Personal Account of the Persecution Suffered by Ms. Song Huilan from Heilongjiang Province

Name: Song Huilan
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Xinhua Farm, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer

Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 1st, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tangyuan County Detention Centre
City: Tangyuan County
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, solitary confinement, forced labour, interrogation, sleep deprivation, denial of toilet use, food deprivation, beatings, extortion, home ransacked

Ms. Song Huilan from Xinhua Farm, Heilongjiang Province, has suffered repeated persecution by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents for practising Falun Gong. Below is Ms. Song's personal account of the persecution that she has suffered over the past 10 years, transcribed by a fellow Falun Gong practitioner:

I Benefited Physically and Mentally from Practising Falun Gong

Before I started practising Falun Gong, I had many illnesses, including kidney infections, uterine tumours that often bled, kidney stones, arthritis, hepatitis, and others. I also had difficulty walking and had a bad temper. I was lucky to come across Falun Gong in 1997. After several months of practising, all of my illnesses disappeared and my relationships with my family members also harmonized. However, the CCP began to persecute such a good practice in 1999.

Sent to a Forced Labour Camp

I went to my elder sister's home on March 2nd, 2002. On the evening of March 4th, Li Yong and other officers from the Xinhua Police Station came to my home and forced my husband to take them to my sister's home to arrest me. When they started to arrest me, my sister asked, “Why are you arresting her? Do you have an arrest warrant?” They had to way to reply, but after colluding with the local police station, they proceeded to arrest me. They detained me in an isolated room and released me 16 days later.

On April 19th, 2002, Li Yong and other agents came to our home to harass me and my family again. They dragged me into a police car in front of my family and took me to Hegang Hospital for a physical. Hegang Hospital refused to accept me when they heard that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, so the agents then drove me to Baoquanling Hospital. There, they told the hospital staff to give them falsified paperwork without examining me. They then took me to Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp without following any legal procedures. I was persecuted there for three years.

Arrested, Tortured, and Beaten

In April 2008, 4 to 5 officers, including Li Yong and Lu Changjiang from the Xinhua Police Station and our local security person Wei Rongchun, suddenly approached me while I was working in the fields. They asked me whether I was still practising Falun Gong, to which I replied that I did. They then attempted to arrest me, but I refused to cooperate. They paused to call someone on their mobile phone and told that person that I refused to be arrested. The person on the phone instructed them to arrest me by force, so they dragged me into a police car and took me to the Baoquanling Detention Centre. Later I learned that they had ransacked my home and taken away Falun Gong books and materials prior to the arrest; they had not followed any legal procedures to do what they did.

Because I was arrested while working in the fields, I was wearing only very thin clothes. Officers at the detention centre forced me to sit on the icy-cold cement floor for two days and nights while they interrogated me. They handcuffed me to an iron fence and didn't allow me to close my eyes. They also didn't allow me to use the restroom and didn't give me anything to eat. During the interrogation, they banged my head against the wall. My head was heavily bruised, and my vision blurred. I felt dizzy and then fainted onto the cold cement floor.

I was not given any meals for over three weeks and then officials brought in a female doctor to examine me. When the doctor inquired about the bruises on my head, I told her that police officers had hit my head against the wall. They then notified my family to take me to the hospital for a checkup, as I appeared on the verge of dying. The 610 Office agents (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) who accompanied me to the hospital were afraid of taking any responsibility for my poor condition and fled. The doctors immediately gave me some injections. Afterward, the police forced my younger brother to sign the medical document, and then they let me go home. At that time I could not feel anything in my legs, so I could not walk and could not take care of myself. However, Li Yong and other police officers continued to come to my home to harass me again and again. One day, Li Young brought police officers from Baoling to my home. They used a key to scratch the bottom of my foot to verify that I did not have any feeling in my legs, and then they left. I cannot walk normally even now.

My relatives took me to their home to take care of me. However, Li Young and other police officers came to my home and forced my husband to disclose my whereabouts. The police extorted 1,000 yuan¹ from my family. My younger brother, his wife, my husband, and my daughter do not practise Falun Gong, but they were also harassed and persecuted by the police. Twice police officers detained my daughter at Xinhua Farm to get to me. They also pressured my younger brother and his wife to turn me in. After being frightened by the police, my sister-in-law had to be sent to the hospital, where she spent over 4,000 yuan on treatment. My younger brother, his wife, and their family lived in extreme fear, and my daughter was on the verge of a mental collapse and wanted to commit suicide. My husband was also placed under a huge amount of pressure and was often seen staring blankly into space.

Arrested Again

On July 1st, 2010, two fellow practitioners from Tangyuan County and I went to Jixiang Town to distribute Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Someone reported us to the police, and we were arrested and taken to the Jixiang Police Station. Officers took away our handbags and mobile phones and threw the leaflets onto the floor. Two practitioners tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to them, but the officers slapped them in the face. Then they dragged us into a police car and took us to Tangyuan Police Station. Officer Song ordered us to disclose our names and home addresses and then drew blood and took our fingerprints. If we did not cooperate, they beat us. Officer Song told us that they would detain us with other arrested practitioners for one week. At 8 p.m., they took me and nine other Falun Gong practitioners to the Tangyuan County Detention Centre.

At the detention centre, officers ordered us to wear jail uniforms but we did not cooperate. They beat us and verbally abused us. On the fourth day, officer Song came in with a pile of documents and ordered us to sign them. None of us cooperated. He threatened us and said that we would be detained for a month whether we signed the documents or not. In order to protest the persecution, I went on a hunger strike for 18 days. When I was on the verge of death, they notified my family to pick me up. My family had to carry me out, as I was dying. Before they let me go, they forced my daughter to sign the release form. In order to get her to sign the form, Zhou Jinzhe, a member of the Tangyuan County National Security Team, lied to her, saying that they would no longer cause any trouble for me. The next day, my daughter went to the Tangyuan County Police Station to see Zhou Jinzhe, because my handbag had not been returned by the police. Zhou asked officer Song about the handbag, telling him that my daughter had said that there was 1,300 yuan and other items in the bag. After pretending to do some investigation, Zhou informed my daughter that he didn't have the money, because it was being kept at the Jixiang Police Station. He said they would get the money in the afternoon. In the afternoon, however, Zhou informed her that he had received an order from above to return only 300 yuan, that the rest of the money could not be returned until the case was closed. My daughter asked him to sign for the list of items they had taken from me, but he refused. Except for 300 yuan, none of my other personal items were returned.

Of the nine practitioners who were detained with me, eight are still being held in the Tangyuan Detention Centre. On November 2nd, 2010, the court held a public hearing for them. Before the hearing, the Tangyuan County Court called my daughter and told her to bring me to court and turn me in. My daughter told them, “My mother was carried out of the detention centre and she still cannot walk,” and said that she would go to the hearing on my behalf. However, officials told her that she could not do that and that she must turn me in because she had signed the release document.

Authorities have continued to constantly harass me and my family. I have had to leave home and become homeless in an effort to avoid further persecution.

Tangyang County Court sentenced three practitioners to eight years in prison, three others to seven years, and two more to seven and a half years in prison. Another practitioner had money extorted from him/her and was then sentenced to three years, with four years of probation.

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/2011/1/25/235278.html