allowing several inmates to beat the practitioners until they passed out. They then threw water on them and continued to beat them. This inhumane treatment went on for two or three weeks.

After Nine Years, Father and Son did not Recognise Each Other

On June 15th, 2010, Mr. Zou's sentence was over and he returned home. However, his family was already broken up. His wife had passed away a long time earlier and his 19-year-old son was living with his uncle. Nine years earlier, when Mr. Zou was sentenced to prison, his son was still a child. During the nine years, they only had one brief meeting. Now his son is grown up, and father and son did not recognise each other when they met.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/7/4/226455.html