Female Falun Gong Practitioner Persecuted by Communist Officials in Zhucheng City, Shandong Province

I am a practitioner from Xuejiaguanzhuang Village, Zhigou Town, Zhucheng City, Shandong Province. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, three local regime officials went all out in their attempts to make me give up my belief. Below I recount the persecution they subjected me to.

1. Wu Haoji kept my 2-year-old son and me captive for more than five months

Wu Haoji was the Xuejiaguanzhuang Village Party head. He once detained my then two-year-old son and me in the village office for more than five months. To make us suffer, he sometimes wouldn't let us use the toilet or deprived us of food. I had to rely on my sister-in-law to bring us food. Moreover, many people including policemen intimidated us. My son was so traumatised he developed a phobia.

Wu Haoji had a single man monitoring us during the last few months. One night around 8 p.m., this man suddenly began to pull at my sleeves, with ill intentions. I was so frightened that I barricaded the door with a long bench and kept my eyes open the whole night. After these five months of detention, my son and I were reduced to skin and bones. My once chubby boy couldn't even walk steadily.

Even after my release, Wu Haoji still dispatched people to monitor me. They followed me everywhere, be it a visit to my parents' house or a trip to a street fair. When I pointed out that he was violating the law by curtailing my freedom, he changed his tactic. Everywhere I went, he called the local government to spread falsehoods about me. As a result I was arrested and beaten numerous times. Participating in these instances were agents from Xumeng Police Station, from the Yuanxi 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), the Wulian 610 Office, the Zhigou Police Station, Zhucheng Police Department, the Zhucheng Detention Centre, and the Zhucheng Brainwashing Centre.

2. Cao Jinhui tortured me in his private jail and later transferred me to a detention centre where I was severely injured after jumping out of a third-floor window in an attempt to escape

Cao Jinhui was a Zhucheng Domestic Security Division section chief. After the persecution began, he beat numerous practitioners, causing injuries to countless people and resulting in four deaths.

Cao Jinhui had a private jail set up on the third floor of the Domestic Security Division Hotel. With all the windows tightly covered with curtains, the room was equipped with a metal chair, electric batons, and a rubber club. While drunk, Cao hit my thighs and kept asking if I'd still practise Falun Gong. He didn't stop until he was exhausted. I ended up with bruises.

Cao Jinhui next cuffed my arms and legs to a metal chair and got people to watch over me. When they later allowed me to use the toilet I bumped into a wall and lost consciousness. In order to shirk responsibility, he transferred me to Zhucheng Brainwashing Centre, where more people were assigned to keep an eye on me round the clock. I intended to slide down a chute to escape, but even before I could grab the chute, they were shouting my name and looking for me. Without thinking, I jumped out of the third-floor window. I sustained numerous fractures to my spine, pelvis, ribs, and heels. They didn't take me to hospital until a few hours later. As soon as they got me there, they left me alone after making a phone call to inform my husband.

I remained bedridden for four months. The pain was so intense that I couldn't even crawl. I didn't have any bowel movements for an entire month. Moreover, I was incontinent and needed a catheter. My husband had to take care of me as well as our then four-year-old son.

3. Zhu Pengde sent me to a labour camp where I collapsed physically and mentally under pressure and torture

The village Party head, Wu Haoji, and Zhu Pengde plotted to send me to the Wangcun Labour Camp in Zibo City while I was still recovering and still incontinent. Zhu Pengde, a captain in Zhucheng Police Department, had sent numerous practitioners to prisons or labour camps. One winter afternoon in 2001, he and a group of policemen arrested me without showing an arrest warrant. After keeping me at Zhucheng Detention Centre for one night, he transferred two other practitioners and me to Wangcun Forced Labour Camp the next morning. The labour camp officials initially refused to accept us, but somehow he managed to persuade them to keep me there, in Team Five.

Team Five lead Qu Xiuying faked kindness at first, but when I refused to drink the milk she offered she became angry and threatened to inject me with unknown substances. She called around six people to verbally bombard me. They made me sit on a three-legged stool without any sleep for several days straight. They beat me as soon as I closed my eyes. They ordered me not to talk but then ordered me to answer their questions and curse Falun Gong. When I refused to answer, they beat me badly. Not long after, I became muddleheaded. The whole place also felt spooky. I heard screams and cries all the time. One practitioner was driven to mental disorder. She cried and talked nonsense all the time, especially in the middle of the night. When I asked them what happened to her they responded, "Don't ask. Just co-operate with us to curse Falun Gong or else you could be next. If you don't 'reform' [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] we won't get a bonus. If we beat you to death, nothing will happen to us. If you don't listen to us, we'll keep you in solitary confinement."

I was forced to sit for so long that my bottom festered and developed a gaping wound that oozed. They then made me stand without any sleep while they took turns watching over me. My legs were extremely swollen, and my mind went blank.

Every time I could no longer bear the pressure, I said bad things against my will. When I became clearheaded again, I corrected my mistake in front of them. Qu Xiuying said to other detainees, "No one can go home if you can't 'reform' her." She ordered practitioners who gave up their cultivation to write many articles daily, slandering Falun Gong. I felt like I was on the verge of physical and mental collapse. Plus, I had cursed Falun Gong and really wished I could die. But Qu Xiuying said, "I'll make you miserable either way, whether you are alive or die." In just one month, the 30-year-old me looked like a 60-year-old.

While I was in detention, my husband tried everything to find my whereabouts. When he checked with the police department, police stations, the village government, and the city government, all of them refused to tell him where I was. When he got a lead one month later, police department officials still said they had no idea of my whereabouts. My husband didn't give up and eventually learned that I was held at the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp.

When he showed up at the labour camp, they finally agreed to set me free. Before my release, however, Qu Xiuying took me to a room where she tried to get me sign a prepared statement, cursing Falun Gong and giving up my cultivation. When I refused, she kept trying to intimidate me. By the end of that morning, she pressed my fingerprints on the document against my will.

I hereby declare that statement with my fingerprints nullified.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/8/26/228826.html