Disabled As a Result of Repeated Beatings and Torture: Personal Account of the Horrific Persecution Endured by Ms. Chen Zhenbo

Name: Chen Zhenbo
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Address: Fuan Garden, Pingdu City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Accountant of Jinhua Seed Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 25th, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shandong Province No.2 Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Pingdu
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, solitary confinement, torture, physical restraint,denial of toilet use

I was arrested on December 25th, 2008, after being reported to the authorities while handing out fliers about Falun Gong. I was held at the Shandong Province No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp for one and a half years. In attempts to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me, the officers at the labour camp used inhuman physical and mental tortures. I was carried home disabled on July 2nd, 2010.

The following is my experience in the labour camp.

Phase 1: Beatings and Verbal Abuse

I was sent to the Shandong Province No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp on January 8th, 2009. I was put in Class No. 1, Group No. 2, which is primarily for drug addicts. First I was confined in a warehouse and a bathroom for half an month. Zhou Guimei and Cai Yune tried to get me renounce my faith in Falun Gong but failed. They started to confine me in a tiny washroom (about four square meters) on February 10th. I stayed there for more than eight months.

During the first month of this, a monitor called Liu Wenrong supervised and with the assistance of another inmate each day. The monitors are other inmates in the forced labour camp. The methods they used were starvation, denial of toilet use, no face washing, no teeth brushing, and no showering. They also insulted me, beat me, and tried to "transform" me. They had me sit on a small stool facing the wall and beside the toilet. I was not allowed to sleep. When I began to doze off, they would wake me by striking me with a wash basin. I fainted on the third night. They brought in a small wooden board for me to lie on. It measured about 1 square metre in size, and then accompanied me for one and a half years. I was allowed to sleep for four hours a day thereafter.

Liu Wenrong once told me, "The director of the Group No. 2, Zhao Wenhui and the deputy director, Zhao Lili, haven't given me too much pressure. I won't be so easy on you if the pressure increases." Once, she hit my legs with books, and I heard policewoman Zhou Hongmei outside, so I called her in and told her that Liu Wenrong hit me. She asked me, "Were you actually hit? Are you injured? Who is your witness?" One day, Liu Wenrong pulled me and slammed my head against the wall. I fell to the ground, she then held me down and punched my head. This happened several times. The authorities, including Zhao Wenhui, the director of the group, simply ignored my cries. Not only that, they even closed the window and the double doors so they could not hear me. Such behaviour indulged Liu Wenrong and the other monitoring personnel, and they stepped up their cruel treatment.

One Falun Gong practitioner was beaten to the verge of death in the same washroom before I was there. She had to be carried out. Her blood remained on the wall and the ground even when I was there. I wrote a letter to the political commissar Wang Jun describing the things that happened to that practitioner and me. Zhao Wenhui and Liu Wenrong took revenge on me. Zhao Wenhui extended Liu Wenrong and Hou Baoqin's term by three days because it was their lack in supervision that I was able to write a letter secretly. One day, I was lying on the ground when Liu Wenrong viciously stepped on me for a long time. She told another monitor: "Learn from me well. You're here to learn. If you are not ruthless, you won't last."

Handcuffed to a Window for Seven Days and Seven Nights

Four camp guards, including Xia Li, Song Ming, and Liu Guizhen, stormed into the washroom on the afternoon of February 26th, 2010. They pulled me to the window and cuffed each of my hands to the metal bars to the side of the window. My feet were on the ground and I was cuffed to the window in the shape of a cross. I tried to resist by knocking my head on the metal bars. Xia Li sealed my mouth with thick tape and wrapped it around my head several times. Zhao Yan and Liu Wenrong covered my head with a pillowcase and roughly pulled me forward. About five minutes later, I had acute pain in my neck, which was hard to endure. During the whole time, if I ever became drowsy, my body would sag. Since my wrists were handcuffed to the metal bar tightly, the handcuffs would cut into my skin and made them turn green and bleed. There were about eight people who took turns watching me. They never gave me any water to drink and only fed me some vegetables occasionally. I was let down after seven days and my hands had lost sensation. There were blood blisters around the wrists. They diminished after three months but left scars.

I was dirty and unkempt like a beggar all those days in the labour camp. My face and neck turned black and my eyes became jaundiced. Even the personnel in the labour camp didn't dare to take pictures of me.

Phase 2 - 15 Days of Beatings

The camp guards started their even more cruel torture the day after I was taken out of the handcuffs, which was March 6th, 2009. Zhao Lili ordered Jiang Lixia and Sun Dandan to "monitor" me. They have a reputation of being the most cruel in their punishment of Falun Gong practitioners.

They came to the washroom in the evening. First, they took off my jacket and sweaters, so I was left with only a shirt and the prison uniform. Then they open the window and door. They claimed that it was the guards' idea to take off my clothes, and their terms would be extended if they didn't do it. It was snowing hard outside. Sun Dandan said: "Why don't you give up Falun Gong? We've already changed our shoes to work on you." They ordered me to stand without leaning on the wall. They started to hit me with their feet, fists, shoes, and a broom. They hit my head, back and front, and they pulled my hair and spit on me. My ribs felt like they were broken.

For 15 days, they beat me like this. They didn't let me eat and gave me only some bread after several days. They even wiped the bread on the floor around the base of the toilet before they gave it to me. They didn't let me sleep. Sometimes I fainted, and my head hit the wall or the ground. I don't know how long they beat me. I only know that I ached all over when I woke up. They didn't let me drink water. When I passed out during the beatings, they splashed water on me to wake me up. I said, "Don't splash. Let me drink." She let me take a sip. They didn't let me drink any more even though I asked. They didn't let me wash, and I hadn't washed in three months. They didn't let me use the toilet when I needed it. Once, I couldn't hold it any more and I urinated on the ground. They wiped the ground with my jacket and my down coat. I wanted to have a bowel movement when the 15 days was up. I couldn't hold it and requested to go to the toilet. Jiang Lixia and Sun Dandan denied my request. Guard Song Lijuan said, "Wait until tomorrow." I wanted to do it on the ground, and they roughly beat me. Six hours later, Sun Zhenhong took me to the toilet. I had developed severe constipation and had to dig my bloody stool out with my hand. They didn't let me wash my hands for several days, and I didn't have another bowel movement for weeks.

I was told that Sun Dandan kicked me more than 40 times while I was unconscious. I was in a state of unconsciousness almost the whole time. I was wet all over, for they splashed water on my head and upper body and there was urine on my lower body. I was told that ice formed on my body. Sometimes I couldn't be awakened with splashing water, so Sun Dandan would push my head to my feet and step on my back and my head. She would stab my head and feet with a crochet hook. She stabbed all along my hairline. My swollen feet started exuding liquids after being stabbed. The bone in front of my right ear had broken through. She cut two deep wounds on my back with the crochet hook. I was bruised from head to foot. I was bleeding on my face, and my clothes were stained with blood.

Jiang Lixia and Sun Dandan were rewarded by Zhao Lili or Zhao Wenhui every time they beat me to unconsciousness.

Other Torture Methods

In the coldest days of spring 2009, the windows and doors were open, and the wind and snow blew in the washroom. I was only allowed to wear a shirt and a single layer prison uniform. My head and clothes were wet all day from the splashing water and urine. I sometimes slept on the ground without any covering or bed sheets. For one and a half years, I wore the same clothes day and night, and slept on a bed for no more than three months. My down coat was taken away, as were my other clothes.

Beating and insults became part of my daily life. They insulted me and impugned my dignity. They isolated me by punishing those who helped me and rewarding those who beat me. Liu Wenrong, Sun Dandan, and Jiang Lixia were released before the end of their terms because they beat me hard. Liu Wenrong cried before leaving, saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to beat you. They (guards) ordered me to beat you. I had no choice. You look 20 years older than when you first came."

Phase Three: Thirty Days of Beatings

My husband cared about me, but he trusted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would be nice to me. He called Zhao Lili at least once every month without knowing my situation. In July 2009, Zhao Lili told him, "The third phase is about to start. We don't have any other choice if she doesn't "transform" this time."

The prison guards moved me from the washroom to a police office. They let me have enough to eat, and let me order some fruit, dessert, and milk for several days. I realise now that they wanted me to get well to prepare for the next round of beatings.

I experienced a month of horrors from mid-July to mid-August. Wang Wei and Xu Jin were the ones who beat me the most. They didn't let me eat or drink for the first three days then gave me a little bit of bread or rice soup each day. They only offered me water twice in 30 days and less than one mouth-full at a time. They didn't let me sleep at all for the first four days, then they let me sleep for one and a half hours, then two hours during the last ten days. They would beat me if I became drowsy during the time when I wasn't allowed to sleep. I tried hard to keep my eyes wide open.

I was only allowed to use the toilet once every day and not allowed to wash the whole month. It was summer, and my face never touched water. My hands turned black and my eyebrows turned white from the dry skin. They had me standing or walking all the time. They hit my head, face, nose, eyes and mouth. My face was bruised, swollen, and bleeding all the time. They kicked me or hit me all over my body, leaving my back alone because it was severely injured already. They cursed me, my mother and my daughter all day long. Wang Wei once hit my head four times with a wooden board, and I fainted instantly. She said, "The doctors won't be able to tell that you are injured if we kick your stomach. But it will make you suffer still." After she said that, she grabbed my hair, pulled me to the ground and kicked my stomach repeatedly.

I cried for help once while I was being beaten hard. One guard said, "Wait and see who can help you." Wang Wei said, "I beat you and you cry, so the director is happy to see me. If I don't beat you, she will put on a long face." Another guard said, "Jam some dirty underwear and socks into her mouth next time she cries." Wang Wei and Xu Jin once wiped urine on my mouth with a mop. The door and windows were closed during those hot summer days. They dumped a chamber pot full of three day-old urine on me. Zhao Lili told me, "No problem if you die on us. It will be considered a natural death." Wang Wei grabbed my wallet and took 270 yuan. I wrote a letter to appeal, but nobody would accept it.

Forced Labour

After 30 days of beating, they locked me in another office. Zhao Lili said,"I won't have them hitting you from now on." Sun Dandan, Jiang Mingxia, and Xu Jin were monitoring me, and they didn't hit me this time. I heard that my case was getting lots of public attention on the Internet. They forced me to work all day even though I was weak and injured. One day in October, I fainted during work after two months of hard labour, so they locked me up in another room. One afternoon, I fainted again, and Zhao Wenhui commanded me to get up. I couldn't get up due to dizziness and nausea. She ordered Wang Zhi to take away my blanket. That was in November, and it was snowing outside. She ordered others to open the windows and doors. I was trembling in the cold, and I couldn't stretch my fingers. They put me back into the washroom several days later. Zhao Wenhui and Xia Li made a rule: My breakfast was to be a small bun, lunch a small bun and a little vegetable soup, and dinner was to be another small bun. I was not allowed to order additional food or wash. I didn't get enough to eat for about six months. During those days, I couldn't stand up or walk. Several monitors beat me during that time.

Trying to Cover Their Sins

My cervical vertebra, spine, chest vertebra, and lumbar vertebra were injured and distorted from the long term beating. The bones were so out of alignment that my head is out of place, always turned to the left. I couldn't walk. My teeth didn't line up for a while, and it was hard to chew and swallow things. My eyes were almost blind. The left side of my body felt numb. My feet were swollen and painful. I lost control of my urination.

After the beatings in the spring of 2009, I couldn't lift my head up, my back was bent, I lost control of my legs and I couldn't walk straight. Zhao Lili took me to the hospital to get an exam. I got to see the examination results secretly while they were talking. It stated that my cervical vertebra was S-shaped, and that it had been forcibly dislocated." The doctor suggested traction therapy. I agreed but Zhao Lili refused. She asked my family to pay all the medical expenses (about 2,500 yuan¹).

Deceiving My Family

Camp authorities denied family visitation for the entire one and a half years. My daughter and her two friends came to visit me in January 2009. Zhao Lili said,"No visitation without a letter from the local 610 office." She also threatened her. My husband came to visit me in September 2009. Zhao Lili said: "The H1N1 virus is going on now. Nobody can come in. It's a regulation made by the province. You must have the approval from the province if you want to see her." My brother didn't get to see me either. Even my husband's request to have a phone conversation was refused. My parents' request was refused several times. Zhao Lili's explanation was that there was no visitation if I not "transformed." The truth is that they were afraid of letting my family become aware of my true situation. They would know that I was disabled as a result of the persecution.

I wrote letters to my parents, husband and my daughter. But, the authorities wouldn't let me mail them. The only letter they let me send was to ask for money for medical expenses. My husband made many phone calls to Zhao Lili, and she told him that I was doing well. Later, she told him that I didn't give up the practice and was mentally ill.

Sent to a Brainwashing Facility Upon Release

I had been disabled for five months before being released. They washed my hair on the last day. I asked for my husband to come to get me originally. Instead, four persons from the Pingdu City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and neighbourhood committee came and left only one car seat for me. I couldn't sit straight, but they pulled me up forcibly, and I cried in pain. They drove me to a brainwashing facility located at 67 Shaoxing Road, Qingdao City. They pulled me upstairs without mercy. I asked for their names, and nobody dared to tell me. In the end, they let me go home on July 2nd. Both my legs were disabled and I was swollen all over by the time I got home. The local government was afraid of my case being exposed, so they kept monitoring my landline and my home.

Earlier report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/10/13/111506.html

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/2010/8/11/228201.html