Honest Worker Zhang Yunliu Persecuted Twice in the Same Forced Labour Camp

Name: Zhang Yunliu
Gender: Male
Age: In his 30s
Address: Zhanghe Village, Caidian Township, the Huangpo District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Worker
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hewan Forced Labour Camp
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labour reform, denied visitation, sleep deprivation, long-term standing, forced labour, force-feedings, brainwashing, beatings, solitary confinement
Key Persecutors: Ming Jianhua (associate captain of the Strictly Administered Team)

Mr. Zhang Yunliu distributed leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong while he was working in Beijing in March 2010. After he was arrested, he was put in a forced labour camp for a term of one-and-a half years. He has been in Hewan Forced Labour Camp in Wuhan City for over a year. Not long ago, messages came from Hewan Labour Camp saying that he is being cruelly tortured.

This is the second time Mr. Zhang has been persecuted in Hewan Forced Labour Camp and the third time he has been detained. His mother, who is over 70, misses him day and night, hoping he will return home safely.

Persecuted in a Forced Labour Camp the First Time

Mr. Zhang Yunliu started to practise Falun Gong when he was in high school. For more than a decade, he has behaved as a good person according to the standard of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. He is honest and reliable and a good person.

In June 2000, he was arrested. Since he refused to give up his belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, he was sentenced to one year of forced labour by the Huangpi District 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in Wuhan City. He was detained in Hewan Forced Labour Camp from 2000 to 2001.

He was brutally tortured in a “Strictly Administered Team” in the camp. That year his family was not allowed to visit him or bring him anything. This meant that he didn't have any extra clothes, not even a change of underwear, or any toiletries, like toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap, toilet paper, etc. He was inhumanly tortured. He was often forbidden to sleep, forced to stand for long periods of time, or forced to do military exercises. He was made to work long hours like a slave. In extremely cold weather, he was forced to collect allium bulbs from a pool six to seven metres deep. His hands and feet were frozen, and he was wet all over, but he had no dry pants to change into.

Before September 2001, Hewan Forced Labour Camp issued automatic term extensions when a practitioner's term was over if the practitioner firmly held to his belief. Mr. Zhang's term was over in June, but they extended it for half a year. (If the prisoner escaped and was caught later, he got an extra six months term in addition.)

Mr. Zhang started a hunger strike to protest the extension and was brutally force-fed by prisoners controlled by guard Zhang Yi. The criminal inmates included: Xinzhou District “Ticket Criminal,” nicknamed “Big Head Tong;” Qingshan District thief Zhang Jun; Jiangan District drug offender and thief Zou Chao; Jianghan District drug offender Peng Siwei; etc. At that time Zhang Yi was the team leader and Ming Jianhua was associate team leader. They managed the persecution in the “strictly administered team” of the second team of Hewan Forced Labour Camp.

Persecuted in a Brainwashing Centre

At the end of 2002, officials from the Huangpi District 610 Office claimed that they would make 100 per cent of Falun Gong practitioners renounce Falun Gong. At that time Zhang Yunliu was captured and detained in the Huangpi District Brainwashing Centre. He was subjected to brainwashing for over a month. During that time, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials ordered him to watch videos slandering Falun Gong, to read CCP papers and books slandering Falun Gong, to sing CCP songs, and to write the three statements to renounce practising Falun Gong. He refused to write them and was forbidden to sleep. His body and mind were severely damaged.

Not long after Zhang Yunliu left the brainwashing centre, he decided to walk to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to speak out for Falun Gong. That same afternoon, officers from Caidian Township Judiciary Station and Police Station caught up with him and detained him in a big room in Caidian Township. He was beaten, and the Huangpi District 610 Office tried to have him sentenced to 18 months of forced labour but failed.

Arrested in Beijing and Detained in a Forced Labour Camp Again

Mr. Zhang worked in Beijing after 2004. For several years he lived strictly according to Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. At work he was serious and reliable and always thought of others first in all circumstances. His coworkers nominated him to be the “Excellent Farm Worker” of Beijing.

In March 2010, he posted Falun Gong banners in Beijing and was sentenced to 18 months of forced labour. Now he is detained in the second team of Hewan Forced Labour Camp and being cruelly tortured.

Even since December 2010 he has been ill-treated. He has been detained in a small space; been monitored and controlled by other inmates; been forced to read, copy, write, or watch books or videos slandering Falun Gong; and been forbidden to sleep.

Guard Ming Jianhua of the second team of Hewan Forced Labour Camp participated in the persecution of Mr. Zhang ten years ago. At that time Ming Jianhua was the associate team leader of the “strictly administered team.” Now Ming Jianhua and Han Zheng are persecuting him again, using two prisoners to force Mr. Zhang to copy materials slandering Falun Gong every day. Because he has refused to give up his belief, he is strictly monitored everyday and forced to study those materials till midnight.

Mr. Zhang Yunliu is again being inhumanly persecuted in Hewan Forced Labour Camp. His family doesn't know where he is or have any information about him.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/4/24/239515.html