Farmer from Fushun City, Liaoning Province, Brutalised by Police and Labour Camp Guards

Ms. Liu Yanqin is a farmer in her 50s from Fushun City, Liaoning Province. Because she has remained steadfast in practising Falun Gong, the police have arrested and sentenced her to forced labour education several times during the past ten plus years. By the time she finished her two-year-term in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on July 13th, 2010, she was beyond recognition. Her once lustrous black hair had turned grey and her weight had dropped to less than 90 pounds. Her son came to pick her up from the forced labour camp, and, as soon as he saw her, he began sobbing. Due to the torture, she still cannot bend her fingers or do strenuous labour. Her limbs remain numb.

Mistreatment suffered between 1999 and 2005

Ms. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in October 1999, but she was picked up by the authorities before she reached her destination. The police held her in the local detention centre for 15 days before transferring her to Tukouzi Township Government compound, where she was detained for more than three weeks. The local officials didn’t release her until her family paid 4,000 yuan¹ and handed in the deed to their house.

Ms. Liu went to Beijing again in December 2000. This time the police took her straight to Wujiabao Forced Labour Camp in Fushun City. The camp guards beat her and shocked her with electric batons. When she went on a hunger strike, they force-fed her. In no time she was near death. Afraid of being held responsible for her death, camp officials released her.

In order to make a living, Ms. Liu went to Tianjin to do odd jobs after she recovered at home. While she was away, Wu Zhiping from Tukouzi Township Police Station went to her home numerous times to extort money from her family. Not long after, Wu Guohe from Tukouzi Township Government and Fan Wenliang from Tukouzi Township Police Station went to Tianjin and seized her there. Without going through any legal procedures, the two took her to Wujiabao Forced Labour Camp to serve a three-year term. She went on a hunger strike for 40 days. Fearing that she might die in the camp, the guards set her free.

When the local police attempted to arrest her again in 2005, Ms. Liu managed to escape but had to leave home to avoid further persecution. Nevertheless, the police went to ransack her home several times, breaking in by smashing the window and an aluminium divider.

Tortured in 2008

Using “security for the Olympics” as their excuse, several agents from Qingquan Town Police Station seized Ms. Liu and took her to Fushun Second Detention Centre on June 28th, 2008. With her head completely covered and in handcuffs, she was taken back to the Qingyuan County Police Department later that day. The police interrogated and tortured her there for an entire night, not allowing her to sleep. Li Tao and Wang Dong from Qingyuan Town Police Station fabricated evidence against her when she refused to answer any of their questions. Police officer Xu Jinrong brutally beat her. She was also forced to sit on a Tiger Bench² for long periods of time with her hands cuffed and feet shackled. To make her suffer even more, the police poured liquor down her throat and inserted two burning cigarettes into her nostrils. They sealed her mouth, so that she could not spit it out. The smoke she had to inhale almost suffocated her.

When Ms. Liu was finally sent back to the detention centre, her limbs were very numb and she couldn’t bend her fingers or hold anything. She wasn’t able to eat or drink. There were bruises everywhere on her face and body. Her legs were swollen and she couldn’t take care of herself. The detainees in the same cell all witnessed her horrible physical condition and some even shed tears. They said that they couldn't believe one human could be so cruel to another, had they not seen the brutality with their own eyes.

Li Tao and Wang Dong transferred Ms. Liu to Team Two in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on July 26th, 2008.

Unimaginably Brutalised in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Masanjia Forced Labour Camp has been called a “hell in the human world,” and the guards there have invented numerous, unimaginable means torture. Since Ms. Liu refused to sing songs praising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), she was forced to stand for extended periods of time. As a result, both of her legs became swollen.

One time the guards beat practitioner Ms. Du Qingxiu for refusing to sing their songs, and Ms. Liu tried to stop them. She said, “She has done nothing wrong. Stop torturing her!” The guards then attacked her, punching her and kicking her. They next subjected both women to a torture called the “Big Hang-up” in which they hung the practitioners up by their arms and tied up their legs. They then made it even worse by letting the practitioners down part-way, leaving them in an extremely painful posture where they could neither stand up nor squat down. The guards tortured them this way for eight hours.

In early September 2008, Ms. Liu was transferred to Team One. Every day she was forced to sit on a small bench, motionless. Because she refused to recite the prison rules, guard Liu Yong shocked her with an electric baton. Her hands were so swollen that they became deformed. Liu Yong also extended her term by 15 days.

The guards transferred Ms. Liu again in late September, this time to a “Strictly Controlled Team.” Several people beat her at the same time. They also sealed her mouth with tape so that she could not cry out. Team head Wang Yanping and guard Peng Tao then did the “Big Hang-up” and shocked her with electric batons. Peng Tao also put hot mustard into her nostrils. They tortured her this way from noon till dinnertime. Afterwards, her whole body, including her buttocks, were covered with scabies. She couldn’t even sit down. She also had to endure the extremely itchy blisters on her palms. Despite her fragile physical condition, the guards still forced her to sit on a small bench the next day. Guard Dong Bin beat her and subjected her to the “Big Hang-up” again.

On July 7th, 2009, the labour camp launched a new round of intensified persecution of practitioners held in the “Strictly Managed Team.” The following practitioners were considered primary targets: Ms. Xia Ning (in her 50s, from Xingcheng), Ms. Xu Hui (59, from Jinzhou), Ms. Zhang Lianying (from Beijing), Ms. Sheng Lianying (in her 50s, from Dalian), Ms. Liu Shiqin (65, from Benxi), and Ms. Sun Shujie (in her 50s, from Heilongjiang Province).

Behind the Women’s Division in the labour camp is a new, two-story building specifically used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Inside the building is a torture chamber with no window screen. When the windows are opened in the summer time, swarms of bugs fly in. Practitioners detained in the chamber are only given cornstarch porridge and a hard piece of cornbread to eat. No hot water was provided and no family visits were allowed. Even though the guards only provided very meagre portions for every meal, they did not allow practitioners to purchase additional food items from the camp store.

One day between September and October in 2009, a female guard surnamed Pan stripped Ms. Liu down to her underwear and slapped her face and head with Ms. Liu’s plastic sandals for a long time. Male guard Zhang Liang next picked Ms. Liu up and slammed her into the wall. Then he poured cold water on her. The next day, guard Peng Tao, a 6-foot-tall man, stomped on her chest. He next kicked her up high in the air, hitting her head against the wall.

Once Ms. Liu went on a hunger strike and the guards pried her mouth open with a mouth-opener. They poured food in through the opener and covered her mouth and nose with a dirty cloth. She choked right away and lost consciousness. The guards had to send her to a hospital for resuscitation.

Around 5 p.m. on February 13th, 2010 (Chinese New Year’s Eve), a female guard kicked Ms. Liu up high to the air because she refused to put on a prison uniform. She fell hard on the ground and immediately passed out. Even so, the guard cursed her and yelled, “I’ll be happy if you have a stroke!” Ms. Liu didn’t regain consciousness until the next day. Despite the cold winter weather, the guards stripped her and Ms. Zhang Min from Dalian and subjected them to the “Big Hang-up” for half a day.

One day in late May 2010, Yuan Shuzhen, a former practitioner who had enlightened along an evil path, heeded the guards’ directive and stripped Ms. Liu before subjecting her to the “Big Hang-up.” She was hung up for five days and four nights without any sleep. Her arms had lost feeling when she was finally let down. She couldn’t bend her fingers or turn over by herself. She had to rely on others to help her up from the bed. Even today she still can’t take care of herself.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/4/12/238873.html